Trinity

22 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

I also don't see why making downloads available here makes any difference to how I choose to run my site.

BTW, how many magazines have you scanned for Retromags Trinity? Hmmm ..... I think you are just one of those people that freeload off everyone else's hard work.So really, your view on things is nothing I am going to lose any sleep over.

Have a great day 

I love how you can consistently cry about these "freeloaders". What is it that you're expecting? A site for, by and only populated with those who scan? I just don't understand how you can run a site that *DISTRIBUTES MATERIALS THAT WERE SCANNED WITH THE SINGLE IDEA OF SHARING THEM* and then complain about it when people come to download them. I mean, how many times do we get to scroll past yet another half page "You people suck and I hate doing this..but I'm going to keep doing it" post(all the while Kitsunebi is the only one bored enough to respond)? Sheesh.

Man, I can't help but feel this is a well-deserved slap across the face to Kiwi, lol.

Old Game Mags - Sorry, no downloads.

RetroMags - Say goodbye to download restrictions, our Download Manager now has zero restrictions....even for guest visitors!!!!!

Too funny!

On 6/6/2018 at 4:41 PM, kitsunebi77 said:

I believe he decided he wasn't interested in properly editing the files (I can't really blame him - editing is certainly the hardest and most time consuming part of the scanning process, and isn't actually necessary for the strict purpose of reading the scan).

God, yet another set of quality scans denied here. I am *glad* places like Retro CDN and Archive exist.

Scarred Sun, don't let the crying here discourage you in any way, shape or form; not all of us required 500MB+, {insert ridiculous resolution here} scans to be happy with the quality. I have downloaded a huge amount from both Retro and Sega CDN and have been utterly grateful for both.

So, is this another one that just disappeared?

On 4/17/2018 at 5:34 AM, LiterallyHitler said:

(Ongoing mags - 4,000 / 220 GB more, but you know about it.)

Did anything ever come of this?

Man, it looks great! If they don't feel it's up to their standards, definitely upload this to Archive.org. If you need any help, just let me know!

Well, that's an admirable goal, but when it comes to magazines that *no one else* has, I'd be happy with whatever quality he has them in. I mean, look at the Gamefan explosion a while back: Not exactly the best scans, but everyone I talk to is just so grateful to have anything. I just think it's kind of rough to tell someone who actively wants to contribute, "Hey, go upload them somewhere else and if we feel they're good enough, then we'll allow you the privilege of re-uploading everything to our site". This guy has taken the time to scan and edit everything, he just wants to contribute. Maybe Archive.org really would be a better outlet.

...or, just upload them to Archive.org and skip all this. Jeez, guys, it's almost like you *don't* want new mags.

Thrilled to death to see all of it! Let us know when it's up and thanks for sharing!

On 4/7/2018 at 6:21 PM, LiterallyHitler said:

1 TB, yeah.

I once tried to private torrent-seed something but it didn't seemed to work. Maybe a public torrent would work better. Would you be interested in something like that? (I suppose you have some publishing date limitations like oldmags do.)

Over at Archive.org, you can actually just upload everything in one huge file and they'll host it all in various formats(torrent, zip, rar, etc). That "Sketch the Cow" guy did it a while back with a bunch of mags he had uploaded. He uploaded them all individually, but then also did one huge 23gb upload that included all of them at once. I'm not sure what their size limit would be, but even if you had to break it up into chunks, it'd definitely be easier than doing it one by one. I notice a lot of people asking the question of size limit, and though various answers are given, if you tell them what you're trying to upload and its size, it seems like they'll give you an email address to contact them directly so they can help you do it.

A buddy of mine has them all, and removed from the GP issues. If you find your issue does not have the insert, let me know and I'll see if I can get him to scan it. I think he's been planning on scanning the entire Flying Warriors comic as its own CBR for a while now(he's a huge fan of the game, and that "Flying Dragon" before it); maybe this will push him to do it.

So...as you haven't paid for it, are you now saying you're in the only other category out there, that being "people who are in love with WinRAR"? Lol

At any rate, it really is a non-issue. Like you said, if you install it for the first time all you have to do is check "RAR4"(it's in the version notes); if you are upgrading, it's already on RAR4. I don't mind 7zip, I used to use StuffIt(back on the Mac), but WinRAR won me over with their Aladdin icon pack..

https://www.rarlab.com/themes.htm

The "Wizard" icon cracks me up!

Wow, these are pretty good, I had no idea anything like this even existed! I'll try to take a look around and see if I can come up with more issues!

Yeah, unless you re-upload it, it just stays that way. I have an issue of Gamefan that I screwed up on initially, so the "identifier" is different than the file itself(no big deal, the title and everything else is correct, though). Thanks for the share, downloading now!

Post a link when you finish, I'd be interested in seeing some of those!

I don't know, I haven't had any problems. Did you read this bit about the release?

 Version 5.50

   1. WinRAR and command line RAR use RAR 5.0 archive format by default.
      You can change it to RAR 4.x compatible format with "RAR4" option
      in archiving dialog or -ma4 command line switch.
      
      If you prefer RAR 4.x format by default, use "Create default..."
      button on "Compression" page of WinRAR settings and set "RAR4"
      in the displayed dialog.

      This change affects only new clean installs. If you already saved
      RAR format in the default compression profile in previous versions,
      WinRAR respects stored settings.

You could always just dump them on Archive.org; it's about as easy as starting an account and hitting "upload". It'd free up your USB and keep the mags available to you and anybody else.

56 minutes ago, E-Day said:

He wasn't that polite when he asked

Oh, don't worry, I know he wasn't! Lol!

8 minutes ago, kitsunebi77 said:

Did he ask politely?  Doesn't matter.

This is my new favorite thing ever! 100% Dave. Gotta love it!

10 minutes ago, kitsunebi77 said:

A bunch of those Gamefans have been available at archive.org for over two years now.  Surely Dave can't be the last to know if he's as tenacious in defending his rights as you claim?

Some rogue issues on something like Archive.org isn't going to get a whole lot of views, or notice(just look at the total views on any given issues I have up). Now, on the other hand, the entire run of the magazine(minus a few issues from volume 6) will, especially when it's already on Archive and will soon be everywhere else(just wait for some jerkoff site like "Kotaku" to post about it). It's a good thing it's on Archive.org, because he'll have a harder time getting them pulled. I don't know what to make of this mocking of his "tenaciousness" as this site has run in to it, Kiwi is smart enough to know to avoid it and the guy making the scans refuses to give any name at all as to totally duck it. Watch, when it gets out that the whole run of GF is now online, he will come knocking. It's a moot point, though, as now that it's out he can only cry so much before he runs out of tears and gives up his "no one deserves to bask in my greatness" crusade.

As for the mooching and whatnot, I can agree with you. I've had entire sections of my website stolen and used for others' monetary gain. It my younger years it upset me, but as I've gone on you just sort of have to accept the fact that once you release something to the net, it belongs to the net. You can't really expect everyone out there to go digging to find the source of whatever they're watching/reading/downloading/etc. If the person who took the work and distributed it without crediting the source..dems da breaks.

9 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

The guy I have been dealing with, as far as I can tell, is the actual scanner and he was exceptionally clear about keeping his name off the interweb. He also gave me the name of the staff member he acquired the digital files from and I have no reason to doubt him.

His scans are a little rough as he was pushing them out as fast as he could scan them. I've been editing the Gamers Republic issues before putting them online as I prefer mags a little more refined but heck, the fact I have every issue of Play, Gamers Republic and the Gamefan's is somewhat of a miracle to be honest, so I am stoked. Even if no-one else ever scans them at least they are available in eminently readable condition. Big high five to this dude IMHO. 

He's right to be scared too; Dave will come after whoever he can find, trust me on that one.

Now, as to why he and Game Informer seem to throw fits over distributing old issues of magazines they themselves refuse to sell or make available, I don't know. Game Informer, I can live with out. It has always been, and will always be a magazine they gave away damn-near-free with purchases at FuncoLand. The first few years were alright, but like every other mag they just became a shill rag for Sony later on. Gamefan, on the other hand, was solid all the way through. Granted, we had to put up with Monkey Boy Rox and his blatant bashing of anything non-Sony, but the rest of the staff really seemed to give everyone else a solid shot. It was definitely the only place to find quality Sega coverage. Now, I have almost every issue of Gamefan, the actual mag, as I did EGM and GamePro, but I am tired of lugging around 80lb boxes of mags everywhere I move to, and it's nice to have my entire collection on a portable HDD or bits of it on tablets, phones, etc. Gamefan was the last holdout in terms of finding them digitially. I honestly don't care where Sketch "stole" them from, I am with Marktrade in that it's for the good of the community that they are now available.

Well, and I feel bad, I don't mean to paint you into a corner here..but if we were to ask the guy to post where he got said scans, would you be comfortable if he put "Retro Mags" for the Gamefan and other scans? That's where the fear thing comes in to play. I mean, Dave won't care if you're not hosting them here, he's just going to be pissed to see that they're out there being distributed. Now, it's important to note that I'm not mocking you for being mindful, as RM would have a lot to lose if Dave were to come calling.

How about this: When I convert and post them all as CBZ/CBR, do you want me to put "Retro Mags" as the scanner? If not, and you want credit given, who should be credited?

Well, listen man, I hate to do it to you..but it goes back to my whole "people have scans of Gamefan and are too scared to post them" thoughts from a while back. This guy wasn't scared to do it, and if he'd of contacted me, I'd of posted them for him. Hell, I am going to convert them to CBZ and add them to my Archive.org collection just to have a backup in case his stuff ever gets pulled.

Now, for the other stuff, like Play or Gamers' Republic that you guys do scan and post, that he has managed to gank from this site, I can see and support what you're saying. A lot of them look like the "r"(I'm assuming it stands for "review") versions, which makes me wonder how he got a hold of all these in the first place.

At any rate, I didn't mean to bring up a sore subject; I just saw and started downloading before running into issues where I could tell how/where he was acquiring them.

https://archive.org/details/@sketch_the_cow&tab=uploads

I was just sort of messing around on Archive this evening and happened to notice a few new issues of Gamefan that has been uploaded. Going through it all, this guy/gal had uploaded VIRTUALLY EVERY ISSUE OF GAMEFAN back on Valentine's Day! He/she has also uploaded a bunch of Gamer's Republic, Play and others! Just sift through what this guy/gal has uploaded in the past two months, it's unbelievable! Anyway, I know GF isn't allowed here, but I thought I'd mention this for anyone interested. Between Archive, here and Old Game Magazine's(Kiwi's World) and Gamefan, EGM and GamePro, my retro-gaming magazine dreams have come true!

I keep forgetting I can't edit a post and meant to give some further thoughts..

I have the Kindle HD 8, and it's fine for reading mags(and comics). Sometimes you'll need to zoom in on certain pages, it's not a huge deal. I usually view the magazines one page at a time, so unless the print is super tiny(or less than great quality), I don't usually zoom in too often.

Finally, there are a couple of other comic/magazine readers out there, but I've only ever used Perfect Viewer or Comic Rack(which is also very good). If you have any questions, just shoot me a PM or reply here.