Unnamed Artwork Preservation Project...

I have been in contact with a half dozen gamers from around the web, for the past two weeks or so, regarding a massive scanning project to scan and catalog touched up, 300dpi scans of our favorite video games' artwork, discs, manuals, boxes, labels, inserts, maps, etc...

Many ideas are being furnished and polished up still. The main "issue" we're currently having is that of coming up with an appropriate name. Keywords are as follows: dungeon, shelf, castle, empire, game, underworld, overworld, crypt, archives, retro, station, scan, bin.

I really like the idea of the title involving the word 'bin' because it reminds me of the "throw away" bin at my local game shop. The entire gaming industry seems to be throwing away hard copies of manuals and even games themselves... A large number of us gamers feel as though this is something that needs to be preserved.

One of the important aspects of the project, that nobody else on the internet has done, is the VERY strict rules we're going to have set in place regarding submission and final result requirements. Complete guides for all aspects of scanning and touching up will be provided on the site. Many of the standards are still being hashed out. NES and N64 are complete.

Aside from a name, we also need a web developer or 2 or 3. We have a very very talented Flash/ActionScript programmer but no HTML/CSS/PHP/MySQL/etc programmers. Perhaps you or somebody you know shares the same passion for video gaming that we do, is looking for a project and can program!

Here are a few samples of our work:
Sample 1 - ChuChu Rocket! NTSC-U Dreamcast disc scan
Sample 2 - Final Fantasy Origins NTSC-U PSX disc scan
Sample 3 - Red Dead Redemption PAL-EUR Xbox360 disc scan
Sample 4 - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dragon Strike NTSC-U NES Cartridge Artwork
Sample 5 - Bases Loaded(orange label variant) NTSC-U NES Cartridge Artwork
Sample 6 - Space Channel 5 NTSC-U Dreamcast Cover Art

Here is a Table of Contents from a FAQ I'm currently writing up. I may have missed one or two aspects as it's still a work in progress. I also had to reformat the numbering for this forum to apply the correct tabbing as well.

1. 1) Introduction
2. 2) Paper to Perfect Pixels -- The Definitive Guide
   1. 2.1) Scanning
      1. 2.1.1) Method
      2. 2.1.2) Settings
      3. 2.1.3) Additional Info
   2. 2.2) Mechanical Editing
      1. 2.2.1) Rotating
      2. 2.2.2) Cropping
      3. 2.2.3) Resolution
   3. 2.3) Lots of Clicking
      1. 2.3.1) Spots, Scratches, Hair, Dust, Rips
      2. 2.3.2) Alpha Channel
   4. 2.4) Color Correction
      1. 2.4.1) Curves/Levels
      2. 2.4.2) Black & White
      3. 2.4.3) Auto Filters
      4. 2.4.4) Unsharpen Mask
   5. 2.5) Saving
      1. 2.5.1) 24-bit vs 8-bit PNG
3. 3) Console Frameworks and Standards
   1. 3.1) Hardware
      1. 3.1.1) Inventory
      2. 3.1.2) Packaging/Boxes
      3. 3.1.3) Manuals/Paperwork
      4. 3.1.4) Included Software
   2. 3.2) Software
      1. 3.2.1) Inventory
      2. 3.2.2) Packaging
      3. 3.2.3) Cases
      4. 3.2.4) Manuals/Paperwork
      5. 3.2.5) Covers/Inlays
      6. 3.2.6) Media
4. 4) Distribution Format for Offline Viewing
   1. 4.1) Naming Convention
   2. 4.2) Contents
   3. 4.3) Structure
5. 5) Conclusion

We have about 1/4 of those entries hashed out in detail and a few guides outlined and sketched up. Of course everything is tentative right now. We're still after a name!!! After we get a name, we'll get a website and a forum. Once that happens we'll be in full swing!

 

I just fail to see the point of an archive this exact unless you plan to make fakes. I would guess that those people who only own ROMs may not have any boxes to look at. Making fake boxes to go along with the downloaded ROMs does seem to make a perfect fit but I'd be more worried about people using the images to pull scams than meeting the demand of people who never buy anything.

Does anyone who isn't planning to make a reproduction really need the sides etc. Isn't the front and back plenty? Same with the NES labels. Why include the end label? This just makes it way too easy for someone to print a rare sticker and slap it on a common cart then mix it in with 10 other games and say as is bought at a garage sale etc. Sure if someone wanted to scam someone there are many ways and they could do so without this project but why make it so easy for the amateur?

 

I'd hope not. That takes away a lot of the joy of viewing the original art for me.

 

There, fixed that for you. You want to stay legal and therefore dumped the ROM yourself, so you should also have the artwork that goes with it. Otherwise you don't own the ROM. ;-)

Seriously though: How about teaming up with replacementdocs.com? They seem to have similar goals. At the very least they might have a few tips...

 

We're shooting for an interactive 3D virtual museum in about 4 years once HTML5, WebGL and CSS3 are widely used standards.

Catering to ROM users is not our goal. Ubisoft and other game developers have cut out printed manuals from their future game releases entirely to save money. With more and more games going to the digital distribution method, we feel as though the paperwork aspect is something that needs to be preserved for years to come. High quality is the main focus because the future is bright with new technologies that we haven't even thought of and even currently low quality images cannot be adapted to a 60 inch screen for a positive viewing experience.

Imagine reading the manual to your favorite old school video game on an iPad or HP Slate...

The key to the 3D interface is simplicity and elegance. Many ideas are being thrown around right now since this project is more or less in it's infancy stages.

Hyperspin and PlayFire are excellent applications in their own right. We're aiming to smash them together and offer high quality content. Additionally, if you look at things like NES SEALED GAME CONTENTS FAQ we'd like to have the entire contents of any given game scanned in and viewable as well. We're also after cataloging and scanning variants of games.

There are many low quality resources around the net. We'd like to have high quality ones available.

We're looking into non-intrusive watermarking which involves almost no visual detraction until an image is printed. We'll see what we come up with.

Once we go 3D, there will be no need for watermarks, as raw/touched up images will no longer be made available to the general public.

 

replacementdocs, cdcovers.cc, thecoverproject, etc have very few issues with copyrights and are purposefully overlooked or even publicly endorsed by some major video game companies.

 

Overlooked so long as they stay non-commercial.

That said, if something gets too big a company will have to shut it down to protect copyright or face loosing it.

-hl718