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Hey I just wanted to point out that this might be the first civil discussion that has ever existed in the history of the internet and we should be proud of this fact haha

Same here. I'm still a retrogaming collector of physical cartridges, but like you, hooking most of those systems up is simply unfeasible at the moment. It's far more convenient to play via emulation.

Again, there's nothing wrong with being a collector and preserving a copy for your own personal enjoyment. People who want to preserve the contents in a way that can be appreciated by hundreds/thousands/millions/unlimited numbers of people who don't have access to the physical mag are those who have answered the call of the scanner. Scanning is literally about creating a digital copy that does not depend upon the possession or even the existence of the physical mag to be enjoyed. No one is disputing that preserving physical copies is also important, but the fact remains that the best scan is created from a destroyed mag. And so, like I said, there are scanners, and there are collectors. If all scanners were ALSO collectors, then we wouldn't have nearly so many quality scans. Luckily, most of these magazines are fairly common with thousands of copies (or more) floating around out there and periodically showing up on sale, and so far as I know, no one has ever destroyed the last copy in existence of a mag in order to scan it, so there's no reason that scanners can't continue to do their job to the best of their abilities, guilt-free.

With Game Informer shutting down a few months ago and EGM sharing this Kickstarter initiative, the need for Retromags will continuously be higher in demand. This EGM archive leaves a lot of uncertainties - they revived themselves several years ago with another website and have done a variety of projects over the years, with many disappearing - even their own website (egmnow.com) has removed various posts and now is mostly a depository of reviews. It's difficult to say what will be the longevity of the EGM archive. Certainly it would be wonderful to have this eternally - though this is beyond our control. I am mostly supporting this Kickstarter initiative due to the fact that many of the historical EGM contributors will be part of the compendium in some way and can cherish the hardcover book, though also recognize the archive may not necessarily be a website that will be accessible online for many years later in the future. Retromags provides a community collaboration external from corporate restrictions. Speaking of the Retromags community, can the administrators please share how the Retromags website is doing in terms of operations? Perhaps with the momentum of the EGM Kickstarter, now (or in the next few weeks) would also be a great time to revive further visibility messages for funding Retromags and share any concerns for its own operations into the future. Thanks to everyone who has volunteered their time in scanning magazines and many additional support initiatives. Your contributions have not gone unnoticed and you are all deeply appreciated!

Ah... the very first game magazine I bought in my life. I still remember everything about it. We had gone to the beach during the end of the year school break and, after seeing an ad for this mag on TV, I went to the nearest bookstall and got it. Awesome!

https://www.retromags.com/files/category/99-electronic-gaming-monthly/ Enjoy!

I have always been a bit of a retromags lurker but I've tried to start contributing more and hopefully I can add some more scans/images to the site. I am often a bit too shy to interact on the forums but please know that I appreciate the work all the scanners, website creators and contributors have done preserving magazines, adverts, strategy guides, information and more.

I don't want to argue across forums on two separate sites. The question was, can a mag be scanned without debinding. I answered that yes, yes it can. But it will not be as good as a debound scan. It simply isn't possible in most instances. If you're scanning skimpy 70 page stapled mags, then yes, you can make a pretty good scan of a bound mag. But the quality is still almost definitely going to be at least slightly better on a properly debound mag being squeezed through an ADF. And if you're talking about a thick square bound mag, forget about trying to make a scan while bound that can compare to an unbound scan. Its impossible, and I'm sure every scanner here would agree with that point. If you're happy with your own scans, that's all that matters. And there's nothing stopping the original poster of the question from continuing to try to scan the mag while bound (though he has admitted being dissatisfied with the results). If "good enough" is good enough, then all's well. But if "best possible" is the goal, then debinding is almost always necessary. I say again, this isn't my own isolated opinion, but rather one shared by every regularly productive scanner I've ever met on any site, and its the reason why the majority of mags released here are debound. So my only point is that anyone wanting the best possible scan needs to accept the fact that they can't have both that AND be able to keep their mag intact. It's a sacrifice either way. If you want the best possible scan, you can't have an intact mag. And if you want an intact mag, you can't have the best possible scan. If keeping the mag intact is important to you, no worries. No one is forcing anyone to debind anything against their will, and depending on the length and binding of the mag, a pretty good scan of a bound mag might be possible given enough extra time and effort. I personally take offense at the implication that someone choosing to sacrifice one copy of a mag in order to create the best possible scan that can reach unlimited numbers of people until the end of time (so long as the data isn't lost) is somehow doing less for preservation than someone who lets a mag rot in their closet for 30 years before selling it on eBay to someone else who will do the same ad infinitum until the pages become so brown and brittle it can't even be read. There are mags here which have been downloaded by thousands of people. I sincerely doubt any single physical mag could ever change hands that many times to reach that many people. At any rate, any scan is better than no scan and all scans are appreciated. So I hope to one day see you release some of your scans which I've been hearing about for years.

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