KiwiArcader

Doesn't that make running your own site somewhat redundant? Why don't all the scanners just upload directly to Archive.org and then there's no real need for Retromags at all. Save you a ton of work administering the site etc. Collating scans doesn't cut the mustard as an excuse when really, there's only a handful of scanners on pretty much all preservation sites like ours. If you want Retromags to be an acquisition site then why would people donate when the scans are freely available over at Archive.org? I'm actually interested in your rationale for this one given the position I am in of running a similar site ......

Yep. If you don't have a credit card most countries likely have some sort of disposable pre-paid credit card you can buy at the local post shop or suchlike (In New Zealand we have Prezzie cards for example) that you can use to "buy" yourself an upgraded membership if you cannot cope with the restrictions. I'm sure Phillyman would much rather people scanned and submitted mags and helped with database info anyway but there's no accounting for those people who don't want to do absolutely anything except leech.

Underground-Gamer was predominantly about obtaining game ROM's. Magazines were more a side or by product and most magazines that appeared there were readily available on sites like Retromags or OGM. In other words hardly ANY magazine content was scanned for their site. To put it bluntly their members just downloaded the heck of sites like ours, or torrents, then took the credit when they uploaded the files there. So I think it's a little bit off the mark stating that sites like ours will "go under again" if another torrent site magically appears at some point in time. However, while Phillyman can run the site any way he chooses to, I do personally find it "tacky" by forcing people to stump up donations for increased download rights. But that's just my view. Unfortunately by running the site on a forum based setup it just leaves you open to abuse of the system for people to get what they want. If you think it's bad here you should see the crap we got over at TheCoverProject, a site for preserving game covers etc. People just created ,basically shit, just to get the necessary posts to grab everything. Over at OGM I run WordPress and everything is available to everyone. There are no restrictions whatsoever. And for all of that in nearly five years the site has been running and over 2500 magazines scanned and made available for download I can count the number of donations from people on the fingers on one hand. The sad fact is that 99.99% people seem to have the belief that they are entitled to have everything they want without having to contribute anything towards getting their fix. No donations towards acquiring magazines, or scanning equipment, or even hosting costs. They don't even post a comment on the site. Such people are what I call "bottom dwellers". If this kind of person is dealt to here by the measures Phillyman has adopted then I have absolutely NO sympathy for them and the site is truly better off without them. If my download server sysop says the downloads are killing the system I will likely be forced to implement similar issues over at OGM no matter how I feel about it if it means keeping direct downloads available for active contributors.

Issue 106 has been scanned and is now available ..........

Thanks to jccalhoun and who scanned the missing cover for me issue 107 has now been scanned and is available over at OGM. Issue 106 is next on my list

Ahh ... okay ... I didn't want to buy the app you use just to test it out 128GB. Sticker shock here in NZ for those at almost $1700NZ.

The Fujitsu document scanners like the fi-5650c handle fluoro really well

Have you tried using iExplorer? It allows file system access to the iPad even under iOS 9. If the mags were installed as CBR files you should be able to locate them and copy them but if you have them stored on your PC it doesn't really matter as you just load all onto the Pro. That's why I like PDF's as I just drop them onto iTunes and it then uploads them into iBooks and allows syncing. Did you get the 32GB or 128GB version? I got my first look at one the other day. I can see why mags looks so good. It's HUGE!!!! 12.9" screen doesn't sound that big but in 4:3 format it really is big. Now I want one. Sigh!!!!! BTW. If you grab any of Future PLC's magazine apps they are offering the complete set of back issues for a low price now. Get 80 issues of PC Format/PC Gamer/OPSX/X-Box or Games Master for $35 etc. Great stuff.

Destapling or debinding certainly allows for the best scans available so while the magazine pretty much needs to go in the recycling at least you can read the end result on a tablet in years to come without blurring near the spine which invariably results when you try scanning bound mags. When you have as many mags as I have anything that reduces the tonnage on the house foundations is appreciated as well ....

I don't bother trying to get rid of yellowing too much nowadays as with some mags (Antic) the yellowing is so bad that it really does make pages look bad when applying high correction levels. They are what they are at the end of the day so people make allowances for it if they are interested in the subject matter......

Hardware doesn't equal easy to emulate. It's all down to additional factors such as encryption, the underlying OS coding etc. Take Sega's Lindbergh arcade for example. It's a Pentium P4 based PC with an additional AES encryption module. It's taken a significant period of time to crack, finally, but now the people who cracked it are making money by hacking it to allow multi-game setups by the sound of it so no sign of an emulator appearing when the hackers are making money off their work. I'm guessing that the Xbox is in a similar situation with encryption given Microsoft even applied an encryption hardware chip on the consoles DVD drive so you couldn't use any other drive other than the official unit. With that type of issue it really becomes just as difficult as anything else to emulate. There have been breakthroughs however so if they do crack it she should be fairly easy to get full speed emulation going. The Taito X/X2 arcade units are, again, a PC system using a custom Linux OS. This has been cracked and there are emulators capable of running their games full speed on a PC which I can attest to.

I think that should read up to and including Dreamcast, Gamecube/Wii as if you have tried those you'll find they are getting pretty darned close to 100% as well

I will categorically state that it is NOT in any way, shape or form, a put-down on your scanning or anyone else's scans that I might make a small adjustment on when putting on OGM for that matter. I think your scans are impeccable and I could easily leave them as-is with no detriment to the site. However, I prefer the PDF format and as I have to convert them anyway I just like to make small adjustments at the same time for the reasons stated earlier. @Sean697 Thanks for the kind offer of using your scans on OGM. I might take you up on that at some point but I quite like the idea that Retromags are the big guns of USA based content while OGM is the gunner for down-under Australian or UK content so it gives people an incentive to visit both sites for different content. Phillyman has stated previously that he has no issue with my hosting this sites content but I think there are definite benefits to having separate sites hosting their own content. I have been downloading everything however so if something happened for one reason or another I could put a big chunk online pretty quickly if needed. I'm pretty sure some RM users probably have bucket loads of OGM's content on their HDD's too. Long live the internet

Everyone has their preferences around contrast/colour etc. I used to heighten contrast/brightness on my scans in the early days too but I found them to be exceedingly "bright" for want of a better word when viewed on my tablets which I found distracting so I went and backed it off and found them just that little bit easier on my eyes. I also like the images not being quite so dark. Maybe it's an age thing? I AM pretty old after all ..... Seriously though, the adjustment is pretty minuscule. I like to think of it that there are many places to get the mags from so if they prefer it one way to another they have plenty of options available to them.

I tend to think that they are the side effect of being a printed magazine therefore I don't worry too much about them any more otherwise you just end up like the folks over at OoPA and never really get around to putting out much content because it's never really good enough. Printed mags should look like printed mags in my opinion. Otherwise you may as well just create a replica .... With marktrade's submissions I note that he has an increased white balance on his scans so I put them through a slight negative filter to reduce it back to where you see the grain in the paper before putting them online over at OGM. The side effect I notice is when viewing the files on my tablet the white isn't so in your face so to speak and it reduces the blacks in images slightly. It's a really small adjustment so most people likely wouldn't notice unless they viewed both files side by side on the same monitor. He's going to download one now and have a look methinks

They will always have a home at OGM

I'd love to be in the same boat as you but my pockets aren't deep enough (or full enough) to be there so you're on your own on this one I'm afraid

It certainly would. I only have a couple of further issues left to scan barring these two without their covers until I can arrange for a guy to send me his collection but it will cost a bomb to send them to New Zealand so this will mean a couple less issues to worry about.

The fact they crossed PC Accelerator off the current catalog of magazines above that small print shows they knew she was a goner .....

At least we have GOG and can still run pretty much every program ever written for a PC thanks to the likes of DOSbox, let alone almost every console prior to the Xbox generation ..... Truthfully, the current generation of Xbox and PS4 are really just a PC anyway so technically there's not much preventing Microsoft or Sony from running PC software (especially with Windows 10 about to drop onto Xbox One's any day now) which would likely make PC buyers think about a console purchase rather than a dedicated PC but in reality it's unlikely to happen as they don't want to ruin the sale of native software or have their consoles proven to be less capable than a "real" PC.

That comment implies that other sites like OGM and even OoPA don't provide scans of reasonable quality, something I'd say is incorrect. I'm guessing you are only interested in USA produced magazines to make a statement like that in which case your opinion might hold water given the preponderance of local content here. If you are interested in any other regions then there are other sites providing far more content out there.

The fluffer on a porn shoot

Hehe .... I wasn't going to go there :-) Seriously though, I like consoles and have owned just about every popular one over the years. My biggest console love was for the Dreamcast of which I owned five of them over the years but the GD-R drives kept clapping out. The last unit I replaced the drive twice but then SEGA discontinued making them completely, moving Naomi to pure flash RAM and I decided to end my love affair with said console. The PC has given me a way to continue playing software greats like Soul Calibur and many hours have been spent with my nephew thrashing each other on that along with a myriad other games. Then there's my three screen gaming with NFS: Hot Pursuit. No chance of accomplishing that with a console. About the only thing I use my Xbox One for is as a Plex client in the lounge and I'm toying with replacing it with an Intel NUC (I already have one setup in the bedroom) or going to the new Apple TV.

DRM - And consoles are any better? Not that I can tell if you look at GOG.com for example. Steam - great collection of older and current games quite often for excellent prices when you factor in their sales etc Origin - not as good as Steam but the only way to play EA games. You can include UBIPlay in this too ..... The above really aren't all that different to the console environments like Xbox Live which means there's no disadvantage there Digital Activation - I'll give you this one although really, the consoles have esoteric disc formats which form the basis of protection along with mandatory accounts anyway, so I'm not sure how PC's requiring activation hurts when you factor in copy protection formats like Safedisc have been rendered obsolete by the latest Windows 7/8/10 updates. Disabling protection on the disc in favor of activation in theory allows for software backups once again. Always on connection requirements - Depends what you want to play I guess ..... Console Ports Gone Bad - Why on earth would anyone want a console port on a PC in the first place? They're generally fairly crap games with poor file saving and linear game-play in the majority of cases. Ugh!!!! As far as I can tell with Batman: Arkham Knight it sounds like they bit off more than they can chew touting features like 4K gaming etc. With the consoles pretty ordinary specs they had to dumb it down to get them running properly in the first place so either they overloaded the PC version or they simply have crap coders. I think it's a case of both scenarios on this one. Buying a new video card - at least you can actually do that for a PC. Try that on any other platform. Nope ... The whole point is that PC's are indeed upgradable unlike any other platform. Logic dictates that if a company codes for a given specification then in theory, every upgrade from that point on results in better performance. I know the counter argument is that software developers don't have a defined standard to code to but but as long as they define what specs they have set as a minimum criteria then it's up to the consumer to make a decision on whether they need an upgrade or not. Forgetting all the above for a second, there's one undeniable reason for PC gaming..... Emulation. Nothing can touch a PC for emulating older gaming systems. Trying to keep consoles like the Dreamcast going when Sega has abandoned production of GD-R drives etc mean the PC represents the only way of retaining your ability to play it. Factor in the ability to use all manner of controllers (you can even use Wii controllers and Nunchucks for example) along with emulators for pretty much every older system ever created and that alone is worth it in my books.