marktrade

Edited top post to add new acquisitions.

Solid word, Kiwi. Thanks!

I feel like I should have some claim to fame in this regard but nothing comes to mind right now except for those times in the freshman dorm cafeteria when I would put random condiments and food items into drinks and then dare my friends to drink it only to have them reply, "you first," and drink it I did. I was very, very bored in college.

To be on Retromags they should at least be straightened and cropped. You can go a little further and use the clone stamp or content-aware fill from the edit menu to clean up tears and blemishes. I personally admire seeing double-page spreads edited together into unified images or edited such that they line up in double-page view. That's not always possible, but when it is, it's pretty cool. For more specific help, you can make a thread in the Help section of the forum.

Eight issues from the first couple years are up unedited: https://archive.org/details/UneditedPCGamer_marktrade

The UK gaming magazines have been updated. Two issues have been deleted because Depressor edited them and I uploaded another issue, Super Play 21, which I forgot that I had. http://archive.org/details/UneditedUK_marktrade I've also uploaded 8 issues of PC Gamer currently numbering over 1,500 pages. https://archive.org/details/UneditedPCGamer_marktrade Lots more to come.

Very cool. That ad spread for DOOM is glorious. Interesting interview with Steve Race saying he didn't want to bring Motor Toon to the west because it "looked juvenile" and "like Japanimation" as if those were disqualifying things. Besides it looks more like Roger Rabbit than anime. More likely it didn't come west because Sony recognized Wipeout was just going to plow right over it, and maybe that's what Race meant (nice name, btw).

Excellent work but I'm too mesmerized by all those sunny-side-up eggs read any of the magazine. I feel like I have go buy some eggs tomorrow morning.

That's very sensible but I'm too much a fan of double page spreads. I want the whole page edge on the chance that it can be edited together seamlessly. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does on occasion. I currently have a double page ad I edited together as my desktop background and I'm just so danged proud of it. You make a point that's worth reflecting on again, though. Magazines aren't unified spaces. Every page has content that's lost in the gutter. Even fold-out pages have something lost in the creases and the uneven reflections of light that result from a grid of material folding this way and that way. Reading a magazine involves a lot of mental piecing together what it would probably look like if it weren't so cut and glued up. That's why I'm convinced that scanning is transformative. "Preservation" is just not a word that does justice to the amount of value we're adding, but is really an exceedingly humble shorthand for something else.

Honestly the quality of some of the mags when I got here made me think that they didn't even need to be cropped or straightened. I personally don't see anything wrong with preserving the edges of the page. Especially since they are seldom perpendicular.

Not anything. Have a little more confidence in your free speech rights. The database and forum aren't owned by any magazine publisher. And I know it might sound unusual but the legal direction is that the edited scans we make are transformative. Consider especially the work that VGBounceHouse does. He's taking magazines and producing images that have never been seen before. It's not a simple copy or reproduction. Worst case legal scenario is that collections go a little bit more private, as in libraries, or we only display a few images at a time, like GoogleBooks.

Patreon update https://www.patreon.com/marktrade I have switched back from a per unit model to a monthly format to reflect the more complex work that I do. I don't just scan and edit magazines, I do magazine coverdisc preservation along with continuous research. It's also because I've been focusing more on scanning rather than editing. I enjoy editing because it means I get to mark that "preserved" box in the Retromags database and put points on the board, but editing is time-consuming enough that if I continue editing everything as I scan then it will be many years before I get through everything I own. The priority should be to get good scans. Good edits can always come later. I've also rewritten my patreon profile page to be less cagey about profit. The US Supreme Court ruled that scanning books and book-like materials to create a searchable database is transformative and therefore protected commerce, as in the case of GoogleBooks. DMCA exemptions have also been tested for preservation of electronic material that is no longer available. There's nothing stopping me from making my preservation activities a legitimate business as far as I can see. Except of course paying customers. If anyone could have profited from this work the publishers would have done it already.

I finished editing two issues that I've had sitting on my hard drive for a while, November 1992 and Feb/Mar 1993. Links have been added to the original post.

Retromags Presents! Super Play Issue 13 November 1993 Retromags Database Entry Download from Retromags Thank you to Depressor for editing this issue and to Phillyman for donating it!

The file has been updated to include the spine. Thanks, Depressor!

They're not necessary at Retromags, but I personally consider them part of the magazine, so I try to make sure they're preserved. I have this idea that someday in the future people will read magazine scans through VR and they'll store them on a virtual shelf with the spines facing out. Maybe. Who knows, but I like them.

Also now that I look more closely I noticed that Depressor edited out the spine on the last page. Why'd you do that, man? That would have been another leg up on the OoPA version. Oh well I'll keep the unedited version up on archive.org then.

There is one key difference. The owner of that site does not allow people to mirror content, whereas this can be mirrored anywhere. I would prefer we at least be allowed to link Out-Of-Print Archive in the database and mark those issues as preserved, but apparently that's not allowed either. I understand why hotlinking is not allowed, but a general link and status change would be helpful. Anyways I don't mind multiple scans being available and actually encourage it. I don't think we encourage it enough. You may think the OoPA's version is better but I know there are people like KiwiArcader who prefer scans without the white levels adjusted. The more I scan that way, the more I prefer it too, but it's not a big deal. Also, Depressor edited the 300 DPI version, so a higher resolution edit is still available, if you prefer.

Retromags Presents! Super Play Issue 12 October 1993 Retromags Database Entry Download from Retromags Thank you to Depressor for editing this issue and to Phillyman for donating it!

Well I guess the dream has always been to have my own arcade room, either a really cool basement like some people have with a pool table or an actual commercial establishment. For a time I seriously considered renting a small storefront and stocking it with pinball machines and just leaving it there unsupervised, but I felt convinced it would not make enough money to justify the cost. Of course it wouldn't be necessary to think about running an arcade business if one existed already and I could just go there. That would be nice. I want very much to just play Star Wars Episode 1 Pinball sometimes. Pinball aficionados hate that game because it has no diagonal ramps and is simplified in other ways in order to accommodate the expensive bulky CRT gameplay, which is seen as a gimmick. "More video game than pinball" they would say, with me wondering why that was a bad thing. I like both video games and pinball and was really delighted by their combination. It represents the end of the pinball industry for fans, but I would love to own a Star Wars Episode 1 Pinball machine. One of those rare instances where the pinball machine outclasses the movie.

That sounds damn good!