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kitsunebi's talking to himself again


kitsunebi

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13 minutes ago, E-Day said:

The only thing I am unsure of is posting on here about what you're uploading to Archive. I'm not sure if it would be an issue or not or implicate the site if something went down. I'll leave that to Phillyman to address. 

I hear ya.  One could argue that even posting a link like this:

https://archive.org

is inviting people to engage in copyright infringement.  Of course, seeing as how the link was posted here in the forums of a site fundamentally dedicated to ignoring copyright, anyone who sees it is already implicated.😄

 

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14 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

So I've been contemplating uploading some stuff to archive.org and was looking for some feedback.  I've got some (mostly) Japanese magazines and strategy guides and whatnot that are not my own scans, so obviously they can't go here.  Most of them are pulled from various places from temporary links at filehosting services.  It seems to me that archive would be a more permanent home so that they aren't lost to time when those links die (if they haven't already.)

However,

  1. How douche-y would it be to do so?  I've never uploaded anything I didn't scan or edit myself, so would I be being an asshole to do so?  I've thrown shade at sites like RetroCDN in the past for throwing up compromised edits of mags scanned and released by other sites in the preservation scene.  The stuff I'm talking about isn't from another scanning site (that I'm aware of) and just comes from public links.  Of course, someone had to scan it in the first place, but I have no idea how to find out who in order to ask permission.
  2. If I DO upload such files, should I treat them with the same cut-off dates as we do at Retromags?  For example, some of the newer files are digital releases which someone has captured from official PDFs.  Although the digital releases are no longer for sale (Japanese publishers usually only keep them available for a year or two), they would still be off-limits on Retromags.  Archive.org doesn't have our rules, but again, would I be being a dick by not adhering to them anyway?

I'm looking for serious feedback, not "I DESERVE EVERYTHING GIVE IT TO ME NOW" pleas to upload anything and everything without a care for the consequences.

Whatcha think?

I noticed what you mean about retrocdn releasing slight edits of existing pdfs. For example there is a torrent of Dreamcast Magazine pdf i download from retrocdn.net. Turns out you can find those magazines on rutorrent and there smaller then on retrocdn.net puts up. We are talking 65.2mb for the rutracker one and 95.6mb for the retrocdn.net one. This is based on the size of issue 1 of that magazine.

I'm still not finding out who uploaded them but i think i found closer source then retrocdn.net. One thought is that maybe these files are scanned and are on the Perfect Dark network. That maybe a place to a least try and look.

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13 hours ago, E-Day said:

Like you said, what you do off this site is none of our business. If you want to upload magazines you didn't even to Archive so that they aren't lost, that's not something we're concerned with. If you want to upload your own scans there, same thing. Your scans are yours and you can do what you want. 

The only thing I am unsure of is posting on here about what you're uploading to Archive. I'm not sure if it would be an issue or not or implicate the site if something went down. I'll leave that to Phillyman to address. 

I agree, I only care about what is posted at Retromags. So if someone wants to ignore the Cutoff date or the Game Informer/GameFan ban that we have, they can do so any at other magazine repository site that exists. I only ask that our community not blatantly/publicly direct people to items that are not allowed here. So as an example, if you scan something and put it over at Archive and it falls in our rules, feel free to link to it and mention it on the Retromags website. If the people that follow your link, find items that they would not normally find at Retromags, no harm....no foul.

However if someone comes to Retromags and says "Hey guys I just scanned last months issue of Game Informer, its over at this link at Archive". Well that is a No No! :)

Remember anything you scan and submit to Retromags, you are not prohibited from putting at Archive or any other website. So feel free to advertise the items you put elsewhere, as long as they follow our rules, otherwise keep it to conversations in the PM system :)

 

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4 hours ago, Phillyman said:

So as an example, if you scan something and put it over at Archive and it falls in our rules, feel free to link to it and mention it on the Retromags website. If the people that follow your link, find items that they would not normally find at Retromags, no harm....no foul.

However if someone comes to Retromags and says "Hey guys I just scanned last months issue of Game Informer, its over at this link at Archive". Well that is a No No! :)

Remember anything you scan and submit to Retromags, you are not prohibited from putting at Archive or any other website. So feel free to advertise the items you put elsewhere, as long as they follow our rules, otherwise keep it to conversations in the PM system :)

 

Both you and E-Day have latched onto the issue of me posting my own scans to archive.org, which was never part of my question.  I have no intention of ever posting anything I've scanned to archive.org.  That's what I use this site for.🙂  I also don't own or plan to scan any banned mags.

I'm strictly talking about scans of unknown origins which came from links on direct-download filesharing sites like MediaFire or whatever.  They are not affiliated with any scanning site that I'm aware of (they're all from Japan, so I WISH I knew of a website they might have originated from, but alas, no.)  If I post a PDF of a mag newer than 15 years and you'd rather not mention it here, that's fine.  But as an example, what about posting a Japanese SFII Arcade strategy guide from 1991?  The date is fine, it isn't banned, but neither is it my own scan (no idea whose), which makes it against RM rules.

So I'm assuming you'd feel more secure if I just posted a general "Hey, I uploaded some stuff at archive.org.  It's a surprise." kind of post, rather than mention anything by name?

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I always thought a forum was for exactly this sort of thing. Given this is essentially a piracy site (so is mine) in the strictest sense then telling people NOT to post about mags that they either find on other websites or have posted on other sites themselves is kind of nonsensical in my opinion, especially if you are only pointing to the page and not the files themselves.

Kiddie porn or whatever I can understand as it is illegal, as in get yourself locked up illegal, but gaming/computing mags? Really? 

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With no further comments from Phillyman, it seems (as I understand it) that mentioning magazines which I didn't scan myself is not allowed, so I certainly will never mention any other preservation site (what preservation sites?) or magazines I've found that I didn't scan myself (I thought I was the only person who ever scanned a magazine?)

This weekend when I get the time, I may direct everyone to my Archive.org page, where I have previously uploaded some rips of Tech Gian demo CDs that accompanied the magazines I scanned for Retromags.  I'm sure you will all want to check those out (you DO still have Win95 installed, right?  Because otherwise, good luck getting anything to work). 

There most certainly will NOT be anything else available at my page, especially rare magazine and strategy guide scans from Japan that aren't available anywhere else. 

WINK WINK.

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I've bookmarked your Archive.org page and am eagerly waiting to see what unmentionable goodies appear there ☺️

Seriously though, it kind of defeats the purpose of a forum on a magazine piracy site to not be able to detail what else might be available on other websites. We've already had posts about GamePro being available elsewhere on this site already and now Phillyman wants to bolt the gate?

Then there is the fact that Archive.org touts itself as affiliated with the Library of Congress so the implication is that whatever goes up there and isn't taken down is somehow protected/able to be made available. That would mean that pointing someone to that site isn't illegal therefore it should be fine to advertise it here?

What it does mean is that I will no longer update my W.I.P page with releases over at my website as these files are not part of Retromags. I had been putting details up because the donator was a Retromags member but as they are made available elsewhere by default I've been breaking this "new" rule/directive. See how stupid this all sounds?

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2 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

Seriously though, it kind of defeats the purpose of a forum on a magazine piracy site to not be able to detail what else might be available on other websites. We've already had posts about GamePro being available elsewhere on this site already and now Phillyman wants to bolt the gate?

Not sure if you meant to say GamePro, but we've had posts directing people to where they can find banned magazine GameFan.  And Nintendo themselves forced archive.org to remove their copies (of our scans) of Nintendo Power.  Obviously, they don't approve of them being shared.  But since we escaped their notice, their expressed wishes don't matter, right?  (Or maybe I should believe that Nintendo only disapproves of our scans being shared at archive.org, but is in total support of us hosting them here?)

And you can buy a dimebag off of Leroy down on the corner of 9th and Lincoln, but don't tell the police I said that, because I'm pretty sure I could be arrested just for knowing it.😋

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3 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

What it does mean is that I will no longer update my W.I.P page with releases over at my website as these files are not part of Retromags. I had been putting details up because the donator was a Retromags member but as they are made available elsewhere by default I've been breaking this "new" rule/directive. See how stupid this all sounds?

As I understand it, even though they aren't hosted at Retromags, you would be allowed to post about those files since you were the scanner.  However, I would not be allowed to post about those same files or mention the deplorable and unscrupulous website that hosts them because I was not the scanner.  So to avoid stepping on any toes, we should only use the forums to talk about ourselves and the things we've personally done.  Which is mostly what I do anyway, or has no one noticed how I use this thread for pretty much everything I post rather than start new topics that don't have my name in the title?😋

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5 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

With no further comments from Phillyman, it seems (as I understand it) that mentioning magazines which I didn't scan myself is not allowed, so I certainly will never mention any other preservation site (what preservation sites?) or magazines I've found that I didn't scan myself (I thought I was the only person who ever scanned a magazine?)

 

Been a long week, sorry for the slow reply :P

I only care about blatant skirting of the cutoff and/or Gamefan/Game Informer ban. So again that means .....

"Hey, you guys can go grab this months issue of Game Informer from this link"

or

"Hey guys here is the entire 2016 year of Retro Gamer magazine that I found on some torrent"

Now again I have no control what you put on another site, which means stuff we don't allow here. But again, if someone follows your link for some old Atari Explorer issue that you put up at Archive......and they come across Magazines that you uploaded, whether they are your creations or not......is no concern to me. Just like if they follow your link to Archive and come across GameCube ISOs.

Now where it really gets messy is when I get a MarkTrade situation where someone is coming to Retromags to ask our members to fund their actions on outside websites. But ask me about that on another day :P

 

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I'm still waiting to hear a definitive answer on strategy guide cut-offs, but my feeling is, if I can't locate any copies being sold new from online retailers (amazon, etc.) then it's out-of-print and the 10 year rule applies.  I'll act accordingly unless I hear otherwise.

So as long as I'm posting stuff within the cutoff range, I'm allowed to mention it here, I believe.  No need for secret codes unless we're playing Contra because no way am I gonna make it on just 3 lives.

 

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OK, I started with some boring stuff.  Don't worry, I've got plenty more to come.  Something is bound to strike your fancy eventually.  As I said, these aren't my scans, and other than the covers, I haven't edited them at all.  They're strictly being uploaded to ensure their preservation.

And remember, to get the uncompressed file, you need to download the "Comic Book RAR" file, NOT the PDF (which is a VERY compressed copy automatically created by archive.org's software).

https://archive.org/details/@kitsunebi77

First, some strategy guides for Japanese releases of English computer games.  Populous and Sim Earth were released on the PC-98, while Art of War (originally released in the USA for the Apple II as The Ancient Art of War) was released on the PC-88.  I'll be honest with you, these are pretty dull guides unless you can actually read them.  The Sim Earth guide has some color pages, but the other two are entirely black and white. Unless you're Japanese and in need of a strategy guide for these games, you can probably give them a pass.

large.232713980_PopulousHandbooksm.jpglarge.1375139212_SimEarthHandbook.jpglarge.1840392938_ArtofWarHandBook.jpg

And last (for today) is the Gamest guide to the original arcade release of RayStorm.  This one is full color, so might hold a bit more interest to anyone who just wants to look at the pictures.

large.1803323467_Raystorm(GamestMookVol.53).jpg

 

Btw, I don't know if it just takes a long time for archive.org's software to create the preview or what (having never used archive.org to upload mags before), but none of these mags can currently be previewed on their site.  Anyone with experience at archive know what the problem might be?  They're just ordinary cbrs.

 

 

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4 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

Btw, I don't know if it just takes a long time for archive.org's software to create the preview or what (having never used archive.org to upload mags before), but none of these mags can currently be previewed on their site.  Anyone with experience at archive know what the problem might be?  They're just ordinary cbrs.

Archive.org can take up to an hour to create the preview image and render the "flip through". Also the file type may also need to be .cbz or .pdf.

Also after the file has been uploaded, Archive.org uses some pretty bad image recognition to decide what is the first page of the scan. Which usually means the first page and preview image winds up starting on page 5. For this you need to download the scandata.xml file and update the node for the first page as 'Title' where it says 'Normal'.

Edited by Ethereal Dragonz
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3 hours ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

Archive.org can take up to an hour to create the preview image and render the "flip through". Also the file type may also need to be .cbz or .pdf.

Well, it's been 8 hours so far and no previews...I've just checked Marktrade's archive.org page, and all of his files are .cbr and they're previewing fine...😕

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Yep, the problem is definitely that they're listed as images rather than texts.  To test it, I just uploaded a dojinshi by Tskukasa Jun and it worked fine.  It's mostly video game character art, if anyone cares.

Tsukasa Jun - Tsukasa Bullet ArtBook Heaven 001.jpghttps://archive.org/details/TsukasaJunTsukasaBulletSER20010812

As for my other files, they're just going to have to stay the way they are.  Unfortunately, there's no way to delete files or change media types.  All I can do is wait for the owner of archive.org to read my forum post and fix it himself, since it seems that he's the only person who can do that sort of thing (at least according to all of the information I could find in the forums).  Luckily, even though they can't be previewed, they can be downloaded and work just fine.

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I've gotta say...WTF is wrong with archive.org's cover selection program?  They use "sophisticated technology" to automatically select the cover page when you upload a book or magazine.  Invariably, they usually pick some random page around page 3 or 4.

Why do we need this software?  WHEN IS THE COVER OF A BOOK OR MAGAZINE EVER NOT THE FIRST #%^ING PAGE???  Every single time I upload anything, it sets some random page as the cover and I have to go in afterwards and fix it.  Really not cool.

On the plus side, I was able to set the preview flip book to turn the pages from right to left on Japanese mags that need it, so that's pretty cool.

Anyway, here's another strategy guide, this time for the Sega Saturn edition of Treasure's shooter, Radiant Silvergun.

large.1411691960_RadiantSilvergunOfficialGuidebook.jpg

And here's an artbook for several TYPE-MOON games, which while perhaps not huge in America, are one of Japan's most successful mega franchises, going way beyond games to dominate in most other entertainment medias as well.  Combined sales of manga, novel, and anime adaptations of its games outsell the combined manga, novel, and anime sales of One Piece, for crying out loud.  That's huge.

large.1916051226_TsukihimeDokuhonPlusPeriod.jpg

https://archive.org/details/@kitsunebi77

 

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