Sean697 work in progress?

[E-Day]

If I select to use the scanner driver, I get the option for three levels of dust removal (plus none). I'll have to give it a try the next time I have a mostly black page. It may save me some time.

[Sean697]

EGM 13 is complete.

Database Entry!

Download Directly!

Next up is EGM issue 17. December 1990.

But first I'm going to work on fixing some of our older EGM's. I got some extra magazines from some of the lots I bought where I needed only a few of the magazines. Going to scan missing and damaged pages and get the ones I can fixed up.

[E-Day]

Do you have EGM 14? That one needs a redo.

[Sean697]

Do you have EGM 14? That one needs a redo.

No I do not. Generally the ones where I got extra issues are later issues. Earlier issues usually sold individually. Right now I'm cleaning up, cropping , filling edges on EGM 128. It's coming along nicely. I have the issue still so I can rescan some pages if I need to, but I don't think I'll have to. Since this was remarked as missing should I upload it as a new release since it's now allowed? Or just add it to the site and post in the forum somewhere that it's now available? (This was one of the 2 issues that was previously not allowed, but available in the download section if you looked for it) the base scan is very good, no sense scanning from scratch on it when I got a stack of stuff to scan. Even though it's 1200 pixel width I figure better to make it available with some minimal work to make it shine. (You can review my EGM audit thread for summary of issues.)

[aloram]

Sean697, what else is in the pile of magazines to scan?

[E-Day]

No I do not. Generally the ones where I got extra issues are later issues. Earlier issues usually sold individually. Right now I'm cleaning up, cropping , filling edges on EGM 128. It's coming along nicely. I have the issue still so I can rescan some pages if I need to, but I don't think I'll have to. Since this was remarked as missing should I upload it as a new release since it's now allowed? Or just add it to the site and post in the forum somewhere that it's now available? (This was one of the 2 issues that was previously not allowed, but available in the download section if you looked for it) the base scan is very good, no sense scanning from scratch on it when I got a stack of stuff to scan. Even though it's 1200 pixel width I figure better to make it available with some minimal work to make it shine. (You can review my EGM audit thread for summary of issues.)

Just replace the existing file with this one. I have approved that scan again. I left 135 unapproved since it's from 2008 and it's one of the issues I will be scanning in the future. If you find it's failing when you try to upload a new version on the download page, then just delete that copy from the site and upload the new one.

[Sean697]

Just replace the existing file with this one. I have approved that scan again. I left 135 unapproved since it's from 2008 and it's one of the issues I will be scanning in the future. If you find it's failing when you try to upload a new version on the download page, then just delete that copy from the site and upload the new one.

So I was thinking, since the old one is there, and I have a pretty good copy, I'm just gonna abort wasting the time fixing it and add it to my scan pile. And I'll give it a better scan later.(This scan is also pretty old.) As long as we have a version available now, no need to edit the whole thing only to do it again.

[Sean697]

Sean697, what else is in the pile of magazines to scan?

If you go to the EGM database, and look at all the magazines aquired, that's pretty much my scan pile. Except for the EGM's that Eday has. (He has some upper 90 issues, some in the 100's and the entire year 2000)

I also have all 4 Game Buyers and 5 or 6 Ultra Game players.

[aloram]

If you go to the EGM database, and look at all the magazines aquired, that's pretty much my scan pile. Except for the EGM's that Eday has. (He has some upper 90 issues, some in the 100's and the entire year 2000)

I also have all 4 Game Buyers and 5 or 6 Ultra Game players.

Awesome, thanks. I'm definitely hoping to see more Game Players issues on here, as the Retromags collection is, surprisingly, missing a ton.

[Sean697]

Do you have EGM 14? That one needs a redo.

I'm bidding on this auction. If I win it, I'll have those early issues that need a rescan,and EGM 14 to rescan. So.... Don't bid against me lol. It's for the site.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=172055102736&globalID=EBAY-US

[Sean697]

I'm bidding on this auction. If I win it, I'll have those early issues that need a rescan,and EGM 14 to rescan. So.... Don't bid against me lol. It's for the site.http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=172055102736&globalID=EBAY-US

Ya so I didn't win this despite bidding 140.00. I have a suspicion that a lot of the eBay resellers here are buying up these large lots and then selling them individually for 20.00 plus each. Which sucks when buying large lots. And double sucks when I'm trying to by some low value issue like EGM 108 and they want 20.00 for it....

Anyway started on EGM 13 scanning. Finished the cover. I find usually most of thes mags the cover is one of the items requiring the most editing because it receives the most wear obviously. So I took out the staples so I could get a nice flat scan. And when straightening, noticed that the cover was not cut evenly it seems. Following the straight edge at the binding it works out that it makes the page straight in regards to type and layout. But the top edge and right edge slope in enough that it cuts off a lot of the art. The top edge was easy because it was the red box for upper magazine cover type. Just filled it in with clone stamp. But since this issue has full page Simpsons art I didn't want to crop out any of it bringing In the right edge for a straight line. So I compared it to our cover gallery scan and sure enough, it has the missing section of art. So I cut just that small half page portion out of our cover galley photo and pasted into a new layer on top of my scan and stretched it to fit. Since it was a significantly lower resolution it obviously looked out of place. So what I did is set that slice to the background, and use it as a guide to fill in the missing piece with Photoshop tools. So basically I recreated the missing 1/4 inch on the right side using the gallery photo as a guide. I think it came out pretty good. I guess I could have just cropped out the 1/4 inch or so and called it a day, but it would have meant cutting out a good portion of the character circle on the right edge.

Here is the raw scan from the scanner at 600 dpi.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6pbm9qdbot8d3c/IMG_20160116_0003.tif?dl=0

Here is the edited scan after filling in (Non color corrected or resized. 600 dpi)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l7usm7rx5zso688/Electronic%20Gaming%20Monthly%20017%20December%201990%20page%20001.tif?dl=0

Edited January 17, 2016 by Sean697

[marktrade]

Looks good to me!

It may just be my imagination, but I find I have better luck if I do not mention what I'm bidding on here *at all.* All it takes is one lurker here with a strong interest in collecting hard copies to see the post and bid up the price.

[Sean697]

Looks good to me!

It may just be my imagination, but I find I have better luck if I do not mention what I'm bidding on here *at all.* All it takes is one lurker here with a strong interest in collecting hard copies to see the post and bid up the price.

I know. The few times I mentioned something on here it got bid way out of my price range. Edited January 18, 2016 by Sean697

[Areala]

Of course, the corollary to that idea is that if you ever wanted to sell something, you should post a link to it here, not in the sales forums, but just in general saying you're in the process of bidding on it and please don't anybody bid against me...

When that formerly $10 copy of EGM goes for $400, you can buy me a coffee to say thank you.

*huggles*
Areala

[marktrade]

Genius.

[Sean697]

So I decided I will make two image spreads on my scans for content pages that span 2 pages. But not for ads. (Although I crop 2 page ads such that someone could easily make one image if they so desire.) So here is a sample of the one I did for this Ultima 2 map spread from EGM 17. I like being able to display it as one image how you would be seeing in the magazine. I actually after straitening this had to build the top left of the image and the bottom right as they did not exist! The top left screenshot was cut off and I actually built the top half of image from another one lower down! The bottom right page was cropped in the ocean. Had to fill out the ocean snd lower border and the bottom half of the lower right screenshot. On simple design layouts like this it was pretty easy to fake it.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Sean697

[Sean697]

Also in this screenshot above you can see the the limits of changing the resolution. The original 600 dpi scan you could read the text fairly well and sharp. Even at 2200 pixel height on this image which kind of is the upper limit of what we do now, the screenshots (around the border) lose details and the text is very hard to make out.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Sean697

[Sean697]

I'm waiting for EGM17 to upload. But in the meantime I'd like to take a poll on what to do next. I want to try and do a bound magazine that requires taking apart, i.e. No staples. And I don't want to do that with an EGM till I've perfected it. So shout out what you want next. Game Buyer 1,2,3,4 , Ultra Game Players 91,92,100,101,102,103,106,107,108,110.

So post with what you want, whatever receives the most interest I'll do next. Or an If someone really passionately wants a certain issue I'll take that into consideration as well.

So plan on using a craft knife to cut the pages out for scanning. Is there a certain distance from the spine I need to cut? Or get as close as possible, I don't want to get glue on my scanner. But I want as complete a scan as possible as well.

[Sean697]

Retromags Presents!

​EGM 17 is now available. There are two full page spreads this issue I combined into a single image. I think my criteria for doing this for my scans is going to be non ads. (With the exception of multipage ads of 3 or more pages and posters.) And the content has to spread across both pages making a single combined image relevant. Say a map, or screenshaps spreading two pages. If the content is already cut evenly across each page there is no point doing that in my mind. So the Ultima II map was an obvious one. The other was the Castle of Illusion feature, the title screen and some screen shots are spilt across two pages. The other games this issue do have a couple instances of scrolling a level from left to right across the top and bottom as decoration, like Dynamite Duke and Ghouls and Ghosts SMS, but didnt really seem to warrant a combined image as nothing is lost viewing them as indivdual pages.

Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 17

December 1990

Database Entry!

Download Directly!

[Sean697]

So no reply's. So up next is Game Buyer number 4. The last Game buyer.

It was the most beat up of the 4 issues I had. So better to experiment on. So instead of cutting, I used a heatgun. Scanned the front and back pages. Then used the heat gun near the the spine on each page and just pulled the page out. They came out like butter perfectly undamaged. Just applied gently pulling force and they pulled right out with the heat. If it's that easy for all bound magazines, I am going to definetly recommend this method of debinding vice cutting. Maybe should even be added to our guide.

Also if anyone has this issue, I could use a better cover scan. The cover on the copy I got was pretty beat up. Would save me a lot of work.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Sean697

[miketheratguy]

So no reply's. So up next is Game Buyer number 4. The last Game buyer.

I've never heard of Game Buyer, I'd be curious to check that out.

Were you the one looking for alternate copies of EGM #70 (the one with MK3's Sheeva on the cover)? I can't remember where I saw that post or who made it but I think I've got a different variant of that issue somewhere. I know that I have a copy, I just don't want to promise anything until I can locate it (and verify that it's different, though I believe that it is. I think it's red).

[Sean697]

I've never heard of Game Buyer, I'd be curious to check that out.

Were you the one looking for alternate copies of EGM #70 (the one with MK3's Sheeva on the cover)? I can't remember where I saw that post or who made it but I think I've got a different variant of that issue somewhere. I know that I have a copy, I just don't want to promise anything until I can locate it (and verify that it's different, though I believe that it is. I think it's red).

If you got one. Yes.

[Sean697]

So I was scanning this issue and using my scanner dialog to just scan one page than the next without closing out the scanner app. Well I guess it stores them in a temp file, and then when you exit the app or send the image to another application, it saves them to your designated folder. So I had scanned from like page 22 to 56, and apparently the backlog of images waiting to save crashed the app. I don't know if I ran out memory, or my temp folder was full. In any case I lost all that work before it saved. Lesson learned, let the scanner app save the images every 20 pages or so.

[Areala]

Painful lesson, but better learned here with a magazine scan which is easy to duplicate as opposed to, oh, losing twelve pages of the story you were writing because Word for Windows 95 didn't have an auto-save feature...

*huggles*
Areala

[marktrade]

… So instead of cutting, I used a heatgun. Scanned the front and back pages. Then used the heat gun near the the spine on each page and just pulled the page out. They came out like butter perfectly undamaged. Just applied gently pulling force and they pulled right out with the heat. If it's that easy for all bound magazines, I am going to definetly recommend this method of debinding vice cutting. Maybe should even be added to our guide.

I've used a heat gun before but it just occurred to me, while reading this, that I only used it while pulling the page in the opposite direction from the other page, with the magazine in the open position. This would pull off many small chunks of clue along with the page, which I found annoying and not fit to put into the scanner. I also had small success with getting a clean separation. Even while melted, the glue was pulling off ink from the page. Anyway it occurred to me that maybe my problem was that I was pulling the page in the wrong direction and that I should have been pulling the pages all in the same direction, away from the spine instead of away from each other, while the magazine was in the closed position.

So I just tried it that way on one of my duplicate issues of NextGen and had a lot of success! The pages come off much more cleanly and I seem to be getting all the page content. I'm definitely going to practice with this more.

Edited January 28, 2016 by marktrade