KiwiArcader

To be honest if you just wish to leech mags and contribute nothing in return towards preserving them, nor contribute to the site in any way other than moaning about not being able to download then this site is definitely NOT for you. As such it may be better for you to go look for sites with torrents etc where you can leech to your heart's content. There are indeed magazines able to be downloaded as most people here could probably attest to. All my contributions have Rapidshare or Megaupload links for freeloaders like yourself for instance but due to reasons beyond the Admin's control most other Rapidshare links were deleted and we are in the process of getting them re-upped at this time. That won't happen though just because you join the site and your first two posts here are just a bitch-rant.... if anything those comments would give anyone on any site a reason not to go any faster.

I have a lot more Computer Gamers, CVG's and a few ZZap's etc on the shelf along with The Games Machines so there may be something in that lot you find interesting

Geez ..... nothing I have released recently is one of those you mentioned.

Hey Areala, The newsletter is interesting. Well done on the little haul you got there. One thing .... it is only scanned it at 150dpi. We generally like 300dpi here although with this sort of doc it isn't a big deal. When you do those other mag issues though can you do them at 300dpi? I will clean the newsletter up for you as it would be good to have it in a pristine looking PDF ... you okay with that? Scanning an 'issue 1' special for Retromags at present so might be a few days away from having it ready though.

The Amstrad CPC series of Computers were competitors to the Speccy and used the same CPU. No colour clash issues with the Amstrads although Speccy diehards loved the fact that they weren't perfect. I purchased an Amstrad CPC464 with the money my Grandmother gave me as a wedding prezzie instead of buying a TV as it was meant for. Needless to say a week of Galaxians later it was almost "Game Over" for my marriage.

Ooo ... aaahhh!!! Speccy stuff. Boy this hails back to the caveman age of computing

I remember that. The big problem with torrents is that the leecher crowd out there just grab and run .... generally contribute nothing back to the cause ... and the seeders never increase meaning the originator and one or two others use a boatload of broadband usage for nothing in return. With the site as it is currently at least they have to sign up or use the rapidshare or megaupload links if they don't so the originator gets points towards a subscription renewal or to add to their download usage. It isn't much but it is something. And it doesn't blow out their internet usage.

Mags in progress are Antic Magazine .... 5 issues scanned 100% ... editing yet to be started Atari World 06 ... Uploaded ST Format 039 .... scanned 100% ... editing in progress CVG Issue 081 .... Uploaded Amiga Format 097 .... scanned 100% ... editing in progress CVG Issue 052 .... scanned 100% Computer Gamer Issue 019 .... scanned 29/100 All work has halted at this point in time pending a discussion with Phillyman.

Never said .cbr's don't have a place .... or followers .... just that I prefer PDF's. Mainly because PDF's allow indexing/bookmarking & the use of OCR'd pages meaning text searching is possible within a document. Encrpytion is a questionable plus given the amount of unlocking programs out there. The big plus for .cbr's in my mind is that anyone can compile them as they are just a renamed zip or rar file. But that's about it really. But given the volume of PDF's out there I just prefer to keep all my stuff in the one format for the reasons stated above.

I think I was lead here by the same torrent. But now that I have been here for a while I wouldn't grab a file via a torrent anymore no matter what as it is just simpler to click on a download link and not have to worry about bandwidth issues that torrents typically bring if a torrent site has ratio's to deal with etc. And the community aspect of the site is interesting [warts and all] I am making PDF versions of all of my uploads available via Megaupload. It was Rapidshare but their delete if not used policy sucks ass so bought a 2 year sub to MU and am shifting everything over now. I really hate .CBR's and so I convert all my retromags downloads to PDF. If people want I can upload those I have grabbed & converted to my MU account as well so people have both options as Philly gets the .CBR's onto the site MU account [ that could be a while though ] Just a thought ....

I would think that the ONLY person here with everything is Phillyman given the amount of stuff taken offline a while ago that only he has access to. Not sure what he'd think of this type of request though as it really doesn't help Retromags cause at all as you aren't contributing anything towards helping the website move forward in this situation. And as Jake says ... the risks of a damaged drive when posting HDD's is pretty high unless it's a 2.5" and they possibly aren't big enough to store all the content here?

Hmmm ... so I say I would've changed my post ... even apologised ... and how could that could be negative? Anyone care to enlighten me on that? Ohh ... and I say that they do good work at OoPA ..... and that's negative too? Same question applies? And I posted this on Atariage forum "Always great to see people working to preserve classic magazines to ensure they aren't lost forever. A lot of people don't appreciate just how much work it takes people like Meppi & Triverse to get magazines looking this nice. Looking forward to seeing what this Friday brings" I guess I have some hidden agenda there too? Ahh .... I guess he's moaning about the fact that I said he get's shitty when he doesn't like what someone says? Well .... guess what? I stand by that based upon his comments here and he's done nothing to make me change my mind about that. I truly hope you are done with this Meppi. Just move on if you can't take apologies or any sort of criticism at all. I'm not normally given to rants but you certainly bring that out in me I'll give you that. If I thought any better I'd think you were just trying to get Phillyman to ban me again as he has no-one else contributing as much as I do to the site at the present time so it would put a dent in the magazine uploads here. Well ... if he truly thinks that it is for the best then he'll do it. I don't really care .... I had enough of petty admins with you and Triverse although I HOPE he is better than you were. Still ..... His loss if he isn't. What irks me is the people here not prepared to say what they really feel about things around here. That was the point of this post in the first place. It's a sad state of affairs when less than a handful of people are game enough to stand up and be counted. It doesn't matter whether they like it better now or before but if they don't voice an opinion what a waste of time this is as Phillyman can't get some feedback on what might be done better. Hell, I think I even stated that Phillyman wasn't pulling his weight recently. The point is constructive criticism is beneficial and people should be able to voice an opinion if it is in the interests of the site as a whole. My personal comments re this place still stand. It's definitely better for you leaving Meppi .... well .... I thought you'd left ....

Welcome to the site. If you want to scan and upload magazines you can get download privileges ... or you can contribute by updating the Wiki pages and so forth. Those are the best ways as contribute and you get back in return. Some things like upgrading the Wiki don't take much time at all and it helps by keeping scanners from getting sidetracked on the smaller stuff. SPAMMING the forum with inane posts as some people do just to get access is likely to not make too many friends around here though. There are some downloads available. Every magazine I upload also has a Rapidshare link to a PDF version but it doubles the usage on my broadband account so I haven't uploaded to Phillyman's Megaupload account I am afraid as the usage costs are high enough already. As Phillyman gets time he will be making all the mags available on Megaupload but as Jake said ...these things do take time.

Take it easy Phillyman. It was me ... not you ... that provoked this little outburst so don't get too worried about it. As I said earlier, I wasn't coming here much at all for a long period of time & because I wasn't reading the forums I had no idea what happened at the time of their leaving. All I did know was that when I did come back a lot of mags were missing. Considering I'd asked for mine to be removed when I left I assumed that "MAY" have been the case for those guys too given the apparent animosity at the time. And I wouldn't have blamed them for making the request either. But as I said to Meppi .... if he'd just PM'd me about it I would've changed my post. I would've even apologised. Instead he took offence as he always seems to do whenever he's mentioned and decided to have a go. You know, it's hard to figure the mentality of those guys. I have made posts on the shoutbox & forums here and elsewhere commenting on the great quality of their work and promoting them whenever a new mag is released at their site and they have nothing to say, but when you make one rather innocuous remark out of ignorance they get all shitty about it. No doubt this will get back to them and they'll probably take it the wrong way yet again. Which is a shame as I've always had the highest regard for their work preserving old magazines both here or at OoPA.

Geez!!! E-Day was entirely correct. After our shindig I wasn't around here much AT ALL ... you know what it's like when you get pissed off at a place/person. When I got back I noticed a lot of mags had been pulled and assumed you guys may have removed them. Operative word here is "MAY". But really Meppi .... all you had to do was PM me and let me know & I would've edited my original post to reflect the reality. Instead you had to go to town again over what was a rather innocuous & non-malicious reply about how we felt about the site compared to a few months ago. Seriously, do you think I harbour some sort of vendetta against you when I have been actively praising you guys and your site not just here but on other forums? And telling people how great your scans are? I guess your "informant" only wanted to pass on "the bad" at the end of the day. Sigh!!!

This sort of topic is quite subjective and is based upon the members persoanl experiences. In my opinion for example .... 1. Where are we at, for this site as a whole? I think there are some issues around Phillyman not being around much lately which have resulted in the site appearing to be lacking updates as he is the only one able to adjust the homepage for example and we still have references to Premium memberships from months ago. This tends to make the site look out of date. 2. Is this site better than it was 5 months ago? The shift to the new site is a positive one IMHO. But even more so I personally think that Meppi & Triverse leaving has been a positive one as there were definitely personality issues playing out back then. I am not saying anything bad about anyone but as an affected party I am a lot happier with the current site than the old. 3. Do we have more mags on this site than 5 months ago? Hard to tell. I think Meppi/Triverse may have deleted a lot of their stuff when leaving as there are definitely pre-2000 mags missing now that were here before. Then there are the mags removed because they hadn't been edited with no signs of a return anytime soon. But on the other side of the coin I have got permission from some scanners to make their mags available here .... Analog Computing is an example .. Enter mag is another one coming soon ... and I am scanning again which would never have happened while Meppi was here so expect my 300+ mags over time. AND I am making all my mag submissions into PDF's and available for download via Rapidshare while .CBR's are available via direct download for members. I assume at some stage Phillyman will make all the CBR's available on Megaupload but he's AWOL so when that'll happen is again, anyone's guess. 4. Do we have a larger or smaller userbase on here than 5 months ago? Who knows? Do you really care? As long as we have a core group of members happy to talk mags etc I personally don't care as people spamming posts just to download mags are not the sort of people I thought we wanted here anyway.

I scanned this issue a wee while ago and while editing it I discovered I was missing 8 pages. This caused me a bit of angst as I have owned the magazine from new and have never removed anything from my magazines so I checked the World of Speccy website as they have scans of these and discovered the missing pages are merely a supplement of type-in listings for Spectrum and C-64. What I beleive has happened is due to licensing issues or content the supplements may have been removed at the publishers before shipping to New Zealand. Question. Should I make this issue available minus the supplement? Yes / No My scans are a lot cleaner than those on WoS so those interested in these particular mags may want it and just add the supplement themselves. I cannot do it as I don't have the supplement and I don't want to break the rules by grabbing them off WoS.

Mags in progress are Atari World 06 ... scanned 100/100 ... editing in progress Antic Magazine .... 5 issues scanned 100% ... editing yet to be started. ST Format 039 .... scanned 100% ... editing in progress CVG Issue 081 .... scanned 100% ... editing in progress Amiga Format 097 .... scanned 100% ... editing yet to be started. UPDATE ... Amiga Format 098 ... Uploaded New Atari User 047 ... Uploaded Computer & Video Games 053 ... Uploaded Computer & Video Games 069 ... Uploaded Computer Gamer 014 ... Uploaded

Personally, I find the edges and page discolouration preferrable to a magazine where everything has been done to try and eliminate them. Take Meppi's Sega Saturn or Maximum magazines on OoPA as an example. They are exceedingly crisp as he wants them to be like taking a magazine off the shelf when viewing them. There is nothing wrong with that approach at all ... it's just how he likes them. On the other hand I prefer to have them at least look like they came from a magazine rather than merely being an electronic document. So while I am cleaning the colour on C&VG and Antic's etc I wont try and eliminate the aging to the point where it interferes with the artwork etc. So if you see a CVG soon don't expect it to look pristine. The original is 20+ years old on newsprint after all. So whatever method you choose or course you take is just fine. BTW ... another CVG is up at OoPA's. Nice work again from them.

A lot of scanned mags exihibit the discoloration due to their thickness when scanned. It all boils down to whether the scanner is prepared to destroy the mag to get a perfect scan, especially if the mag has a straight glued binding. Personally, I wont destroy a mag I own just to provide a 100% perfect scan but I do press the inside edge manually rather than relying on the top cover to get as close to the centre as possible. So whatever suits you is fine. People should just be grateful for anything that you provide rather than being picky.

Expect to see it here shortly. Uploading it as I type this..... UPDATE. Added it to direct downloads and included a Rapidshare link to the PDF version. @ Gladiator. When I had a look at the pages before downsizing to our 1440 resolution I noticed that the edges of 2 sides has been cropped. This is a common issue as most scanners have a 3mm blindzone at the edge of the scanplate. So if you push the magazine hard against the edge of the plate you lose 3mm on 2 sides. Don't worry .... just letting you know why it occurs so you can account for it for future scans. I had the same issue with my scanner so I purchased an A3 scanner and just put the mag dead centre. Cost a bit though ....

Well .... my DSL2+ connection went down today and I'm using a crappy connection until my Telco gets it back up and running again so it won't be today unfortunately. It's also screwed my uploading another "special" as well .....

50%+ through scanning/editing ISSUE 01 of a rather uncommon SNES magazine. Expect it today/tomorrow ....... Any guesses which mag it is?

Hiya... although I am only a pleb here I have downloaded your mag. Haven't checked it out yet as been busy scanning but I will do so when I get home today. I will upload it to direct downloads for you. I usually create a PDF version and make it available on Rapidshare as well as a lot of people prefer that format so bear with me while I get them uploaded etc. Should only be a day or so ....

Ahhh .... Pandemic ..... creators of two of the greatest games never played ..... Battlezone & Battlezone 2 .... which are still a couple of my favorite games that I play to this day. And it looks like C&C4 will be the last of that franchise as well as they are making that games creators redundant when it has been completed as well.