Time to start scanning ST Format/ST World/ST User/The ONE ST etc

[oky2000]

It really is time NOW to make sure these magazines are not lost forever and we have them all digitally stored for everyone to enjoy before getting them becomes impossible.

 

So here is the deal, I have an excellent scanner, and I have the time to do it.

 

Here is the offer, send me the mags, I will scan them.

 

So I am interested in all ST specific magazines, every issue, all those in the title and any more you know of which nobody is scanning seriously like say ST Action too.

 

If you have any magazines you would like to see scanned and then available for everyone in the world to access for free from a website then please do your very best to find the magazines and PM me so we can get the ball rolling.

 

Once these magazines are gone they are gone for good, we need to start doing this ASAP because even Amiga magazines which have had much more attention from scanners are becoming difficult to complete whole sets (CD32 Gamer, Amiga Power, Amiga Format, The ONE Amiga etc).

 

Now is the time, magazines get harder to find with each new ebay joke of a change of policy and people in their 100s just throw them away rather than LOSE MONEY thanks to greedy ebay fees!

[Sub(Function(:))]

I have a load of ST-world, ST-format mags. They are just gathering dust so I am willing to donate. Where are you? I think postage is going to be very high to mail them in bulk.

[oky2000]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' timestamp='1331809700' post='2484360]

I have a load of ST-world, ST-format mags. They are just gathering dust so I am willing to donate. Where are you? I think postage is going to be very high to mail them in bulk.

 

That would be great but I think you are right about postage because I am in the UK (London) but who knows as both are in the EU. How many mags are we talking?

 

Some ST format mags have been scanned, about 10 or so. (89,83,82,81,71,45,39,2, plus another)

[Charlie_]

Maybe it would help if people threw in a few dollars to help with shipping costs?

I'd be willing to give a few.....

 

[Sub(Function(:))]

 

That would be great but I think you are right about postage because I am in the UK (London) but who knows as both are in the EU. How many mags are we talking?

 

Some ST format mags have been scanned, about 10 or so. (89,83,82,81,71,45,39,2, plus another)

 

Pretty much ALL of them I think

 

I started on ST format when it was ST/Amiga Format.

 

I have all but 1 or 2 ST World mags

[oky2000]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' timestamp='1331823741' post='2484433]

That would be great but I think you are right about postage because I am in the UK (London) but who knows as both are in the EU. How many mags are we talking?

 

Some ST format mags have been scanned, about 10 or so. (89,83,82,81,71,45,39,2, plus another)

 

Pretty much ALL of them I think

 

I started on ST format when it was ST/Amiga Format.

 

I have all but 1 or 2 ST World mags

 

Amazing!

 

Get a rough quote for shipping to London and I will do my best to pay for all the shipping.

[oky2000]

Maybe it would help if people threw in a few dollars to help with shipping costs?

I'd be willing to give a few.....

 

Good idea. We could do this to help with bulk/international postal costs. I don't mind paying for shipping generally though.

 

I will set up a page for people to donate via paypal if they wish to do so

[anzac]

i was a subscriber for ST Format for many years and also had many other magazines... alas, when i divorced, i was unable to bring most of my Atari stuff with me...

 

i´m willing to donate some money to help with shipping costs, but maybe a scanner would be cheaper to buy than shipping a whole collection of magazines from one place to the other...?

 

if another person has a different whole collection, then it would only be necessary to ship the scanner, for example... just a thought...

[oky2000]

Interesting idea but a couple of issues.

 

1. Most of the £40-80 scanners today are horrible. I junked 3 due to over-sensitivity to moire patterns and terrible colour perception. In the end I fixed an Epsom and reclaimed a Dell loaned to a friend.

 

2. It is very time consuming scanning whole magazines, and you regularly scan the same page again to get it right.

 

If others who own the mags want to help scanning though this would be great We should aim for 300+ DPI minimum, preferably 600 given how cheap HDs are today.

 

What I don't want though is scans of the horrible slacker type quality those butchers at Zzap64.co.uk produce to sell. They are frequently off colour, over compressed and not even vertically placed on the scanner. I am a bit of a perfectionist but I would also not like to see 15 degree slanted pages with JPEG artifacting around the text I am trying to read

 

If you have seen some of the EDGE magazine scans from issues 1-30 I did some of those, and also 4 of the Official Sega Saturn magazine scans, they came out awesome for those projects. I have recently finished scanning the History of Computer and Video Games supplement from C+VG magazine and LM magazine promo issue (Crash ZZAP freebie).

 

I have about 13 of the very early Computer and Video Games mags to do next, the butcher job ZZAP64.co.uk did is soo piss poor that you can't actually type in the typed in listings!! (which is like 75% of what the first two volumes contain as far as content goes).

 

The problem is getting the mags to scan or finding someone who has the mags who will sit there and scan them. Something has to give

[Sub(Function(:))]

…

 

I have about 13 of the very early Computer and Video Games mags to do next, the butcher job ZZAP64.co.uk did is soo piss poor that you can't actually type in the typed in listings!! (which is like 75% of what the first two volumes contain as far as content goes).

…

 

 

You know C&VG are all scanned on World of Spectrum. (only as jpgs)

[oky2000]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' timestamp='1331885127' post='2484845]

…

 

I have about 13 of the very early Computer and Video Games mags to do next, the butcher job ZZAP64.co.uk did is soo piss poor that you can't actually type in the typed in listings!! (which is like 75% of what the first two volumes contain as far as content goes).

…

 

 

You know C&VG are all scanned on World of Spectrum. (only as jpgs)

 

They are the same scans only issues 1-126. The later issues scanned by others are much better quality.

[Zogging Hell]

If your taking on this almighty task you might want to invest in a proper book scanner like a plustek optibook one. These have proper edge scanning so you don't have to cut the pages out to get a nice flat scan (or put too much stress on the spine). Trade off is that they are more expensive and as slow as a normal scanner..

[oky2000]

If your taking on this almighty task you might want to invest in a proper book scanner like a plustek optibook one. These have proper edge scanning so you don't have to cut the pages out to get a nice flat scan (or put too much stress on the spine). Trade off is that they are more expensive and as slow as a normal scanner..

 

Only a few mags have been an issue so far but my Dell has 2mm thick edges so usually not a problem..

 

I would probably look at an A3 scanner because some mags are wider or taller than A4 anyway.

[Sub(Function(:))]

I have had my brother-in-law look for the magazines and it going to cost a lot to get them sent over to the UK. Currently they are in Greece (and I am in Berlin). He has only found ST World and I know there are more somewhere.

 

He says "there are a lot and they are very heavy". Definitely a problem to post them.

 

I am thinking of going home (to Greece) over easter, I can pick them up from there and at least get them up to Berlin. I think that this is the cheapest option.

 

I have to come over to the UK later this year to see my family (not been over in such a long time) but nothing is planned yet.

 

I can keep you updated, when I have better, more concrete, news

[npturton]

Okay 2000

 

How far did you get with scanning the mags and do you have a link to where they are all stored?

 

I'm about to start scanning all my ST Format/Action/User/Review and do really only want to concentrate on which mags are not currently available elsewhere on the internet to download from

[npturton]

Anyone know whats already out there on the internet to download already

 

I don't want to waste time scanning magazines that are already done

 

Please advise ST people

[oky2000]

Atarimania has the only scans I know of online for downloading and apart from ST Amiga format I don't have anything else that isn't scanned already Nobody donated any mags and 99% of the time mags are for sale individually only on ebay which is too expensive which is a problem for all machines I am trying to source magazines for not just the ST...but the ST is one of the least supported for scanning preservation projects etc.

 

With the difficulty in sourcing the mags (cost me a fortune to end up with ST Amiga format 1-13 full set in the end then someone scanned them and published them the day I was scanning my last issue!! Shame they are really shit quality though) I started concentrating on owning all issues of CVG up to about 100 which at least covers everything from CBM Pet to Amiga 1200 (wouldn't collect the Playstation/3DO era though) and along with ACE and The Games Machine I plan to rescan them properly.

 

I missed a couple of bulk collections due to pondering over the buy it now button for a bit too long as both times it was a bad month and there was wayyyyyyyyyy more rare things to purchase in those weeks. Always the way lol when you're loaded up in your paypal account there is FA bargains on ebay worth buying

[Sub(Function(:))]

Pressures of work Argghhh.

 

Just an update, I now have *all* my ST mags with me in Germany. Problem is at the minute I'm working in Italy.

 

However I am back at my flat most weekends. So if you don't mind a small delay I am willing to post them to whom ever can/wants to scan them.

 

Mags include:

* ST/Amiga Format.

* ST Format.

* ST World.

* ST Review.

* and I think another I totally forgot about, and even now the name slips my memory.

 

Depending on where you are based and how much it costs P&P will be. We can sort something out. I am not interested in making any money on this idea. If we get scans I am happy.

 

I can post more details this weekend. Beware there are a *lot*

[TommyIII]

If you like high quality restored scans like I do, head on over to: http://www.oldgamemags.com/

STFormat is over there in high res restored goodness! Nothing less than a 100mb though.

[oky2000]

Tommy - Excellent find. Perhaps we could get in touch with them and ask them if they have any more on the to do list for STF or have run out of magazines and fill in the blanks to get a complete set of STF done once and for all.

 

I can't see The ONE ST magazine and IIRC only 2 issues are missing to complete that set (The ONE is done already before the split to Amiga/ST and dumping of PC gaming). Trouble is I don't know where they are now. I haven't checked scans for The Games Machine but if they are the horrible ones from Zzap64.co.uk forget that (they're really over-compressed and not that high resolution) and we need to do those again (ditto for their CVG scans which again are too highly compressed to type in games listings from scans).

 

SubFunction - I don't think any one person should have to pay all the P&P costs etc for scanning of donated magazines as this could get expensive.

 

How about I set up a specific page with a Paypal donate button and then anyone in the community can offer whatever they wish to the cause and we can take from that pot to pay people's P&P costs whenever needed (showing the balance and what amounts were used for which magazine's P&P)? Perhaps this could also be used to purchase job lots of missing magazines too on the off chance they turn up on ebay (I got a whole set of ACE mags in mint condition for £40 including postage last year) if everyone agreed? Although I rarely see them, maybe twice a year.

 

We could also make a list of people who are willing to do some high quality scans? The greater the number of countries the less the P&P is to get the mags to the scanners then.

 

I could also sell my duplicate issues of ST Amiga format on ebay and put that towards P%P costs.

 

(Also IIRC isn't someone over at Atari-forum doing scanning, or was anyway)

[+DarkLord]

Hmm, where on that site? Guess I'm dense but I kept winding up at the discussion threads,

with pictures of the scans but I couldn't download them.

 

Thanks.(and thanks to everyone for all the hard work on keeping the mags available for all).

[Sub(Function(:))]

I like the idea.

 

As I say I'll try and get a catalog of what I have, then we can decide what is not needed (and can be sold off to fund this adventure.)

 

Also a list of who is located and where. I travel around a bit, so may be I can drop off in-person (currently I'm in Italy(Milano area) but sometimes I travel between Berlin and Munich as well.

 

Regarding C&VG have you had a look on "World of Spectrum" I think they had a full set of scans. can't remember what the quality was like though

[oky2000]

They're the same scans, the scanner gave permission probably to have them there. They're nowhere near as bad as The Games Machine ones but still you will not be able to type in most of the listings which is a real shame as there's plenty of games still not typed in for many different formats. It's fine for the ST/Amiga and SNES/Megadrive years really though.

 

As for that site, the downloads are rapidshare links and one magazine has taken about 8 hours so far and still not finished (and could crap out at any time) so great effort but really these sites need to use FASTER free download sites like Freakshare or Putlocker etc etc or just put them in a torrent and up them on TPB (which is what I would do probably). I can't see the FBI hunting me down for scans of old retro computer magazines

[Sub(Function(:))]

Haven't you heard it's the NSA now, operating out of Menwith Hill

 

But yes a torrent would be good

[Atarimania]

If you own magazines scans that aren't already on Atarimania do not hesitate to contact me