Kirkland

Excellent! Down to: Nimble Numbers Ned! - Math Wizardry book Power Lords (yes, there is a scan out there, but I'd prefer a higher resolution one) Atlantis Demon Attack I get the sneaky suspicion I'm going to be rebuilding the Atlantic and Demon Attack manuals based on some sketchy scans already out there... Currently working on Nimble Numbers Ned's manual (it was in iffy shape so taking some extra time to fix) and then on to Smithereens!

Tokens, too

Let's see how big of files the server will take I wasn't planning on making a project out of this one, but here we are. 2nd to last submission from bah. Game board isn't perfect (didn't stitch together as well as I'd like), but it is better than what is currently available *cough*... anyways, 300dpi for printing. Not entirely sure how I feel about the main manual and its default facing pages. I work with/optimize for a 4K monitor, so it might not be great as facing pages on other resolutions? Dunno- open to opinions. Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt, The.pdf Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt, The - Investment Record.pdf

Dos mas! (Almost done with bah's submissions) That's enough for today... Hockey!_Soccer!.pdf I've Got Your Number!.pdf

I've taken one for the team before http://www.atensionspan.com/Starflight_Genesis_US_Manual.pdf http://www.atensionspan.com/Starflight_Genesis_US_Starmap.png

..and another bah submitted manual (I went with a short one due to time constraints). Updated need list: *Computer Intro! *The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt (thanks bah!) Nimble Numbers Ned! - Math Wizardry book Pachinko! Power Lords (yes, there is a scan out there, but I'd prefer a higher resolution one) Sid the Spellbinder! - Word Book Smithereens! Atlantis Demon Attack Math-A-Magic!_Echo!.pdf

Another bah submitted manual up and running.... Off for Easter with the fam. P.T. Barnum's Acrobats!.pdf

Another bah submitted manual up and running.... Sid the Spellbinder.pdf

So I did a poll yesterday to determine which manual to do next and the winner was....... Keyboard Creations! A couple pages in it dawned on me that it was April Fool's day and people suck Anyways, preservation is all about the obscure and the odd, because mainstream games will get lovin' for a generation, while these gems(?) will slowly get forever lost from the public eye, and what few copies remain will sit gathering dust in some hoarder's basement. (Like mine- I'm not judging) /rant Keyboard Creations!.pdf

bah is just dominating with scan submissions! Awesome!! Also, a shout out to whoever dumped a bunch of manuals on ebay yesterday- the covers look better than some of mine so upgrades=good. So bah did have a concern about the scruffiness of his Attack of the Timelords! cover, while the rest of the manual cleaned up quite nicely. If anyone would like to submit a cleaner copy of the cover, I will update. Attack of the Timelord!.pdf

With some awesome contributions from user bah, currently looking at: Updated need list: *Computer Intro! *The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt Nimble Numbers Ned! - Math Wizardry book Pachinko! Power Lords (yes, there is a scan out there, but I'd prefer a higher resolution one) Sid the Spellbinder! - Word Book Smithereens! Atlantis Demon Attack In progress by bah: <pending> Hockey! / Soccer! <pending>I've Got Your Number! Keyboard Creations! <pending>Math-A-Magic! / Echo! <pending>Nimble Numbers Ned! (and Math Wizardry book)<- still need word book <pending>P.T. Barnum's Acrobats! Sid the Spellbinder! (and Word Book) <- still need word book Attack of the Timelord!

Snagged a NIB Conquest of the World. Updated need list: *Computer Intro! *The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt Hockey! / Soccer! I've Got Your Number! Keyboard Creations! Math-A-Magic! / Echo! Nimble Numbers Ned! (and Math Wizardry book) P.T. Barnum's Acrobats! Pachinko! Power Lords (yes, there is a scan out there, but I'd prefer a higher resolution one) Sid the Spellbinder! (and Word Book) Smithereens! Attack of the Timelord! Atlantis Demon Attack I keep eyeballing that sealed NIB Wall Street Fortune Hunt on EBay for $115. Would anyone be interested in an unsealed, NIB that had only it's contents scanned- never used? Not really in a position to throw away $115 for a game I can't play..

Would anyone who has this be able to scan the manual? It's one of the few missing manuals for this system which have yet to be preserved.

I’ve got a 710005-1A manual with the somewhat standard “flying lizards with missiles” cover.. and a 700005-1C manual with the pterodactyl cover. Was there a “B” revision, and if so what is it? And any way to tell it apart when scrounging on eBay?

Thanks for the offer- we'll see where I'm at in a couple months- I've gained on my missing list the last few weeks.. With my scanner I typically scan at 800dpi (or 1600dpi for SNES). This allows plenty of resolution for editing and then downscaling for 4K monitors. At 600dpi, a (roughly) 7" tall manual would translate to 4200 pixels, which is future proof for 8K monitors, plenty for printing, and scales down quite well to a pixel height of 2180. When you scan at 300dpi, you are already fighting for resolution that is too close to the output dimensions, so any resizing doesn't have enough data for interpolating to make a high quality image. And if you throw in jpeg compression, you've already shot yourself in the foot. Yes, scans can be noisy and prone to moire. I've used Sattva descreening for ages. Line art and grayscale can easily shoot to 2400dpi. 600dpi is a happy medium between my overkill and preserving a quality image- I've been fighting to redo all the Atari manuals because everyone thought 800 pixel high images of stained pages was "good enough". Now some of these manuals are impossible, and too expensive, to get ahold of- and most hardcore collectors don't want to devalue what they have for the benefit of the masses. For a real world example, here is what everyone has: http://www.thevgatv.com/resources/2600-encyclopedia/2600-Warlords-(Atari-w)-(U).pdf And this is what I make: http://www.atensionspan.com/Warlords (Atari) [REV. 2] [4k].pdf Not everything gets the full rebuild, but I would rather not have to do this twice. As for high resolution "noise".. I'm ok with this: http://www.atensionspan.com/Warlords (Atari) [REV. 2]_01.jpg

Scans of the US Odyssey 2 manuals don't seem to exist. I'd like to help remedy that situation. I currently have manuals for about 2/3 the US releases, but due to other projects, I would like to avoid dropping cash to collect what others might be able to submit. Would anyone be interested in scanning their manuals (especially rarer ones) so I could concentrate on purchasing what needs to be bought? I have zero skin in the game- I am not an O2 collector by any means, but I am just flabbergasted that after all of these years nothing exists except typed up instructions. Sure- "just get the Europeon versions" Really? They suck. There is still some low hanging fruit on ebay on the following list (grabbed 7 after much internal debate) Looking for 600dpi scans of: Alien Invaders - Plus! Alpine Skiing! Armored Encounter! / Subchase! Baseball! Blockout! / Breakdown! Bowling! / Basketball! Casino Slot Machine! *Computer Intro! Computer Golf! *Conquest of the World Cosmic Conflict! Dynasty! Electronic Table Soccer! (bought) Football! Freedom Fighters! (bought) *The Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt Hockey! / Soccer! Invaders from Hyperspace! I've Got Your Number! K.C.'s Krazy Chase! (bought) K.C. Munchkin! Keyboard Creations! Killer Bees! [scan on archive.org is fine] Las Vegas Blackjack! Matchmaker! / Buzzword! / Logix! (bought) Math-A-Magic! / Echo! Monkeyshines! Nimble Numbers Ned! (and Math Wizardry book) Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue! (bought) P.T. Barnum's Acrobats! Pachinko! Pick Axe Pete! (bought) Pocket Billiards! Power Lords (yes, there is a scan out there, but I'd prefer a higher resolution one) *Quest for the Rings (bought) Showdown in 2100 A.D. Sid the Spellbinder! (and Word Book) Smithereens! Speedway! / Spin-out! / Cryptologic! Take the Money and Run! Attack of the Timelord! Thunderball! Turtles! (bought) Type & Tell! UFO! Volleyball! War of Nerves! [scan on archive.org is fine] Atlantis Demon Attack *=I get the sneaky suspicion I will end up having to buy these just to scan the manual/boards/extras to my satisfaction. On that note, if someone is interested in these remaining ones, I would consider a good discount on what I'll end up paying for it on ebay- for example, looking at that NIB Wall street for $115.. If anyone wants it for $85, I'll gladly recoup my losses and send it on. I don't mind paying $30 for a scan of that one, I just hate dropping $30-$40 (looking at you, Smithereens and Keyboard Creations) for something I have no use for.

Well, it was functional right up until I started merging in all the oddball stuff from gamevariations.com. 4K viewing advised. http://www.atensionspan.com/evil/Atari/Atari_2600_Manuals-Atari.html Green I have, yellow should exist, red I'm looking for info on.

If you had Superman next on your Bingo card, you would be a winner... http://www.atensionspan.com/Superman (Atari) [REV. 2] [4k].pdf and the covershot: http://www.atensionspan.com/Superman (Atari)_01.jpg I've always considered this revision of the Superman manual one of the best examples of "peak Atari manual". After this they diverged into the silver/gray versions that are a pain to clean up (still awesome inside though), but then it was posters (bleh for digitizing), the odd-sized Pengo/Crystal Castles/etc. ones, before finally devolving into black & white copies and the woefully sub-par 7800-like versions. When I get around to those later 7800-era releases, I'm planning on doing a set with color covers based on the box art just to do them some justice. Also looking for international/multilanguage versions of Human Cannonball, Millipede (color), Miniature Golf, Othello, Pigs in Space, Snoopy and the Red Baron, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Space War Anyone know if there was international versions of Oscar's Trash Race, Flag Capture, or Home Run? Hooking the scanner setup back up tomorrow, so only progress on the backside for awhile.

Another one before sleepytime.. http://www.atensionspan.com/Surround (Atari) [4k].pdf and the covershot: http://www.atensionspan.com/Surround (Atari)_01.jpg I haven't been able to stumble upon a font that matches this specific variation for the title font. The ol' HammerFat works for some, but those goofy R's and the split D make this a candidate for a rebuild like Warlords.

This took longer than expected. http://www.atensionspan.com/Video Olympics (Atari) [REV. 2] [4k].pdf But I did manage to snag a bunch of UK manuals, so there is that.

A couple quick examples of the rebuild process. I only redo the table of contents and section headers through the manuals (and top of page headers for page alignment consistency) First you type over top of the original: (Note the screen printing dots of the original text- horrible for compression) Then you manually kern the text (using Alt + left or right on *each character*) Then you wiggle the black lines to match, change the text color to match the Blur->Average of the original "Table of Contents" text, then completely white out the background. Even just this little section of the page went from 635K to 248K as a jpg, on the original TIFFs the size difference is huge. I'd like to think this gets it about as close as possible to the original intent of the designers, as opposed to the results of the printing process. I'm 99% committed to accurate preservation, but this is where I dodge a half step into these being a digital representation of the original. We're at the mercy of scanner optics and color profiles and individual monitor brightness and ink fade and some shaggy-ass cheap pulp paper stock. Just doing what I can with what I've got. http://www.atensionspan.com/evil/A2600-US-Missing.html ^^ If you've got spares you are willing to sell, this is my current "known missing" list. There are plenty of others I need to track down cover images of to even add to this (and I have a bunch of international I'd like to hunt down, and oddball revisions). As long as the cover images are good, I can easily accommodate folds, tears, some writing, and ratty edges- most of times the inside of manuals are just fine.

This is what I'm talking about... http://www.atensionspan.com/Video Olympics (Atari)_01.jpg Why yes, that sumbitch is is only 3.3MB. http://www.atensionspan.com/Warlords (Atari) [REV. 2]_01.jpg There is no font for Warlord's goofy text, and honestly I've spent too much time on just the cover already. Wouldn't take too long to properly fix but it looked good enough when resized.. http://www.atensionspan.com/Video Pinball (Atari)_01.jpg Cover was a little scruffy. It is what it is. But at least the cover font is Bauhaus (Yay!) If I go through and scrub the bejeezus out of a page so it's just the text and images, file sizes get *amazingly* small. I can't imagine how functionally tiny these manuals would be if the text was retyped vs using the scanned text. I currently select a color range of 200 on pure black in Photoshop to select text, then inverse it to white out 99% of the paper that shows up in a scan, leaving the images and text. While this does wonders for legibility vs the original, that text itself is all over the place when it comes to compression. Oh, and that timekill thing again... I'm always tempted to just power through my scans, do a quick mask to make them 5"x7" (on the majority of these), quick white balance using levels (cheating just like Epson scan), maybe do some quick and dirty descreening and call it good. But when I look at all the half-assed, low-res crap out on the web I just know that while it would be better than what's out there, I would be nagged forever that no one will ever ever take the time to make them better- and I had the opportunity and skills to do it right the first time. OCD SUCKS!@ ..and to make it worse I have a backlog of plenty of Atari 2600, 200+ NES manuals, 700 SNES manuals (yes, all but 15 or so spendy mofos now), 1800 PS2 manuals (to scan), a bunch of Intellivision, and Colecovision, and 300+ Genesis, 130 N64, 125+ Gamecube, 300+ XBox manuals, and a bunch of oddities and other obscure systems to go. Eventually I will just have to draw the line. There isn't enough hours in the day and it does no good sitting in my basement (or hard drive for what I've scanned already). Playstation 2 covers ^^ Click if you dare. So yes, I know it is possible. And also yes, they get bigger if you click on them. Bah. I'm going to bed

One more before I call it a night http://www.atensionspan.com/Video Pinball (Atari) [REV. 2] [4k].pdf Eyeing Video Olympics next- it's a little thicker (has nothing on a good Koei SNES manual, though).

So a couple free days and a couple more for the pile... I know this is one you've all been waiting for. http://www.atensionspan.com/Word Zapper (U.S. Games) [4k].pdf But then seriously, I've always thought the existing scan of Warlords done it dirty. Finally, some due justice for this original classic. http://www.atensionspan.com/Warlords (Atari) [REV. 2] [4k].pdf And last, but definitely not least, is Yars' Revenge. http://www.atensionspan.com/Yars' Revenge (Atari) [4k].pdf On these I start out with 800dpi 48bit RAW full page scans from de-stapled manual pages. In this case Yars was 1.89GB for the TIFFs. Then I chop them down into individual pages and clean them up (quite the time kill) which was then 193MB for Yars' TIFFs. I then resize to 96dpi and "x by 2160" (this makes for 1:1 pixels when the pdf is full-screened on a 4k monitor). That set of TIFFs was 31MB. Slapped it into a pdf and it shrunk to 5.5MB. So my question is, is there interest in *jpegs* of the cleaned up 800dpi files? In this case Yars was only 25MB. The small pdf version makes sense because it is right-sized for emulator/front-end usage, but I know some of you are quality guys and might have an interest in the bigger images. It's still jpegs, but resolution is king. My only concern (petty at that) is that people will instantly repackage my originals into watermarked versions for other sites (*cough* emumovies *cough* atarimania *cough*) whereas the pdfs I make aren't watermarked in any way, properly attribute the copyright, have the model number and manual revision, and slide my name as the source (for the hours of work I put into these).

Oh, and also Sir Lancelot (I've only seen a black and white scan floating) http://www.atensionspan.com/Sir Lancelot (Xonox) [4k].pdf Not a fan of the Xonox manual covers- that blue is mean to scanners. Descreening didn't go as well as I'd like, but who knows, maybe I'll circle back around to it in a few years