deutsch_joe

Uh, yeah. I haven't screwed around with my game cover and box scans since I got the Internet. The main reason being that I've been busy as hell with homework and the other reason being that I scanned most of my stuff WITHOUT descreen enabled, so I wanted to look up how to batch process in Photoshop using DESPECKLE, which helps get rid of the dots. (Processing all several hundred scans one at a time would suck bad.) I've done that here where I'm at now, but I'm not on my computer. I might do this tonight once I get back on my computer (hopefully my Photoshop version matches the guides I've found) and then I'll look into uploading my scans to that site and/or just in .zip files here. So be expecting them sooner or later. I also haven't taken the time to post a constructive criticism (spelling?) on GMA yet. (Will respond in full to the responses to my previous post in this thread later.)

That's a good thing. I was amazed at the difference in quality once I realized I was supposed to enable it. Anyway, I don't remember how long it takes me to scan the entire area of my scanner without descreen enabled, but with it enabled on a Canon Canoscan LiDE 80, it takes 2 minutes and 14 seconds. You people with the super fast scanners are lucky. :(

I've got a Canoscan LiDE 80. I got it on sale at Staples for something like....$80 a couple years ago. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1306978,00.asp The scans take a long time, but the result is good. Also, what about descreen? http://www.scantips.com/basics06.html http://www.scantips.com/basics6b.html Look at the examples on the second page. I scanned everything without descreen until I noticed it was mandatory for submissions for another scanning website. I didn't know what it was, Googled it, and found that page. Needless to say, everything I scan now has descreen enabled, including my current....scannings...of the Nintendo Power Player's Guides. It makes the scans even slower (I'll time a full bed scan next time and post it) but the result is MUCH better. I haven't looked at Retromag's scans of the old Nintendo Powers, but was descreen enabled? And, is it or should it be required?

Awesome! Thanks for the links, zovik! However, I still can't do much at the moment. My house still doesn't have Internet, but I should be getting it September 1st or soon after September 4th, thanks to Labor Day weekend... When I get hooked up, I'll post my scans here in addition to seeing if I can submit them to those sites... Right now, I've got everything scanned except my Gamecube manuals, and I can't scan those because I accidentally left those behind when I moved back to school...

Put me down for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I was packing to head off to school and found it. I forgot that I even had it! One corner is bent to hell, but seeing what you've done above, it should be fixable.

Wow! That's an awesome job of cleaning up that scan! With the exception of that missing corner from the Earthbound guide, I guess I won't worry about tears and such so much! Just one week or so before I beging to attempt to scan without debinding and avoid breaking my scanner lid.... :fear:

It's cool you picked up a few more guides! I totally understand about the free time thing.... I'll be going back to school in under two weeks and then I'll see how you scan yours. I seriously don't see how you scan the whole page without debinding... But, we'll discuss that then.

Heh, it looks like you got two copies of Sword of Mana and Pokemon Colosseum. Anyway, I just thought I'd explain why I haven't been around lately. My parents are divorced and I've been at my dad's the past week and a half or so. My computer (with my scanner) is at my mom's....but, my mom has dial-up (on one phone line, so I can't stay on long) while my dad has DSL. So, no matter where I'm at, I can't send any scans! ...Until I go back to school in two and a half weeks. And additionally, if I remember right, my box/instruction booklet scans are approaching 600MB... But uh, yeah, that's why I haven't been updating. When I get to where I'm scanning the guides, I'll start posting questions and such about properly getting them scanned without de-binding (and not breaking my scanner lid pressing down on the binding... ) I'll be pretty busy this semester, so I can't guarantee that I'll finish my scans in a jiffy, but when I do, I may start helping you out by purchasing and scanning. Also, I've been doing other things at my dad's, so that's why I haven't messed with the guild thing too much. But once I'm finished, I'll see what it's all about!

Other than the flaws mentioned below, all of the pages of my guides are in great condition. 420, can you tell me if the covers of these are in too bad of shape to scan? I know that the meat of the guides are probably OK though. The Earthbound one I'm not sure of to scan at all. First of all, here's the cover: It's not great, and there's a tear in it, which is on the back side. The next page also has a tear in it: The edge of one page is worn since it's coming out a little bit. And on one page, the corner is missing. :unhappy: But it does have the scratch 'n' sniff cards though: The Donkey Kong 64 one has some remains of a sticker: The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages' cover definetly isn't up to par: Luigi's Mansion still has a sticker and some white creases: Metroid Prime 2 has a fold in the cover: Metroid Prime's cover has those same white crease-tear things: Wario World's cover and some of it's pages are bent on the corners: Super Mario Advance 4/ Super Mario Bros. 3 is fine. The Fire Emblem guide I can't find at all. Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones has a few of those white crease things at one corner and a scuff at top:

I already have this in 128kbps constant bitrate, so I wouldn't mind an upgrade. What's the bitrate of the mp3s? Also, I ripped that one Super Smash Bros. Melee concert CD that came with an issue of Nintendo Power a couple of years ago. When I get my computer on broadband around mid-August, I could upload that for you guys if you want?

:laughing: :grin: Awesome! I'm glad to see that you're scanning Player's Guides! That was going to be my next suggestion. I have a few of those, but before I list them, let me say... I don't think you're going win the auction for Earthbound dude. Somebody's bound to snipe you at the end... :fear: Anyway, the Nintendo Power Player's Guides I have are: Donkey Kong 64* Super Mario Advance 4/Super Mario Bros. 3 Metroid Zero Mission Metroid Prime 2: Echoes* The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons* Luigi's Mansion* Metroid Prime* Wario World* Also, two guides not in that list are Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. I have both of these, but I can't find Fire Emblem. *There are visible problems with these covers. I would just describe the problems on an individual basis (some aren't bad, but others are pretty noticable...), but it's easier to take a picture and show you to see if it's worthy of a scan. But when I got my digital camera, the batteries were dead. So, I'll take the pictures tomorrow morning after the batteries are done charging. As far as I know, none of my Player's Guides have any problem with any of their pages, with the exception of that one page in the Earthbound guide. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones guide doesn't have any problems with it's cover. So...yeah...I'll help you scan when I can. I won't have a lot of time for it (I didn't have a lot of time to do my scanning of the instruction booklets or the boxes either) but I'll do my best to squeeze it in when I have time. Also, how do you scan the guides without debinding them? How do you keep them straight on the scanner? And how do you clearly scan what's near the "valley" thing next to the binding on the right/left edges of the pages?

Sorry I haven't replied in awhile. I've been a bit busy. jbbdude - You might want to talk to Phillyman about the partnership between the two sites. zovik - Thanks for the site, but this is an example of one of their scans. badinsults - That's a cool idea and I like how you have it in high resolution, but how do you get them off the cartridge to scan them? I mean, if you try to peel them off, they'll just tear. If you don't peel them off, how do you scan them? douglas678 - Thanks for the offer man, but that's not what I'm trying to do. At this point, I personally don't want to start an archive or anything of scans. (It could happen in the future, but not now.) Initially, I was scanning my older boxes and instruction booklets before I sold them with the games on Ebay. I wanted a digital copy to keep forever, so when the Wii comes out and I can download games, I'll have everything - just in digital format. Then it occured to me that somebody "out there" on the Internet might enjoy the fruits of my labor too. So that's why I created this thread - because I figured this site would be the most likely spot for the scanning gurus to hang out - so somebody might know a website where I can contribute my stuff too. If there is no website, but just one or two or more people want my stuff, then that's fine too. At this point, I have all of my older stuff scanned as well as every box I own. Since that was my initial goal, I've slacked off a bit, but I'm currently scanning my Game Boy Advance instruction manuals. Let's just say that when I go back to school in mid-August, my computer (that has my scanner and scans on it) will be on a broadband connection and I'll upload everything I've scanned for you guys (well, primarily for 420, as he's the only one that seems to be interested.) Hopefully, I should have my GBA stuff done then. I've got A LOT of Gamecube instruction booklets to scan after GBA, so Gamecube will take awhile. I can see myself scanning those during my busy school schedule, so I'll release those as I finish them one at a time. Sound good?

Been awhile since I've been here. :fear: *thread title* This is a really rare guide that fetches a high price on Ebay. I bought the box, guide (which doubles as an instruction manual) and game off of Ebay at $150 a couple of years ago. The guide usually goes for around $50. Anybody that follows the Earthbound community on the Internet knows why it fetches such a high price. With the exception of a large tear in the cover, a large tear in the first page, and the corner of one page torn off, my guide is in good condition. So would anybody like scans of it? Just thinking about debinding it to scan it makes me want to curl up into a fetal position and cry.

Awesome! I'm glad there are a few other people interested! Well, I've done my searching around and here's what I found... concerning cover scans... http://www.gamescanner.org/ has A LOT in very high quality. The only thing I don't like about it is that he doesn't get the sides and the flaps like I do. For example, take his Metroid Fusion scans, which are very good... http://imageevent.com/gamescans/gameboyadv...&c=5&m=20&p=160 compared to mine... Yeah, the sides and the flaps may make it look a little tacky, but it's complete. If a flap was a solid color and/or had no artwork on it, I cropped it out of the scan. Anyway, how would you compare mine and Gamescanner.org's? For the better or worse? I jumped the gun and scanned almost all of my game boxes (just have three left - and they're Japanese imports) before doing the proper research (like finding that wonderful sight), so I guess if anybody prefers mine with the sides and flaps, they can have them. concerning instruction booklets.... (note: I've only just started scanning. I have quite a few instruction booklets.) I've browsed around GMA's forums and I couldn't find anything mentioned about the overall quality of the scans. But before I continue, here's a scan of a page from the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time instruction book. Open what I scanned with Windows Picture Viewer and zoom in on the screenshot on the right hand side of page, you can see Link's eyes, read "Stop" on the action button and even make out a sign post in Hyrule Field. But if you zoom on on GMA's scan... .... I want to say something on their forums, but I don't want to burst in on their forums and complain about what they're offering. Someone did it here, complaining about the Nintendo Power scans, and it's rude and disrespectful. People do it over at http://speeddemosarchive.com/ , complaining about the speedruns, and again, it's rude and disrespectful....and...I really don't want to be that kind of person. Well, now that you guys have seen a sample of my scanning, I'll wait to talk about submitting my scans to someplace. The least I'll do is RAR my scans and upload them to SendSpace or something for whoever's interested.

I tried Googling a few different things and I couldn't find that site, though I did find a few sites that had only a couple of box and/or cartridge scans here and there. Those sites weren't exclusively about the scans though.

Good, I'm glad somebody else agrees! My thoughts exactly on how appropriate it is. And...yes! This is exactly what I'm talking about! I've already scanned nearly all of my old boxes and I've started on the instruction booklets. And again, Imageshack.us won't work. (I started to upload a sample but the connection was reset twice. I'll try again tonight after I get home from work.)

I was wondering if a release from this site in the future would consist of high-resolution scanned game covers or game boxes, along with the instruction booklets. I've found a site, gamemanuals.net that deals with instruction booklets, but they're in PDF format and in such a low resolution that you can't zoom in on the pictures or even read some small text! Another site I found, covergalaxy.com has wonderful scans, but they don't have any handheld scans or scans of any systems pre-Gamecube/PS2/Xbox. (I wasn't planning on scanning my Gamecube game covers anyway, unless they don't have a few that I do. Haven't looked that closely yet.) I've already done a few scans myself and can provide a couple dozen game's worth. I've been trying to upload a sample of an instruction book and a box, but dial-up doesn't seem to work very well with Imageshack.us. :( I'll try again some other time if somebody is interested in taking a look at what I've scanned. Anyway, what do you think? Something that's good for a release? Y/N

Well, I guess I'm almost finished scanning. My brother found a couple of the issues I'm missing, but there's one that doesn't have the poster in it. I'm guessing that this poster on his wall (click on the thumbnail and then the loaded picture for full 4.0 megapixel resolution on all of these pictures) is what's supposed to be in that issue but I'm not sure. So...should I scan it anyway even though I don't know what issue it's from (I'm missing quite a few recent issues that he's gotten his hands on and I don't know anything about the game that poster is of) and if it has small pin holes in it? There's one more issue that's at my other house. I'll scan it when I go there next week. I'll still get my current scans to KMFDManiac soon enough and when I'm done with that one issue's poster, I'll send it to him. OK, so.... stickers such as this: aren't to be scanned. Neither are the back side of the posters which continue the article but don't count as pages: (You can see that pages 50 [if you zoom in on it] and 51 are in the magazine, but the article is continued on the back of the poster. However, I already scanned a few of these yesterday before I asked. Should I give those to KMFDManiac too?) And of course, the posters are to be scanned: This was on the back of one poster and I figured that it wasn't worth scanning since it's just two pages of blue and a kid in a suit. But, uh, do you still want it? Also my brother claims that issue 177, this issue has four different covers (three other than that one) since there are four different characters in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals. Is there any truth to this?

Well, I've started scanning. I've scanned about half of what I said I would. And, a few of the issues I couldn't find, so I'll bitch at my little brother about that once he gets home from summer school tomorrow. For the posters that have two sides, you do want me to scan both right? Sometimes the "back side" is a continuation of what was on the previous page or another poster or something else, but I've been scanning both anyway. One poster had a tear in it about an inch long, but I scanned it anyway. So far, two posters have only had two "sections" as opposed to the usual three. Also, I've noticed that there are miscellaneous removable things like stickers or game maps (not including the Player's Polls or Nintendo Power renewal cards.) Should I scan those or have those been scanned as well?

Are volumes 148-176 the only issues that have yet to be scanned? Or do all of them beyond 148 need to be scanned but you're stopping at 176 for some reason? The reason I'm asking is because either way, I find it kind of strange. If you already have them scanned, then how come you didn't scan the posters? If they aren't already scanned, why ask for the posters specifically? Never mind all of that, I read your first post in that other thread. It should should have been obvious in the first place anyways. Anyway if it's going to take a month to scan those issues (God, I can only imagine scanning all of those pages... ) then I will most likely have all of those posters scanned, unless something happens such as my scanner stops working or something.

I got your PM, KMFDManiac and it essentially says the same thing, so I'll just reply here: Well then I won't worry about the last five. Did you get the missing covers scanned though? What about those issues before 135? And additionally, it'll be awhile before I even have access to the later issues. (I'm a college student living with my parents over the summer. My parents are divorced. I'm staying at my mom's house until Sunday. My Nintendo Power issues are at my dad's house. I brought the issues I said I would scan to my mom's house, which is why I am only able to currently scan those.) But at any rate, if you aren't done with the entire thing by then, then I will start on the poster from issue 200 and work my way backwards on your list when I'm at my dad's. (I'll bring my computer.) That way, our scanning won't overlap as it did this time. My dad has DSL (Thank GOD.) so I'll be able to download AIM and talk to you while I'm doing it. (Sort of, as his computer will be connected to the Internet where mine won't. GRRR. )

I've finished everything except the last five covers. A few of the things I've scanned aren't as great as I thought, but I'll submit them anyway and if they don't pass quality control, then oh well, can't say I didn't try. (I'll go into details about those things later, but it's late and I'm tired.) I don't have dial-up connected to my computer yet and it's impossible to transfer files with the computer I'm currently using, but I might have a connection by tomorrow.

Thanks 420. I don't have Edonkey or Emule, but I'll give it a try once the Nintendo Power torrent is done.

I physically own every issue from 136 on (save 138 & 140), except some of them are in rough condition and I don't know where some of the most recent issues are since they arrived while I was at college and God only knows what my brother did with them. So I can help with some of the posters and most of the magazine gaps. But, doesn't the main administrator of this site only want issues that are five years old or older? (Which is what the torrent is up to.)

300dpi, overlapping scans and no resizing noted. However, when you say "no resizing," do you just mean to keep the pictures at their 2000(or 3000)-something x 2000-something size right after the scanning is done or do you mean no cropping? Keeping the pictures at their native scanning sizes isn't a problem, but if you're talking about cropping, I was planning on keeping my scanner lid visible around the edges of the scan anyway, and then letting the editor crop them the way he (or she) wants them. And of course I'm planning on orientating the covers and posters to be straight as possible on my scanner bed. Is this acceptable? Oh, additionally, I'm stuck on dial-up until Sunday or late Saturday. As I get them finished, I'll upload them overnight to that FTP I saw around here somewhere, as there is only one phone line available. (Thank God I'm currently downloading the 10.1GB torrent on a broadband connection. 10.1GB on a dial-up connection would be killer.)