Jump to content

Kitsune

Team Member
  • Posts

    112
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by Kitsune

  1. Hm... Daffy Duck as Snape... Or even Sub Zero ripping off Hermione's head with the spine attached...
  2. And the Harry Potter franchise... No, that is too much, I think. Of course, I wonder what this means for their current licensee for games. This should be an interesting next year for games. Or at least 2011. It all depends on when contracts are up for renewal... Hm...
  3. The fatalities would be unbelievable! Of course, WB has the DC license too... Justice League/MK/Bugs Bunny and Friends mashup!
  4. I would have liked to have seen Midway go to another game company. After Blizzard was bought by a movie company, they just haven't been quite the same. But, it is a sign of the times. Companies are worried about losses, especially companies that had already recently made purchases prior to the recession. Otherwise, it could have gone two ways. Either Midway would still be around, or there would have been more serious bidding for them.
  5. Wow. That is young. He was not too much older than I am... Despite all of his trials and tribulations, he was still one heck of a superstar performer.
  6. I concur. Thank you for your kind words. And the lending of your magazines is generous even if it might not be necessary. I'm good for EG mags for a while. Once we all get to near the end of the first run, we shall see. But, that doesn't mean that there aren't others willing to help out so we can get this project finished sooner. Thanks again for your praise!
  7. Or broke it up into lots instead of just one huge lot.
  8. Game collection for $100,000.00 My, my, my! If this person gets their asking price, I just might let go of all of my stuff in the same way. Best of luck to them, seriously.
  9. Same here. It meant so much to be able to get a live person, talk to them face to face. It does seem like a catch-22 situation. You can't get help unless you use the site and using the site to get help is difficult. But a person shouldn't give up simply because it seems difficult. ^_^ You never know.
  10. Perhaps if enough people report him, then it will have an effect. Hm. The eBay offices aren't too far from where I live. I wonder what kind of effect it would have if I went there directly...
  11. This guy doesn't quit. There's more magazine DVD's (and ROM DVD's) at their store: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/laptops_shop_uk What an asshat.
  12. Hey, if these guides are still available, I'm interested in them.
  13. Oh, my. I remember when I first set my eyes on an arcade game. I was hooked from then on. It was Destruction Derby (You never forget your first!), and even though the gameplay was simple, the wheel and foot pedal vibrated, making it such a realistic experience. Crash your car into the other car and score! What could be more fun than that? I was six at the time. Not many games had color graphics then. Unless it was an overlay. ^_^
  14. Hm. First RPG I ever played? I am not certain which one I played first, but I discovered them at approximately the same time and enjoyed both immensely: Ultima III: Exodus and Legacy of the Ancients Both for Commodore 64.
  15. All right. I have one. It still works. And it is about 98% backwards compatible with 2600 carts. Not all of them work, but most of them do. The 7800 was actually ready to go in 1983, right before the crash, and there are a few of the older magazines (Electronic Games and Videogaming Illustrated I know for certain) that wrote in some detail about the console. It was groundbreaking technology in 1983, but the then owner of Atari, Jack Tramiel erroneously decided to focus on Atari's home computer market instead. I wonder if the crash would have been as bad, or would it have even happened if the 7800 had been released when it was ready? It would have been the next-gen console of it's day, the first one with backwards compatibility. Happy now, E-day? ^_^
  16. Let's not. ~pttthhbbblllt!~ What for? Besides, once the SMS does turn 25, a thread can be made. So there, you philistine! I mean, um... Both consoles have their rightful place in history, and their rightful threads as well. ^_^
  17. Who has it? I don't! Not me! Definitely not. That game was a nightmare. The original Sims, that is.
  18. Nooooo! It's a lie! My childhood dreams are shattered! Now they'll be saying that Apple Jacks doesn't taste like apples... Wait... ^_^
  19. I am awed and humbled. Triverse, thank you for the interview. You have my undying gratitude and eternal respect. And the same for you, Game Dr.! Without EG, the world would have been a dimmer place in the early 80's!
  20. Those were the days. Yes, the 90's were a great time for consoles. The mags were fat because there was so much to choose from in the handheld and in the home fronts. Taking into account there were at least 15 consoles - add-ons notwithstanding - to choose from. Hindsight is 20/20, but with so many choices, many were destined to fail.
  21. I am of the mindset of Video Game. It just seems right to me.
  22. Right on! I have left a comment over there. Information is viral!
  23. I'll bet your issue is in better condition than mine. I'll move on to May '82 then. ^_^
  24. My first thought? Good luck to you guys! Maybe they will sell it. At least they have a best offer available. Kind of makes me feel like parting with mine.
  25. It all started with this auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=220411021102 The user wanted almost $1200 for all of them which is reasonable when you consider only the usual price per issue was being asked for, and #1 tends to fetch $200 minimum. I tried offering $400, but the “Best Offer” was immediately rejected, so I tried again with $500, which put it down to about $14.70 an issue, which I was sure wasn’t going to fly. But, the offer was submitted and in less than an hour, the offer was accepted, which I was very surprised to get. Happy, but surprised. I sent off my payment as soon as I could and in just a couple of days, the box arrived. What can I say? It was like touching the Ark of the Covenant (very carefully!), Christmas and birthday all at the same time, with the excitement of the first drop on a roller-coaster. There they were, and there IT was. The first issue of EG. It was the first magazine I purchased with my own money back in 1981. I checked to see if there were any tell-tale signs that maybe it was the exact same one I had bought. Nope. That would have been freaky! I went about checking the contents for any missing issues. They were all there. Although the condition of the first issue isn’t the greatest, that’s not the point. The point is that I was able to get the first issue at a great price (admittedly it was one steep sum for all of them, but it was still a great price). And most importantly I was able to do something I have wanted to do for the community for a long time: Release the first issue of Electronic Games. I’ve wanted to do it for several reasons, and not in any particular order: It is the first magazine dedicated to video games. It is probably the single most requested magazine scan ever, not just on Retromags. It is so coveted that others buy it not to share, and I wanted it just so I could bring it to the community. I like to share, and I am happy to have brought it to the community. Now for the scanning details: The scanner I use is an Epson Artisan 800, and has some amazing features such as a wireless connection so that any function can be used (fax, scan, print, etc.) remotely. It also has a scan directly to memory card, as either a JPG or PDF. The Auto Crop function is a good bonus, but not perfect, and an otherwise good scan can be hindered by it. The Artisan 800 also has a document feeder so if you went the route of slitting each page of a magazine, you could scan it relatively quickly. For myself, I just can’t bring myself to do that to classic gaming mag. It’s like sacrilege. That’s just me though. The Artisan 800 has some great stand-alone features as mentioned above, and reduces scanning time considerably if only relying on the unit itself. The firmware it uses really does a great job in correcting bleed-through without user correction. It almost eliminates the need for dark-backing. Almost. However, using the Epson software on a PC gives a lot more features, such as “dust and scratch” removal, an eye-gouging 5760x1440 dpi resolution option, auto color correction for photos, etc. On average, it takes me about four hours to scan one magazine that has between 80-1000 pages because I set up the dark backing, make sure the page is completely set on the scanner so that no part is missed, usually what I do is get enough to get a part of the next or preceding page so I can crop the right page once scanning is done, then once it is ready to scan, I use the software. That usually takes about 30 seconds. Setting up the scan takes about a minute or two. Provided there are no interruptions, I can usually get one scan done in an afternoon. I set my scanner for 300 dpi because it is recommended, and it tends to be monitor-friendly. Once the scan is finished, the real work begins. I make a folder with the name of the magazine, then another folder with the release/month/number of the issue (i.e. Electronic Games/Winter 1981, V.1 Nr.1) so I can keep track of where I am. I use Photoshop to edit the pages. First I crop the pages, which I try to get as much of the original page as possible, right up to the edges. Sometimes the crop isn’t just so, and makes the image look a little lopsided so I go back and take out just a sliver of the offending area because I want to preserve as much of the original image as possible. For the appearance of the pages, to give them vivid colors I use a combination of Auto Levels, Auto Color, and especially Curves (Curves are the best, I think) when Auto Levels and Auto Color don’t work out so well. Sometimes I’ll use the Brightness/Contrast filter. Levels are really, really great for taking care of bleed-through on black and white pages when dark-backing is not used, not always so well on color pages, but can be capable of vivid color which makes the pages pop. Then I adjust the final size, with a height of 1440, then save it with a JPG quality of 9, which retains much of the beauty of the image without sacrificing quality, and has a file size that won’t break a person’s bandwidth once the magazine is complete (thanks for the tips, Triverse and Waremonger)! I Save As… and save the altered file in a new folder inside the release/month/number folder (I name it Final), just in case something goes wrong, I can go back to the original file and try again, so Save As… is an important thing to consider. I name the file “Page 0xx”, where “xx” is the actual page number, starting with the cover as “Page 001”, because Comic Book Reader can be finicky. Naming the pages like 01, 02, etc. will bring up pages in the wrong order, and that is something you don’t want. This part of the process takes me about another 16-20 hours total, because I am finicky, some might call it anal, but I won’t just bang out a release haphazardly. Those who have been to GamePro’s website have seen the tragedy of the “q’anning”, or “quick-scanning” of their premiere issue. So, after 80+ pages, are all dialed in and if I didn’t have to go back and try again or re-scan some pages, then I go to work finding dual-pages. In other words, ones that are usually two-page ads, or articles with images that span two pages. Then I put them together and save with a file name like Page 008_&_009 to keep the continuity flowing when the final file is read. Once that is all finished, I give the files a once-over, to make sure that all pages are continuous, there are no gaps in pages, missing pages, upside-down pages, or pages out of order. And they have to look good, too! Then once all files pass inspection, they are RAR’ed and then the file extension is renamed to .CBR. Then the file is opened in Comic Book Reader, and the real test begins. Usually it passes first try. But if anything is off, then the parts are corrected and viewed again. Then the final steps are to adjust the .nfo file, and to zip the two files together, ready for uploading! All in all, the process takes me about 36 hours total, with about 4 hours of work on it each day, sometimes more, sometimes less. It all depends on the responsibilities I have for the day. So it does take some time for a magazine to get scanned and pieced together properly. Some may have different methods but it does take time to put together a release. I am an altruistic person by nature and love putting my magazines up for all to read, mostly because of their historical significance, but just one magazine takes a lot of time to put together. That’s a lot just for one person! For anyone interested in scanning, or wonder why release of “insert magazine name here” is taking a while, know that it takes time and effort.
×
×
  • Create New...
Affiliate Disclaimer: Retromags may earn a commission on purchases made through our affiliate links on Retromags.com and social media channels. As an Amazon & Ebay Associate, Retromags earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your continued support!