Would you be interested in the creation of a japanese game magazine/guides archive?

Hello,
Long story short: I got off YJ a box full of gamest mooks with their spine cut and was thinking of scanning them to create an archive of retro magazine/guides from japan.

Would someone have any interest in this or it's going to be an useless effort?

Second thing: unfortunately I don't have any spare time to dedicate to this project (except for maybe some small promotional capcom/snk booklet), so this is my offer: if anyone is interested in this and it's willing to take on the job I'll gladly donate the box to him

 

I have actually started doing this with a few boxes of Famitsu, Dengeki magazines, the mini Dengeki guidebooks, promotional booklets and promotional VHS tapes I have.

Only thing is, I'm currently in Australia and in the process of moving to America - so if you have the space for it, we could organize something at a later time unless someone else wants to sort out something in regard to having them archived. ^^;

 

I can rip the VHS tapes

 

that would be cool Lamont! I can hold stuff, no problem

@leham, thanks for your offer, unfortunately I don't have any vhs, a superplay archive would be really cool too!

Unfortunately it seems this idea isn't getting much love so far

 

Ah, cool. Thanks, I would've given you the address of our house - just we're letting our mother-in-law currently live in it before we move over, I don't really trust her to not damage stuff.

Probably won't be for a bit, but I'm used to doing bulk scanning (I used to and still occasionally scanlate stuff that's never going to get released outside of Japan if it pertains to some video games I like) so it wouldn't take long to smash through it all.

The main reason I started archiving the magazines and the like that I already have is that I can't hang onto them all when I move, so I'm only keeping physical issues that specifically have articles in regards to my main collections. Otherwise there would be waaaay too many boxes.

 

nice, shot me a pm when you're ready

 

This would be great! Having an archive of that information would make sleuthing for beta footage much easier

 

I have a small list of my Japanese magazines, plus notes on any rare/proto articles they have. Link here: http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/jp_mags/index.html

Of course, I'd love to scan these, but there isn't enough time in one's lifetime to do them all...

Also, a youtube user Kiddo has many Japanese game videos uploaded: http://www.youtube.com/user/kiddocabbusses/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid

 

I'll have to refer to your list there as I don't have many of the Famicom issues - I've typically ended up with more various Famitsu, Dengeki, Famitsu PS/PS2, Famitsu Taiwan PS/PS2, Game Wolf issues, The PlayStation, The PlayStation 2 and smaller print magazines that I've also been scanning in (like those Nintendo Loppi Machine/SF Memory carts originally came with "Official Nintendo Power Play Books" as a catalog of stuff provided by their service, bits on the games and stickers for the carts too).

I may also scan in some weird bootleg/unofficial guidebooks too as I've noticed a few of them are listing cheats and stuff that would've only been found by going over the game in a disassembler.

I actually don't even know how many issues I have of stuff, just multiple boxes of stuff that I need to finish scanning so I can get rid of them prior to moving as I don't know anyone in Australia that would want boxes of various imported magazines.

 

Well, TOSEC PIX is the project of choice for all that stuff.

I can do scanning/VHS and LD transfer/PDF creation (I work extra time as a publisher).
But, for proper scanning, you have to keep in mind that the books will most likely have to be cut.

 

I thought that TOSEC was mainly focusing on official software/firmware and related technical documents, resources? Not for older magazines, official press, retail marketing assets and so-on to unofficial/unapproved prototype build dumps?

As for the VHS tapes mentioned earlier in the topic - these are my own, not jhonny_d's. I have done the majority of them already, had some more arrive so I need to do the rest of them too.

I usually debind cleanly as I can rebind things at a later point in time if I have to. Unless of course I can only source a single copy of something, then I may not cut or debind it. That said, not like it's hard to fix a little bit of blur or gutter-shadow on plain or coloured pages either.

 

Depends.
If it's binded, no need to cut. But with some other kind, if you want to do a proper job, you need to cut:

 

Can you heat the glue and pull the pages out???

 

That actually looks fairly easy to debind, even if it was also using the sewn type too below the glued cover.

I recently had to debind a book (200+ pages) that was - stitched, glued over the stitching, stapled, glued and then STAPLED AGAIN to the cover recently - no ripped pages or damage to the pages as I did it in chunks once I had removed the staples and cleaned the first layer of glue off so I could get to the lower layer that was holding the actual contents together.

Even if there are spread-type pages they should all have bleed border to give the correct visual alignment when bound - give or take a section possibly being missing depending on how the spread was done but it isn't overly hard to repair if it's written text or an artwork. A picture may be a little harder to restore but I've done that before.

 

LeHaM, yeah, that's a way to do it, but don't think you will be able to reglue it and have the book looking as it was.
But, well, Lamont knows better so it's all up to him, I'm off it.

 

I do both craft stuff but I've also been a collector of first edition novels for longer than I've been collecting video game stuff so I've picked up a few extra tricks in terms of restoring completely battered ones.

It can be fiddly to get it right and I wouldn't try doing so off the bat with something that you prize... But if it's not possible to get another copy of the book and the contents should be archived due to it's rarity, then I think that it's worth trying your best to debind it and then repair it as it's quite a bit harder if you cut it outside of stapling it together like a soft copy, doing a partial sting-binding or just chucking it into a folder.

Unless there's something like a unique printing method or that some idiot that doodled throughout the pages which would mean ink and the like could get smudged and further ruin it in which case, as much as it would pain me to do - I'd end up cutting it if it could be preserved or repaired better.

 

lil update guys, probably I'll be able to scan these myself, early preview below

https://www.mediafire.com/?bzaurdbr7r173n0

of course the pages will be properly cropped once I'm done

to think that the japanese were getting this stuff on the 90s is mind boggling, here in Italy as a kid I was barely able to get info on games...

 

phew, after a little marathon I can show you something:

http://www.geemania.net/eng/library/index.html

hope this seed can blossom into something beautiful

 

Any updates on this project?

This part sounds particularly interesting.

And I also like ccovell's website.

 

I would love to scan anything sega-related for my site www.guardiana.net