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Manual and Overlay Scanning Project


Vedder9

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So I've embarked on a time consuming, likely pointless mission. I'm not sure how willing people will be to help out, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

 

BACKSTORY: I grew up with an Intellivision. We weren't allowed to get a Nintendo, because we already had two "Nintendos" (an Intellivision 1 and 2). We had a decent library of games that were eventually sold in a garage sale for a whopping $5 for everything (thanks mom...). Fast forward about 20 years, and I decided to start collecting the entire Intellivision library since it isn't terribly large. At first I got drawn into the boxes and how awesomely 80s they were, but then started to check out the manuals. Come to find out, so many of the games we had growing up weren't "fun" because we either didn't have the manual, or never bothered to read them. I've been working more on collecting the games than playing them, but a large portion of games sound fantastic based on the manuals and their instructions. I also started looking around for overlays, and it seemed like most people were using the same set of scans that were fairly outdated and low resolution. They work just fine, but for whatever reason, I felt that they weren't good enough for life in 2019.

 

THE PROJECT: I have invested in a decent scanner and have been scanning as many overlays and manuals as I can find. Overlays are being scanned in at an absurd 4800dpi, and manuals are being scanned in at 1200dpi. To take it one step further, I'm cleaning things up as I'm going, and in the case of the overlays, I'm actually "rebuilding" them. I noticed a ton were off-center, crooked, etc. and figured with modern technology I could fix these things. I've attached a couple examples of some 'corrected' overlays. I meant to grab an example of one of the manuals, but neglected to grab the drive on my way out the door this evening. I can post one tomorrow if people are curious. I'm not rebuilding the manuals, but I am cleaning them up. They look nice.

 

MY REQUEST: I have a good portion of the library scanned completely. Touching things up is going to take some time, and 'correcting' the overlays is going to take a very good chunk of time. Though I do have a few common games that I'm missing either a manual or overlay for, most of what I'm missing are the obvious ones. Things that aren't terribly inexpensive... Games like Congo Bongo, Stadium Mud Buggies, and other games that aren't cheap, especially with manuals. Thankfully, most of the expensive games don't have overlays, so that makes this a bit easier. I don't know if anyone would be willing to do it, but would anyone be interested in mailing missing manuals or overlays so that I could get them scanned in and then sent back? I want to make everything publicly available once I'm done, and have considered handing over the entire thing to a game preservation organization. I have no reasons to hoard such things. I certainly understand the concern of mailing something valuable off to someone you don't know, so I may not find any takers, but I figure even if I get a few of these checked off the list, I can save myself the hassle of buying them only to turn right around and sell them once I have them scanned.

 

MY CONCERNS: Thankfully, most of the Intellivision library isn't rare or expensive, but I am mildly concerned with people using the scans and passing things off as legit manuals and overlays (mostly manuals since overlays are pretty tough to fake). I'm not sure if it is worth putting some sort of watermark on there. Opinions are welcome.

 

Anyway, I figure I'll finish the project regardless of any assistance. I just have no need for collecting manuals and overlays in physical form. I do want a cartridge for everything (a Spiker repro will suffice), but a digital manual and printed overlay will work for me, personally.

 

As mentioned, I have attached a couple examples of the two Dungeons & Dragons games, and also included a link to a Google Sheet of the current status of each game. Feel free to get at me with any questions, concerns, thoughts, suggestions, etc.

 

Google Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_I32OhJaOwqnsKMicRm7z578IbU1UJRCX_qT9e1zO0k/edit#gid=0

 

 

ADDoverlay.jpg

OverlayEdit.jpg

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11 hours ago, intvsteve said:

Those look beautiful!

Thanks. Hopefully they consume far less time as I go along. I know my way around Photoshop (or in this case, Pixelmator), but I'm no graphic designer. I'm sure there are ways to do a lot of things far faster than I currently do them.

 

10 hours ago, JasonlikesINTV said:

Ambitious to say the least.  Good luck!

Yeah. Sadly, I don't imagine it will stop here. I find most of the work somewhat... relaxing? The Intellivision has a bit of an extra challenge with the overlays, but the small library helps make up for that. I see myself moving onto other consoles after I complete the Intellivision. I haven't decided what system to move onto after this, but I likely have quite a bit of time to figure it out...

 

10 hours ago, Cellblock1138 said:

I can send you Epson V800 scans of almost everything you’re missing, if you’re interested. Planning on doing the homebrews?

This might be the easiest route to go, actually. I had considered mentioning it in my initial post, but wasn't sure how many people that had the harder to find manuals / overlays had access to a quality scanner. Your V800 is infinitely superior to my V39. If you had any interest in actually helping scan these last ones, I certainly wouldn't argue and would make sure credit is given for all the effort and contributions. If you are actually serious and interested, I can figure out how to send PMs to sort out a way to transfer things since they are a bit hefty in size.

 

As far as homebrew games go, they aren't in my plans at the moment. I'm certainly not opposed to the idea. Quite honestly, I haven't really even looked into the homebrew library for the Intellivision, so I don't even know how many games that adds to the pile. What I have considered doing, however, is trying my hand at a new round of the 'orphan overlays'. As stated above, I am by no means a graphic designer or even artistic enough to come close, but I've got a good friend that fits that description a bit better, and he's expressed some interest in helping out. Before I really got going with the scanning, I spent some time throwing together a rough idea for the Empire Strikes Back overlay and was happy with the results. I'd like to get the scanning and 'correcting' of the overlays done first, and then see if I have it in me to continue on with a new set of overlays for games that never had them.

ESB.jpg

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When I saw this project I thought to myself, there was a project kind of like this years ago. I submitted almost all the cartridge pictures to it. David Harley did the "Intellivision Library" in 2005. It has all the overlays and full manuals scans on the DVD. I just looked at them. They are not as high res scans as you are doing but they are quite impressive. You should take a look and see if it could help with your project.

 

Also, I have the front and back of about 500 different manuals I have scanned in if that would help. Included in them are the 47 Play Cable manuals I have.

 

I am including my Word documents of my list of manuals and overlays that I have.

 

 

AD&D 3410-0920 G1 USA 1.jpg

 

 

AD&D 3410-0920 G1 USA 2.jpg

Intellivision Instruction Manual Collection.doc Intellivision Overlay Collection.doc

Edited by Humblejack
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22 hours ago, Humblejack said:

When I saw this project I thought to myself, there was a project kind of like this years ago. I submitted almost all the cartridge pictures to it. David Harley did the "Intellivision Library" in 2005. It has all the overlays and full manuals scans on the DVD. I just looked at them. They are not as high res scans as you are doing but they are quite impressive. You should take a look and see if it could help with your project.

 

Also, I have the front and back of about 500 different manuals I have scanned in if that would help. Included in them are the 47 Play Cable manuals I have.

 

I am including my Word documents of my list of manuals and overlays that I have.

 

 

AD&D 3410-0920 G1 USA 1.jpg

 

 

AD&D 3410-0920 G1 USA 2.jpg

Intellivision Instruction Manual Collection.doc 425.5 kB · 4 downloads Intellivision Overlay Collection.doc 218 kB · 3 downloads

Thanks for the info. That's awesome.  I haven't had a chance to look around for the 2005 project, but I'm definitely curious. At this point I'm knee deep and have had a couple responses to help me dig a bit deeper, so I fear I can't bail on things, but I definitely want to see what has been done in the past.

 

Also, thanks for the lists of what you have. If it looks like we are in need of something, I'll definitely give you a shout. It sounds like between the two people I've heard from, all of the bases should be covered in terms of manuals and overlays, but if we discover something is missing between the three of us, it sounds like you will be a valuable person to reach out to.

 

Thanks again!

Edited by Vedder9
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1 hour ago, Cellblock1138 said:

Humblejack, is that DVD available somewhere?

I really don't know if they can be found anymore. I have versions 2.0 and 3.0 but I don't know how many versions there are.  On version 2.0 David let me pick which boxes were on the DVD label. Version 3.0 just came that way. I really don't know the differences it the version. I guess I should try to find out. I also don't know how many were made. I think I will start a new thread and ask how many AA people out there have one as soon as I post this. For research, if Vedder9 wants to review the disk I would be willing to loan it to him.

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2 hours ago, Humblejack said:

I really don't know if they can be found anymore. I have versions 2.0 and 3.0 but I don't know how many versions there are.  On version 2.0 David let me pick which boxes were on the DVD label. Version 3.0 just came that way. I really don't know the differences it the version. I guess I should try to find out. I also don't know how many were made. I think I will start a new thread and ask how many AA people out there have one as soon as I post this. For research, if Vedder9 wants to review the disk I would be willing to loan it to him.

Are the images not the same as what's  on the website.

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  • 3 years later...
6 hours ago, IMBerzerk said:

Yeah, these two are probably the best I've ever seen.  

 

Did he ever offer them for download, or did I just miss the link?

Considering that theres probably over 1000 manuals for the 125 (this includes international & variants)... he is probably still scanning them or has decided not to go through with it.

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5 hours ago, Psycho Stormtrooper- Rog said:

Considering that theres probably over 1000 manuals for the 125 (this includes international & variants)... he is probably still scanning them or has decided not to go through with it.

Vedder9 wrote this link to his Google Sheet: 

Google Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_I32OhJaOwqnsKMicRm7z578IbU1UJRCX_qT9e1zO0k/edit#gid=0

 

According to his list, most games are fully scanned and fixed, and that's perfectly good for me.

Just wondering if the work he has done so far is available to download somewhere. Or if someone has any other suggestion where I can find overlays in equal quality.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just saw this thread. I can help with some. I'll scan them in for you at the DPI you want. (I do a TON of scanning of legacy stuff - photos, negatives, old documents, etc. on an Epson V850.) I've got: Jetsons Ways with Words, Mind Strike, Mr. Basic Meets Bits n Bytes, Pinball, Scooby Doo's Maze Chase, and Sewer Sam. Just have to get the out of the basement and scan them in. My Dad bought us an ECS for Christmas 1983 and got all the games got it he could find, which is why I have all those. Played them a LOT as a kid. Let me know if you want me to. My only request would be that you share the results with the community.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/14/2023 at 5:25 PM, jbellanca said:

I've got: Jetsons Ways with Words, Mind Strike, Mr. Basic Meets Bits n Bytes, Pinball, Scooby Doo's Maze Chase, and Sewer Sam. ... My Dad bought us an ECS for Christmas 1983 and got all the games got it he could find, which is why I have all those.

Best recollections are that the ECS and the first few cartridges hit store shelves in December of 1983. What you say here dovetails nicely with that narrative. Can you add any details? Here are a few specific questions that come to mind:

 

Can you confirm that you got all four ECS games you mentioned for Christmas and not the next year: Ways with Words, Bits 'n Bytes, Maze Craze and Mind Strike, and that you did not get the other two: Melody Blaster and World Series Baseball?

 

Do you think your father would have bought Melody Blaster and World Series Baseball had they been available in stores?

 

Where were the ECS and cartridges purchased? (City and country gives us a data point as to where the roll-out happened; name of retailer would be a bonus).

 

What motivated your Dad to get the ECS? Did your family already have a Master Component? Was he responding to the advertising?

 

Do you have any insight as to whether the unit met your dad's expectations?

 

WJI

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