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VGBounceHouse

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Everything posted by VGBounceHouse

  1. I've finished work on this issue of XBN and am finalizing things for release. You can view it online here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2002/su/xbn/pages/ Lots of editorial and printing issues with this one. I have two copies, both in very good condition, yet the number of offset errors, printed blotches and other irregularities appeared in both. Their use of white text was a constant complaint from readers thought the magazine's run but they never wavered. Also on Page 89 under the advertiser list it implies there was a pullout from Vivendi Universal Games. I didn't have such a thing in either copy, and the one I debound with a hair dryer had no indications of an insert at that page. I still had a loose subscription card so I'm thinking this was just an editorial error, but just in case if anyone else has a copy of this issue can you check for an 8 page pullout?
  2. I have finished issue 28, August 28, 1983, the first issue under the new name Electronic Games Hotline: My archive is viewable here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1983/08/28egh/pages/ You'll find my CBZ and PDF along with a ZIP with the TIFF scans and PSD edits. I'll try to get to my other copies of this soon.
  3. I have finished issue 27, August 14, 1983, the first issue under the new name Electronic Games Hotline: My archive is viewable here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1983/08/14egh/pages/ You'll find my CBZ and PDF along with a ZIP with the TIFF scans and PSD edits. I'll be getting to second issue of Electronic Games Hotline shortly.
  4. I have finished issue 22, June 5, 1983: My archive is viewable here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1983/06/05ae/pages/ You'll find my CBZ and PDF along with a ZIP with the TIFF scans and PSD edits. I'll be getting to the first two issues of Electronic Games Hotline shortly.
  5. I got a request from RetroDefense to fill in the two holes in the Arcade Express archive and I decided to bump this thread in case anyone else could help with the missing issues. I have finished Issue 16, March 13, 1983: My archive is viewable here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1983/03/13ae/pages/ You'll find my CBZ and PDF along with a ZIP with the TIFF scans and PSD edits. I did this with a 600dpi Document mode scan in Black & White mode and believe it came out fine, but if I need to do them greyscale or with a different B&W cutoff to improve them please let me know.
  6. I've finished the scan for Xbox Nation (XBN) Issue 3, Summer 2002. I have edited the first 20 pages and hope tomfinish it up in the next few days.
  7. Another error this is the May issue, not March. I can’t seem to get anything right today lol the actual May 1984 entry in the database is correct, it’s just the title of this thread with the mistake
  8. Retromags Presents! Electronic Games Issue 25 (May 1984) Database Record Download Directly! Scanned By: VGBounceHouse Edited By: VGBounceHouse Uploaded By: VGBounceHouse Subscribe to our New Release Feedburner email!
  9. The page you navigate to with the Database works fine and has the download button (unlike OXM):
  10. Ok, fixed it. Hopefully the download is correct now. I checked updated files like the directions said and it gave me Pack 3, I didn't see a way to choose a pack. I thought Database Record took you to the page you'd see if you went to the database and clicked on the issue. I also released Electronic Games May 1984 but it didn't create an automatic post.
  11. Sorry, I uploaded the file, it's there, I created the hash from the right file, but somehow the wrong one is linked and I can't figure out how to edit it.
  12. 1,015 downloads

    Official Xbox Magazine Issue 1 (December 2001)
  13. Retromags Presents! Official Xbox Magazine Issue 1 (December 2001) Database Record Download Directly! Scanned By: VGBounceHouse Edited By: VGBounceHouse Uploaded By: VGBounceHouse Subscribe to our New Release Feedburner email!
  14. 285 downloads

    Electronic Games Issue 25 (May 1984)
  15. I edited the Official Xbox Magazine Issue 1 entry along with the Electronic Games issue. The link to download Electronic Games from my site appeared but not for OXM. The link is: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2001/12/oxm/Official Xbox Magazine Issue 1 (December 2001).cbz The final archive includes the sleeve which I named so it would appear after the pages but before the Retromags page.
  16. Thanks E-Day! I grabbed the updated support images. I'm gonna tweak the Official Xbox Magazine archive to remove the cards and add the sleeve. In the meantime I finished one that had been on the burner far too long, Electronic Games Issue 25, March 1984: I tried to follow the instructions to upload but couldn't get them to work. I thought I could just go to then issue and upload it there but the Edit button doesn't seem to have the option. I made a Retromags-style CBZ and made it available here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1984/05/eg/Electronic Games Issue 25 (March 1984).cbz You can view the issue on my site here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/1984/05/eg/pages/ I'll play around some more and once I've got it figured out I'll do the OXM release.
  17. I have finished Official Xbox Magazine, Issue 1, December 2001. I want to prepare a proper RetroMags version and after comments here I still have a couple of questions. The issue is viewable here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2001/12/oxm/pages/ with a direct download of the CBZ here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2001/12/oxm/pages/20011200.cbz You'll immediately notice how much brighter this issue is than the other one I finished, and nothing different was done during the scanning/editing process. Both copies of the other issue were still bagged so the darkness of that one seems tied to the printing. As for questions: my CBZ is 300dpi as usual, should I scale it to some fixed pixel standard? If not should I scale the RetroMags trailer page to match my pages? Do I need to overlay subscription cards on a normal-sized page as I've done occasionally and I've seen in archives here? Right now they are cropped to size and scaled to 300dpi as usual so they don't match the height of the other images: I also scanned Demo Disc sleeve: Should I include this? I also scanned the disc but it's essentially useless. If it looked as it appeared on Page 119 I could work with it, but the black in that image is just a dull silver on my disc. After originally posting I forgot about my scanning process. Im knew my scanner could grab "clean" text so I ran some tests and assembled them into a single PSD for comparison sake. You can download it here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2001/12/oxm/pages/scan-test.zip The "problem" boils down to scanning method. I know many people would think of a magazine as a "Document", and my software has a Document mode. I use Photo mode as it captures the color gradiations closer to how we see ads, artwork and photos in magazines. Even the clean scan in Document mode gets heavily anti-aliased just by running Descreening which is essential for images. Anti-aliasing is also introduced by the page straightening process. Theoretically I could double scan and merge the cleaner text from Document mode with the imagery from Photo mode, however I find the pages easily readable on an iPad with not zooming. I've asked my followers on Twitter and the common response was they had to zoom in real far to even see the anti-aliasing on the text. Hope everyone's having a great week! Chris
  18. I have the scanner software set to Unsharp Mask Medium and Descreening set for Magazine (133lpi I Believe) otherwise no settings changes. Do you recommend something different? What Brightness and Sharpening did you do? I'd like to try the settings and run a batch to see the difference particularly on the advertising. I can then prepare a new CBZ and we can decide whether that's worth sharing.
  19. Someone else must have edited the files in my original CBZ files. In my XBN archive the pages are 2460x3070. In my OXM archive they are 2391x3131. It wasn't fun lol but I converted my files back to JPG 9 and the downloads now reflect this: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2004/03/oxm/pages/200403oxm.cbz http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2002/sp/xbn/pages/200205sp-xbn.cbz If you guys prefer I can adjust my action and build versions that are at 2200px tall. Should I do this? Yeah, I started in the print world and am used to Lines Per Inch which has no real Dots Per Inch analog, much like 4K movies versus 35MM film. I guess I stick to DPI as scanners typically use that measure at like standard units it's an easy talking point, 72dpi or 96dpi screen, 300dpi print, 600dpi scan etc. Again sorry for all the mess. Let me know about the 2200px height resize and I'll run it, otherwise my currently available CBZs are ready to go for the most part.
  20. Okay, my bad again, I re-checked the guide and it shows saving at JPG 9 which is what I had done before. Now back to re-exporting them all again. I only do a single resize before save. My Action crops the facing pages 600dpi original, resizes to 300dpi, then saves the JPG. If you get the chance to look at the archive with the TIF scans and PSD edits and notice something I should be doing differently please let me know and I'll batch them again. As for the OXM definitely not gray paper or wear, but dark and thin paper. If you reenable the brightness/contrast layer using the guide's suggested settings you'll see far more bleed. I use black paper on the scanner hood as recommended but this particular issue is just a lower grade stock and it shows.
  21. Good morning everyone! First, I have to apologize for being lazy. I've been so focused on the needs of my Xbox Documentary that I wasn't thinking about the procedures here, it had been so long I figured someone else would just point out mistakes and I'd go from there rather than looking things up or remembering my past work. The softness levels you may have seen are most assuredly tied to me saving at JPG 9 instead of 12. I did this to fall under restrictions on social media sites where I was sharing work in progress as part of my daily updates on the documentary. I have gone ahead an re-saved both XBN and OXM at JPG 12 and created new CBZs which are significantly larger: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2004/03/oxm/pages/200403oxm.cbz http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2002/sp/xbn/pages/200205sp-xbn.cbz As for your kind offer kitsunebi77 I have created a ZIP with 6 TIFFs and 3 PSDs of each issue used to generated the JPGs. I have also included the same for OXM Issue 1 to show that this particular issue of OXM that seems "dark" really is. If you look at the stub page here you'll see the paervasive darkness even in the reds. I have 2 copies of the issue and they are equally dark. Here's is the archive with the pages, which include adjustment layers following the Retromags guide (though the Brightness/Contrast adjustment isn't active as it seemed to lessen the image quality based on my source scan and eyeballing): http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2002/sp/xbn/pages/retromags.zip All pages are equal height except for the subscription cards as I didn't do that overlay effect some of you do. Since these are loose it didn't seem to make sense but I could overlay them on a blank background. I start with my 600dpi scan and reduce to 300dpi and save to JPG there without regard to pixels. In this case the XBN issue is 3070 pixels high, while OXM is 3131. If it's preferable to lock the height it's easy enough for me to adjust my Action and export again. Please let me know. Thanks again for the patience and I promise to take what I've learned/been reminded of here when I finish up OXM Issue 1 in a couple of days. Chris
  22. Thanks so much MigJmz! I'd happily prepare proper CBZs but I've been out of the loop so long I'm not sure of the changes. Before the max size of pages was around 200dpi and file naming was a bit of a mystery. Are there updated guidelines somewhere for me to follow? I haven't finished scanning OXM Number 1 but I have used the hairdryer method to separate the issue and have scanned some of it. Working on some early edits to confirm page size. Here's how the inner cover ad turned out: Edit: looks like my 72dpi version doesn't pass muster like the above covers so here's a link to the 300dpi version: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2001/12/oxm/pages/000b-001.jpg
  23. I've posted updates in my Xbox Documentary topic but in case that title is less likely to browse I wanted to share updates here. I have 2 magazines ready to go... Official Xbox Magazine, March, 2004 You can preview all the pages and download the 300dpi CBZ here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2004/03/oxm/pages/ Xbox Nation (XBN) Issue 2, Spring 2002 You can preview all the pages and download the 300dpi CBZ here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2002/sp/xbn/pages/ I'd love to contribute them. The OXM issue is still marked "Not Allowed". Both archives need the Retromags leadout image and well as resizing the pages from 300dpi to the Retromags standard. I am currently working on OXM Issue 1 and hope to have it finished early next week.
  24. I ended up altering my adjustments layer and think the issue came out great. An updated 300dpi CBZ is now available: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2004/03/oxm/pages/ I have finished 2 more scans. One is for Game Informer which if I remember correctly can't be hosted here. December 2004 Game Informer 300dpi scan pages and CBZ download: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2004/12/gi/pages/ The other one I finished is Xbox Nation, Issue 2, Spring 2002, available here: http://vgpavilion.com/mags/2002/sp/xbn/pages/ I ran into an issue I'm curious for fgeedback on in XBN. Some people know that I'm focused on the original graphic artists intent which is why I work from hairdryer separated perfect binding and in facing pages mode. As always with perfect binding you have to deal with overlap meant to be hidden by the binding, or missing content done when the magazine is of a different size than an ad was designed for and they try to hide the missing bits in the fold. Here's a case where the overlap was messed up and part of the image was printed on both sides. The first image is an edit of the original, the second where the center image is edited to show the proper image. It has a big impact on white space but otherwise is preferable. I've included the original in the CBZ for now, but what would you do? I'm off to work on Issue 1 of Official Xbox Magazine, December 2001. If any of these 3 that I've finished recently are wanted here I can make the necessary changes to the CBZs for upload. Chris
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