RetroDefense

Thanks! Indexing early DHGF is tough - I appreciate the magazine's enthusiasm, but it's often difficult trying to identify exactly what they're covering. Import, domestic - sometimes, even what platform the game is on!

Congrats, HunterOfBugs!

Congrats on this and last week's win, TheRon - well deserved!

Not to hijack the thread further, but I thought I'd follow up now that I've picked up a couple of these Hanna-Barbera print-on-demand DVD sets. I've purchased two thus far - Inch High Private Eye and Thundarr: The Barbarian. I agree with ctophil - the packaging is well done and retail quality, although the design work is no frills and sometimes a little drab. Pretty much what you'd get with a low-budget DVD set (along the lines of a Mill Creek release). Unfortunately, these POD sets are pricey for low-budget releases. A negative side-effect of print-on-demand, I suppose. Still, if you're patient, you'll sometimes find these available via Amazon for significant discounts every once in a while, which is how I got mine. I was a little disappointed with the Thundarr set, though. The main disc menu is incredibly generic, with no Thundarr theme applied whatsoever - not even a background image. There's also no episode list insert included, although lists are printed on the discs themselves in lieu of artwork. Inch High Private Eye, on the other hand, has no episode listings but does have themed menus and some disc art (nothing as nice as the Go-bot disc above, though). Overall, they certainly could have been better (don't expect the niceties of WB's retail Hanna-Barbera releases), but if this is truly the only way WB can justify releasing these series physically, I'll gladly accept the compromise. Hoping to pick up Captain Caveman and Herculoids in the near future!

I'm a little reluctant to post this, E-Day, considering all the time and work you've been putting in. Please don't shoot the messenger! Game Player's Encyclopedia of Nintendo Games (April 1990) - missing page 148, contains duplicate of page 168

Team Sega Newsletter #6!!! That makes two - thank you, Phillyman!

Re-reading my earlier post, it sounds as if I'm in favor of simply grabbing content from other sites to host here at RetroMags. Certainly not what I intended to imply. I definitely believe in credit where credit is due and properly contacting these sites/scanners beforehand. I'm only suggesting RetroMags be open to accepting scans from other sources. Both by accepting requests and perhaps by making some requests of our own.

Yep, Next Generation is fantastic - one of my favorite video game magazines! Very insider and developer-centric. Their system breakdowns and analysis were second to none, and each issue had a wonderful look and writing style, too. I have a near complete run of their first lifecycle so hope to index more issues in the future. Anyone looking for some in-depth 32-bit history should definitely check out the first 20 issues or so.

Congrats, Areala! Nostalgia and a mag win - bonus.

Congratulations, WWWolf, and welcome aboard! I hope you'll be back to index more magazines in the future!

Same here! It's very cool "watching" a 'zine evolve over the months and years, and I'm finding it especially fun to document this kind of thing while indexing. That said - congrats, Areala, for another win! Well deserved!

Agreed!

I'd rather wait and see what the upcoming Retron 5 will deliver. Sounds very promising - HDMI out, support for numerous retro systems (NES/FC, SNES/SFC, Genesis/MegaDrive, GB/GBC/GBA - even SMS support with Power Base Converter or equivalent), original controller support, plus audio & video enhancements (including smoothing filters, scanline emulation, etc) And retailing for less than $150, last I heard. I plan on buying one for the living room, but it won't be replacing my preferred CRT/original system setup anytime soon.

Requires another $50 for HDMI output - talk about a deal breaker.

Thanks all! Of course I'm always trying to improve my odds (must... type... another index), but it's still anyone's ballgame, HunterofBugs. Good luck, everyone!

Discussing the Games TM e-Mag in the Shoutbox recently, KiwiArcader's comment about poor quality had me wondering. Everything I had viewed was more than adequate in terms of compression and resolution. So I decided to take a closer look. If you're unfamiliar, this so-called "e-Mag" is a DVD with the first 50 issues of Games TM stored in PDF format, along with a front-end program which essentially acts as an middleman before loading your PDF reader. Standard fare for these types of compilations, really. The front-end provides launch links to view the "Whole Issue" or to perform a "Quick Search." Quick Search is really just a convenient series of menus, with magazine content sorted by type, then by issue number or alphabetically, etc. Once you find what you're looking for, you're thrown to your PDF reader to read the actual article. Owning the DVD for a short while, I've been using Quick Search to browse the contents of the DVD, including covers for RetroMags indexing purposes. But today, while exploring further, I loaded up a "Whole Issue" PDF and - ugh - what a mess. Now I understand completely, KiwiArcader! Here are some visual comparisons: As you can see, Quick Search content is far superior to Whole Issue content in terms of image quality. Unfortunately, entire issues are not available via Quick Search - reviewing issue 001, approximately 3/4ths of the issue exists in high-res. Most of the missing material is largely innocuous (contents page, some art pages, next issue summary, contact information page, etc), but still disappointing. Quick Search organization isn't perfect, either. I noticed a number of articles - clearly attributed to issue 001 - not actually found in the whole issue. (This could be a case of the whole issue not being whole - page numbering actually reflects this - but there is a great deal of overlap with the limbo articles, so I suspect they actually reside in other issues.) I also noticed the Quick Search PDF of issue 004's news section uses the lower quality res as found within the whole issue. This is the only instance of Quick Search and low quality I've found, but I'm worried more may exist. So the point of this little essay? 1) Don't assume a digital magazine collection is going to provide the best possible quality, even if it should. 2) PROTIP: If you intend to buy or already own this DVD, pull the Quick Search PDFs from the disc for best quality. 3) Buyer beware. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. Imagine Publishing also offers Retro Gamer via e-Mag, but I believe less issues are collected per disc. If this is the case, I very much hope the quality is improved.

I usually read digital mags via tablet, though I'll sometimes use my PC on occasion. While I'm not a fan of large downloads (my Internet connection is quite slow in this rural area I live in), I'd rather scans be future-proofed as much as possible, so voted full size scan. Certainly beats re-scanning and/or re-editing every so often. Best case scenario, though - offer two download options. A full size scan along with a suitable (but download-friendly) lower-res scan. Or perhaps archive full size scans so that currently downloadable scans can be (somewhat easily) upgraded at a later date as display tech improves.

Awesome, Areala!

Diehard Game Fan v1i4! And yep, gotta appreciate yesterday's covers. By the way, not many folks know this, but Ms. Pac-Man isn't actually wearing fur. She's far too civilized to do such a thing. Truth be told, she's swathed in ghost skin. o_0