Kirkland Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 (edited) 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. Edited March 21, 2021 by Kirkland 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimj Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 I'd love to get scans for all the manuals. I can probably help out too, but my O2 gear is currently packed away. I'm 99% sure I have manuals for these: Attack of the Timelord! Hockey! / Soccer! I've Got Your Number! Smithereens! but it may be a few months before I can get them out and scanned. How did you decide on 600 DPI for your scan resolution? I looked into scanning manuals once a long time ago (and can no longer find my notes, grr), but if I remember right above a certain resolution your scan could end up picking up more noise than good info. Therefore higher res is not always better. I don't remember though if there is a single magic "best resolution", probably depends on quality of your scanner too. I currently just have a cheap HP OfficeJet all-in-one device. Works well enough for my needs, but the Smithsonian probably wouldn't use it... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 (edited) 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 Edited March 21, 2021 by Kirkland examples 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimj Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Wow, that's a night and day difference! Your PDF looks more like an original source file, not a scanned manual. Thanks for sharing those details. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 The Computer Intro one is going to be a long process, it's very thick and complicated. It's so big, it's a small-sized spiral notebook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted March 30, 2021 Author Share Posted March 30, 2021 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.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Documentation is terribly underrepresented these days. So any quality effort on this front, for any system, is important and welcome! Cannot emphasize that enough without resorting to cheap measures like color bolded italicized text in weird fonts. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 1, 2021 Author Share Posted April 1, 2021 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 2, 2021 Author Share Posted April 2, 2021 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 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimj Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 10 hours ago, Kirkland said: 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 Keyboard Creations!.pdf 9.63 MB · 3 downloads Keyboard creations is no joke! The good ol' O2 was rocking digital signage way before its time. At Cisco Live this week they bragged about how their displays can be used for digital signage. They've got nothing on my 40 year old Odyssey 2! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 I have a Sid the Spellbinder word book. It has a big crease in the corner of the cover, though. I think it would just show up as a white line if I were to scan it though. Do you want me to scan it? I also have a Pachinko manual, and Smithereens as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+atari2600land Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 I took some time to scan my Smithereens manual. Sorry about the scattered white dots. They are on the manual and I can't wipe them off. The Word Book is 30 pages, and it is otherwise in really great condition, and I think scanning it will ruin it. smithereens_small.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 Another bah submitted manual up and running.... Sid the Spellbinder.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 4, 2021 Author Share Posted April 4, 2021 Another bah submitted manual up and running.... Off for Easter with the fam. P.T. Barnum's Acrobats!.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 4, 2021 Author Share Posted April 4, 2021 ..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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 5, 2021 Author Share Posted April 5, 2021 On 3/22/2021 at 4:27 PM, atari2600land said: The Computer Intro one is going to be a long process, it's very thick and complicated. It's so big, it's a small-sized spiral notebook. 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 5, 2021 Author Share Posted April 5, 2021 Dos mas! (Almost done with bah's submissions) That's enough for today... Hockey!_Soccer!.pdf I've Got Your Number!.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bah Posted April 6, 2021 Share Posted April 6, 2021 They are looking very good. Thank you for undertaking this project. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickaxe Brad! Posted April 7, 2021 Share Posted April 7, 2021 I happened to make this a couple of months ago. Smithereens! Smithereens.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 7, 2021 Author Share Posted April 7, 2021 (edited) 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 Edited April 7, 2021 by Kirkland grammar is a forgotten art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 7, 2021 Author Share Posted April 7, 2021 Tokens, too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toiletunes Posted April 8, 2021 Share Posted April 8, 2021 Spellbinder word book and Computer Intro book are in the mail, so that's 2 less to worry about. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkland Posted April 9, 2021 Author Share Posted April 9, 2021 Well, this took longer than expected. But if you saw the original, you'd understand... This taps out everything from bah. Thank-you, sir!! Nimble Numbers Ned.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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