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kitsunebi's talking to himself again


kitsunebi

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4 hours ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

Do you happen to have Gamest issue #57?

Sorry, no.  I could be wrong (I've got a lot of files), but I think I only have one more Gamest that isn't already available at archive (#106).

Btw, could you tell me if you clicked on the link I posted and  looked at the file?  I can't figure out if no one has looked at anything I've posted yet, or if there's some other action aside from clicking the link and/or browsing the flipbook that counts as a "view."  Because so far, everything I've posted has zero views.  Maybe "views" really means "downloads" and no one's downloaded anything?  Does anyone know what constitutes a "view"?  It won't bother me if they all stay at zero forever - I'm just curious.😜

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While it's true that some people upload unedited scans to archive (like Ethereal Dragonz, for example), I always edit stuff I scan and upload it here. I use Archive to upload things that I didn't scan myself (and thus are not allowed here).  Just random stuff I've acquired from here and there that doesn't have a home at any preservation site that I'm aware of.  So rather than have it be unavailable, I'm uploading it to archive.  Whether edited or not, we can't put it here since the scanners/editors are unknown, but at least now more people will have access to it.

You downloaded the PDF?  Ewww....so compressed.

To get right-left Japanese page order on the flipbook, add a custom field labeled "page-progression" and set the value to "rl"

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5 hours ago, Ethereal Dragonz said:

Yeah, that's another thing that does not work properly on that site. You could be at zero views for days before it gets updated up to some inaccurate number.

Yeah, I sort of figured that out when someone "favorite"-ed one of my uploads that has zero views, seeing as how it's impossible to favorite something without viewing it first.

It's great that the Internet Archive exists, but their software is %$#^ and I can't imagine a worse way to display and organize search results that what they have.  That site is just FUGLY.  You'd think they'd be able to afford to pay someone to create a more professional design.

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Uploaded a "guide" to SWITCH for the Mega-CD (released on the Sega CD as Panic!).  I say "guide" because it doesn't actually contain any strategies.  It's essentially a notebook where the player can fill in information about what happens for each button that gets pressed in a game that is essentially about pressing buttons and watching what happens.  But if you absolutely must make sure that you've pressed every last button and seen every single thing there is to see, this is the book you need.

Btw, I've never heard of this game, but then again, I've probably only ever heard of about 5 Sega CD games, so it obviously isn't an area I'm knowledgeable in.

https://archive.org/details/SWITCHMEGACDOfficialGuideBook

large.2054103040_Switch-Mega-CDOfficialGuideBook.jpg

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Another day, another Japanese strategy guide that no one (outside of Japan) cares about.😆  This time it's the original Daisenryaku (a long-running series of strategy games still being released to this day), released in 1986 for the PC-88.

EDIT: And, why not - the strategy guide for SUPER Daisenryaku, as well.  This one was released on the PC-88, PC-98, MSX, Sharp X68000, and later ported to the Mega Drive and PC Engine-CD.

https://archive.org/details/DaisenryakuHandbook

https://archive.org/details/SuperDaisenryakuHandBook

large.1367624354_DaisenryakuHandBook.jpglarge.903911838_SuperDaisenryakuHandBook.jpg

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On 1/17/2019 at 4:28 PM, kitsunebi77 said:

OK, then here's a question.  What's the cutoff on strategy guides?  Unless I'm mistaken, our FAQ doesn't mention them at all, even though we have strategy guides available for download.

So Strategy Guides should follow the same format as our Magazines Cutoffs. If the magazine publication is defunct and no longer making guides, we can preserve up to 2014, if they are ongoing that year would be the 2009. Now if we don't know the exact publication year for a specific guide, then we should base that guide off the year that game was released in that region. So for any guides for Pokemon Yellow, the Japanese Guides would be dated as 1998 and the North American guides would be considered 1999, unless the inside of the guide states a different year.

I would also say that Guides should be checked to make sure that the publisher is not still distributing the guide, its one thing if resellers are selling them on Amazon, but if the actual publisher is distributing an older guide for whatever reason, we should not be preserving it here.

 

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5 hours ago, Phillyman said:

So Strategy Guides should follow the same format as our Magazines Cutoffs. If the magazine publication is defunct and no longer making guides, we can preserve up to 2014, if they are ongoing that year would be the 2009. Now if we don't know the exact publication year for a specific guide, then we should base that guide off the year that game was released in that region. So for any guides for Pokemon Yellow, the Japanese Guides would be dated as 1998 and the North American guides would be considered 1999, unless the inside of the guide states a different year.

I would also say that Guides should be checked to make sure that the publisher is not still distributing the guide, its one thing if resellers are selling them on Amazon, but if the actual publisher is distributing an older guide for whatever reason, we should not be preserving it here.

 

 

It would be interesting to see what the oldest strategy guide still in publication is.  I would imagine almost all strategy guides are given a single print run, considering how limited the retail life of the games they cover is.  I have no idea about American guides but finding a Japanese guide (or even an artbook) more than 5 years old and still being sold new anywhere is almost impossible.

At first I was thinking that it was silly to base the cutoff on the continued existence of an imprint (like Brady or Prima) rather than the publisher (Penguin Random House, which owns both Brady and Prima), but then I realized that we base the magazine cutoff the same way.  Rather than caring about stepping on the toes of the people who own the copyright, we're avoiding stepping on the toes of their employees.  So now I'm thinking its all a bit silly😋  Don't worry, though, I have no interest in strategy guides and have no plans to ever preserve any here.  I only upload Japanese stuff at archive so I can rest at ease that it still exists in the world at large once I delete it from my hard drive (which I do as soon as I upload it, since as I said - I couldn't care less about guides.)

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Two more guides, this time for the Sega Mega Drive version of Super Daisenryaku.  These guides are at least more visually interesting than the computer game version guides, since they are full color with plenty of pictures.

https://archive.org/details/SUPERDaisenryakuAttackManual

https://archive.org/details/SuperDaisenryakuAttackManualBookTactics

large.441419246_SuperDaisenryakuAttackManualBook.jpg      large.1359993960_SuperDaisenryakuAttackManualBook-Tactics.jpg

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This cut-off date thing is indeed dumb. I used to subscribe to the seven/eight year self imposed limit for OGM/KW but a couple of things changed my mind on that.

  • Companies like Future released digital versions from about Dec 2009 for some of their mags, later for others, but never went back and released earlier issues as digital so I decided quite some time ago that it was just easier to release anything earlier than whatever they made available themselves as they clearly weren't interested in getting their whole collection converted to digital. 
  • Putting the files on Mediafire or other file hosting company meant the publishers had to request them to remove the file under the DMCA rather than going at me so no real concerns there other than maybe their requesting I remove links. Not a biggie...
  • Future cancelled several magazines (Nintendo Official, Games tm, GamesMaster) then removed the ability to re-download magazines you purchased off them if your iPad bellied up and needed a clean install. Nor did they make any effort to remove encryption to allow you to easily backup the files. This shit treatment of customers made me decide that if they cancel a magazine and remove your ability to save your legally purchased files then as far as I am concerned I have no problem making them available on a file hosting service as soon as the app is discontinued.

Personally, I think you are silly deleting the guides off your HDD especially given the cheap price of HDD storage nowadays and the small files sizes. That's because I have been through the Megaupload fiasco and burned by it so I trust any and all internet based hosting of content like a cobra. Okay to feed it but expect it to bite back at some point. I throw archive.org in that snake pit as well ....

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34 minutes ago, KiwiArcader said:

Personally, I think you are silly deleting the guides off your HDD especially given the cheap price of HDD storage nowadays and the small files sizes. That's because I have been through the Megaupload fiasco and burned by it so I trust any and all internet based hosting of content like a cobra. Okay to feed it but expect it to bite back at some point. I throw archive.org in that snake pit as well ....

If I had scanned them myself, or if I had even the slightest inkling of an interest in them I would keep them.  But I don't plan on ever...EVER looking at them again, so if Archive.org closes and no one else willing to reupload them elsewhere has downloaded them by them, then oh well, I really won't bat an eye.

It isn't that storage is expensive - it's that my storage needs storage.  I don't own a PC.  Japanese PCs are ridiculously overpriced garbage, and having an entire PC shipped from the US is expensive and risks damage.  So I've always used laptops which connect to a monitor to act as a desktop, and all of my storage is external by default.  I've got 10 external HDDs already.  Not only are the drives themselves requiring storage space of their own, but I can't actually plug them all in at the same time anyway, which makes access to all of my data at one time impossible and thus a huge inconvenience.  So saving space really is useful, regardless of cost.

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Trying to wrap up my Daisenryaku guides.  Here's the guides for Advanced Daisenryaku: Deutsch Dengeki Sakusen, released on the Sega Mega Drive in 1991.  The second guide is a split guide, the first half covering Advanced Daisenryaku, and the second covering Tenka Fubu: Eiyuutachi no Houkou, released on the Sega Mega CD in 1991.

https://archive.org/details/AdvancedDaisenryakuDeutschDengekiSakusenOfficialGuideBook

https://archive.org/details/AdvancedDaisenryakuUnitEvolutionTheoryTenkaFubuOfficialGuideBook

large.755355597_AdvancedDaisenryakuOfficialGuideBook.jpglarge.2103489604_AdvancedDaisenryakuUnitEvolutionTheoryTenkaFubuOfficialGuideBook.jpg

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9 hours ago, Phillyman said:

So Strategy Guides should follow the same format as our Magazines Cutoffs. If the magazine publication is defunct and no longer making guides, we can preserve up to 2014, if they are ongoing that year would be the 2009.

Hold on - I just read this again.  You do realize you just said that defunct magazines have a 5-year cutoff and ongoings have a 10-year cutoff, right?  Does this mean it's time to update the mission statement in the masthead?

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21 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

I've got 10 external HDDs already.  Not only are the drives themselves requiring storage space of their own, but I can't actually plug them all in at the same time anyway, which makes access to all of my data at one time impossible and thus a huge inconvenience.  So saving space really is useful, regardless of cost.

You, my friend, need a NAS. Something like a 10 bay mutha that you can throw 12TB monster HDD's into so you can access everything at the same time and have redundancy via RAID if so desired rather than using truckloads of USB HDD's.

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20 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

Hold on - I just read this again.  You do realize you just said that defunct magazines have a 5-year cutoff and ongoings have a 10-year cutoff, right?  Does this mean it's time to update the mission statement in the masthead?

Hahaha!! You guys are just confusing yourselves trying to interpret your own cut-off date rule. I love it ...... 😋

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20 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

Hold on - I just read this again.  You do realize you just said that defunct magazines have a 5-year cutoff and ongoings have a 10-year cutoff, right?  Does this mean it's time to update the mission statement in the masthead?

No the front page is right, this actually gets me every year as I do the math in my head. I always want to think defunct magazines get the larger number, as if we were saying we can scan up to 15 years worth of defunct magazines and only 10 years worth of ongoing magazines. However it is the opposite, the smaller number is saying that our "ORIGINAL" rule from when we started that we would stay 10 years off publications like Nintendo Power.....to give them breathing room.

Before you even pointed out my mistake above, I created this spreadsheet for my own sanity :P

Retromags Cutoff Dates Spreadsheet

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21 minutes ago, KiwiArcader said:

You, my friend, need a NAS. Something like a 10 bay mutha that you can throw 12TB monster HDD's into so you can access everything at the same time and have redundancy via RAID if so desired rather than using truckloads of USB HDD's.

Yeah, but first of all...12TB HDDs in Japan???😆  Seriously, does no one pay attention when I say how technologically behind the times Japan is compared to the rest of civilization?  The first 8TB drives just got released here a few months ago.  Probably won't see 12TB drives for at least another couple of years.

Also, for a NAS to work I'd have to switch from fiber to Wi-Fi.  It's a change I need to make eventually - my newest laptop that I use for work is wi-fi-only capable, but that requires switching contracts which is super time-consuming and troublesome in this, the land of ancient technology and BIG POINTLESS BUREAUCRACY.   But yeah, you're right.

13 minutes ago, Phillyman said:

Before you even pointed out my mistake above, I created this spreadsheet for my own sanity :P

Retromags Cutoff Dates Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet is like a concise way of putting everything that bugs me about this site into print.  Not so much the cut-off dates (that only bugs me a little), but rather the fact that it indicates when all issues of Game Pro, Nintendo Power, and EGM will be available (those mags and none other) - because it's always seemed like (to everyone but me) those mags are the end-all be-all only reason for this site to exist.  I sometimes feel like once those have all been preserved, Retromags will just shut down with a big "JOB WELL DONE" farewell message.

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1 minute ago, kitsunebi77 said:

This spreadsheet is like a concise way of putting everything that bugs me about this site into print.  Not so much the cut-off dates (that only bugs me a little), but rather the fact that it indicates when all issues of Game Pro, Nintendo Power, and EGM will be available - because it's always seemed like (to everyone but me) those mags are the end-all be-all only reason for this site to exist.  I sometimes feel like once those have all been preserved, Retromags will just shut down with a big "JOB WELL DONE" farewell message.

 

There is a reason for that though. I am based in the USA, so technically Retromags is a USA website. Also I grew up with USA video game magazines, so those are the ones that I am most familiar with. When it comes to buying magazines, it is much cheaper for me to buy them from people in the USA, which means those sellers are almost always selling USA magazines because they are the most common.

I have never discouraged anyone from any other country from submitting their countries magazines, we just tend to have better results with getting USA donations and contributors. Plus when it comes to flushing out any documentation on the website, the BIG THREE always enter my mind first....

  • Nintendo Power
  • EGM
  • GamePro

After that I start thinking of the LESSER THREE

  • Sega Visions
  • Next Generation
  • PSM

Why? Because these are the magazines I grew up on, these are the ones that came to my house each month, or the ones that I saw on the news stands and at check out counters. It doesnt mean that I don't want to see other magazines on Retromags. I welcome everyone to submit information on their countries magazines, its why I have the call to action on the front page of the forums. Hell if you guys want to start helping me to translate it into other languages, lets do it :P

 

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