VGBounceHouse

Ok, I finished my version of Videogaming Illustrated, Issue 3, December 1982. I think it is a significant improvement over the current version but please take a look and let me know if I should contribute it. The RetroMags-formatted version of the CBR is here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1982/12/vi/Videogaming-Illustrated-Issue-003-Dec-1982.cbr As always my 300dpi archive and text-searchable PDF versions are on the issue's main page at my site: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1982/12/vi/ None of the other links on that page are active. I have another magazine to do for RetroMags before getting back to my site's content. As there have been no comments regarding my Electronic Fun scan mentioned above I take we'll wait for whoever marked the issue as being in Editing rather than me uploading my version?

I should have checked the gallery before I bought the issue because sure enough, there it is. So the copy I got sold as #1 is actually Issue 4 and I see two people have uploaded the cover: Like one of the uploads implies through naming this was the "Direct Market Edition" presumably sold to comic book shops rather than regular newsstands. This copy is also the same dimensions as a comic book rather than a magazine like the one I already had on hand. Oh well!

Ok everyone, I've got a story to tell for Electronic Fun with Computers & Game, December 1982. Feel free to skip to the TL;DR Many of the magazines I had on hand already from the first console war were bought at the newsstand and then left laying around the house. I had no thoughts of preservation as a teenager so no care was taken. Most of these issues are in good shape, very little damage to the covers, and complete. However I have come to notice a different amount of page yellowing across this part of my collection. I recently re-did my Electronic Games, December 1982, as a copy I bought off eBay to replace the damaged back cover of my copy had significantly less yellowing (mostly only the tops of pages). The issue of Video Games from the same year and month had next to no yellowing. Yet Electronic Fun is heavily affected around all edges. This magazine used a different paper stock which also caused bleed-through on some pages which I could clean up for the most part, but really couldn't do anything about the yellowing without impacting images on the edges of the pages. Since my preservation project is focused on the content above a pristine copy of the original pages and layout this works for me despite my wishing I had a better copy. Someone had already marked this issue as "Editing" in the database but significant time has passed so I don't know how their work will compare. I understand RetroMags supports uploading newer projects and mine could easily be replaced when and if a better scan becomes available but I thought it was worth taking a look at what I had done before submitting it as I'd hate for people to grab the issue and have a lesser opinion of this site. My copy in CBR format per RetroMags guidelines is here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1982/12/ef/Electronic-Fun-Issue-002-Dec-1982.cbr As always I am building a page on my own site which has both a 300dpi CBR and a text-searchable PDF. The page is here (though it's just a placeholder, only the download links are relevant at the moment): http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1982/12/ef/ The ultimate goal of having physical and digital copies of all videogame-related magazines is one I wholeheartedly support. However I have my own mission of "modernizing" the content to make it more accessible for both videogame fans, academics and researchers, making the contents of the magazines a top priority. Working toward a full launch of my site meant making certain choices to design the layout and how to deal with related information so that people could approach magazine content from a variety of angles, not just the raw pages. I chose December 1982 as a solid pick for the first console war since there is less information on this time period on the web, and videogame history books I have read seem light on this period leading to thin and often incorrect coverage. Because of my needs I may approach these preservation projects slightly differently. I straighten pages using baseline text rather than page edges. I repair gaps between facing pages in an attempt to recreate the designer's intended layout. In this issue I am particularly proud of this one: I also try to clean up printing errors (such as those line discolored circles plates sometimes left behind before the advent of desktop publishing) and normalizing page widths. These choices fit my own needs but I'm sure not everyone is looking for the same end result so I don't want my editing choices to reflect poorly on RetroMags when preparing a final archive that meets this site's guidelines. I will be moving on to Videogaming Illustrated, December 1982, which has already been preserved here, but which I need to fit my own site's launch needs. As with this issue I will offer my version up to the community for feedback in comparison to the current one here. Ultimately I hope to get back to "new" issues for this site after I get some more work done on my own site and will be sure to do issues not available here. I will stick with issues from the era of the first console war, but will try to pick the closest-to-mint issues on hand rather than just the next one in the pile. TL;DR My copy has far more page yellowing than I expected. I'm not sure if it's worth sharing here given that someone already marked the issue as being in "Editing". Check it out if you have the chance and let me know.

Only speaking from experience developing Quark XPress extensions . The lack of virtual memory was the big issue under Mac OS. This may sound like a joke but sadly it was very real: at an office going over what was needed I noticed a row of people with Macs and XPress loaded, but they seemed to just be talking to each other. I found out they waited ten minutes and sometimes more just for their documents to load. I hooked up the laptop I had with me and logged into their network and the exact same document took seconds under Windows. I used XPress myself for one of my underground magazines and even though the documents weren't nearly as complex the few times I had to do last minute edits away from home on a Mac it was a painful wait just to get the document up. I did talk to one of the devs when debugging a plugin once and that's how I found out about the new code for opening files. It was just a tangent but I had run into an issue where some PageMaker files wouldn't import into the Mac version but loaded up fine under Windows and I was joking about multiple sneakernet trips, copying to Mac floppy, reading onto Windows with one of those special external floppy drives you could get back then, importing, saving and copying it back.

The Windows versions of Xpress, in addition to being much faster than the Mac OS versions, were also more compatible. Supposedly the need to read Mac OS forks plus compatibility with odd page layout programs of little interest to Mac users meant writing an entirely different import engine. The late '90s versions of Xpress I used read any file I threw at it, so that might be an alternative. Having access to digital files would be awesome. The only problem is many times advertising wasn't integrated back then leaving pages and parts of pages blank. I'm in it for the ads as much as the writing lol

Well that sucked lol After re-editing every page (and wasting far too much time trying to clean up some top-of-page yellowing) my relase is finally ready: Electonic Games, Issue 10, December 1982 http://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/electronic-games-1981/electronic-games-issue-10#.VjuHHLerSCo I have placed the upload as before and even remembered the RetroMags image this time, so I'll leave the rest in E-Day's very capable hands to add whatever download to use and changing the status to preserved. As always the 300dpi & PDF versions are also available: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1982/12/eg/ I even edited the PDF to maintain the proper page numbers in spite of the insert. Because of my need to set a template page size and stick to it (except fold-outs) there are a bunch of additional images representing facing-page layouts this issue. While not linked on the site at the moment I hope to have them on the Pages link by the end of the day. Right now the page at my site is mostly just holding the space, I'm going to finish another preservation for RetroMags before moving on to article extraction and the other stuff I'm working on. I plan to do Electronic Fun with Computers & Games, December 1982, which someone else has marked as Editing for some time, as it fits in with my December 1982 theme. If that archive will soon be available from someone else I will work on a different issue and come back to that one for myself at a later time.