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[Addicted to Chaos]

Outside of my favourite magazine being the "Official Sega Saturn Magazinzes", which introduced me to meppi when I finally spotted his uploads, keept track of him since, and led me to him and this great site. Thank you so much for your dedication to quality. It's rare to find someone dedicated to high quality as yourself and especially related to a hobbie such as this.

Anyways, my second favourite magazine has to be Die Hard GameFan because, from the few issues I was fortunate to collect (somewhere around 1997 to 1998), they always talked about games like hardcore gamers and in great detail. Plus I loved their great coverage of import games, and imort games are of great interest to us retrogamers, if not just me, to expand our knowledge regarding more undiscovered games, due to other magazines neglecting them.

Also I am patiently awaiting more "Official Sega Saturn Magazinzes." By the way, think you could make the next Saturn Magazines from issue 32 till last issue first? Since I've never read these issues ever. I am also a huge SF3 fan and am curious as to what further coverage is awaiting in those issues? Thank you in advance and/or thank or all you've done so far at least.

EDIT - I just read in News of 60 issues! I can't wait! But I'll be patient.

[meppi]

Thank you so much for the kind comments.
It's these things that keep us going, not because we are looking for pats on the back or anything.
But because these words of encouragement help us see that there are others out there just like us, still passionate about these classic magazines.
If there were no people left who wish to read and truly enjoy them, it would significantly lessen the importance of a project like this.
It's all fine and well to preserve something, but if no one in the future wants it, well... then there are only so many things you can do.

The quality and attention to detail is my way of showing my love an appreciation for the original work and the people who put it together, which is something I know every single one of our staff shares.

By the way, think you could make the next Saturn Magazines from issue 32 till last issue first? Since I've never read these issues ever. I am also a huge SF3 fan and am curious as to what further coverage is awaiting in those issues? Thank you in advance and/or thank or all you've done so far at least.

Well, I only have issue 31 left to release before we get to issue 32 so I hope you don't mind me releasing that one first.
That way we can round off the later issues.
And once we have issue 37 up and ready, I will start going back to the first ones as well as continue with CVG, Super Play, etc.

I'm actually gonna start and edit some issue 34 pages right now.

[Addicted to Chaos]

No I don't mind at all and thank you. I am also looking forward to the CVG magazines very much now too since I read in another post of yours that that magazine is what got you to buy a Saturn. Since I live in Canada (I moved here at age 10 actually, from Europe and I discovered gaming here) I never experienced the UK Magazines and, unlike most magazines over here, I'm surprised that over there more than one magazine had alot of love towards the Saturn.

Anyways I really love reading these magazines from my childhood/teenage days, they really capture the essence of the hardcore/real gamers era. I find these magazines help me find or choose what games to play next or consider to play... or even just relive great memories of when I truly loved playing games. At one point I though I was getting old, but then a great game from the past that I never played proved me wrong.

I also miss how games looked like games or a work of art, not a photo realistic image. Where is the imagination there?

[meppi]

Just finished editing 12 pages from OSSM34 so it's going quite well. It was a part of the Radiant Silvergun Special as well as a Fighting Vipers 2 interview.  
The thing is that we are trying to make sure that we get a steady stream of weekly updates without having a 2 week period where nothing is released.
With the health issues I've been having it's hard to know for certain when I will be able to finish the next issue, so it's a good idea to have something to fall back on when such a thing happens.

CVG was incredible, I'd say just as amazing as OSSM, only multi-format.
I started reading CVG from issue 180, so that's where my fascination for the Saturn started to grow, perhaps a couple issues further.
But the crew was in place from issue 169 and redesigned the magazine only a couple issues later, so I'm sure that the Saturn love was consistent throughout these first 10 issues as well.
Haven't read those myself yet as I always wait until I've scanned the whole magazine, that way it's kept in the best possible condition before scanning.

Yeah lots of people try to play it of as rose-tinted glasses, but that's just BS to justify their own slanted view of things.
Over the last couple of years I've been discovering so many wonderful retro gems from the 8-Bit PC-engine and Famicom up to Dreamcast games which never saw the light outside of Japan.
And when playing such games for the first time even today, like with Eliminate Down or Magical Hat Turbo Adventure on the Mega Drive and Magical Chase on the PC-Engine this past weekend, I can say without blushing that these games are just as good, and in many case even better than 80-90% of the games released today.
I'm sure some would get a stroke reading this, but hey, that's how I feel.

The games looking like games, that's why I love the Wii so much. It seems to be the only platform, aside from portables where developers aren't afraid to make games for that look like games, and not have them be $7 downloadable games as they surely wouldn't sell at retail.
It's a sad state of affairs, but at least we still get some gems like in the old days.
New Super Mario Bros Wii comes to mind.  

[triverse]

Welcome to OoPA, Addicted to Chaos, always nice to have another Gamefan, well, fan around.  I have a bunch of Gamefans but we are working on the best way to release them as some of the covers are in less than stellar condition (too many moves and not having an eye towards preservation can do that to a magazine).

The UK mags are definitely blowing away 99% of the US mags that we did get.  Where an import title in a US mag might get 1/3 a page, it gets multiple pages in some of the UK mags.

Meppi's releases are definitely the cream of the crop, some people around the Internet have commented that they look like they are print proofs.  The attention to detail he puts into them is amazing and is greatly appreciated.

[Addicted to Chaos]

I actually written a reply for meppi a good while ago, but someone came over my place and when they left I closed the window with the written reply not posted thinking I posted it. Anyways long story alot shorter, I'm glad to be on this site and have alot in common with you and other on this site and I'm very glad to be on these forums.

Also, I'm sorry to hear about your health and obviously wish you well and don't want you to really overexert yourself for us fans of your work really. Just do what you can and enjoy yourself, because I'm pretty sure a good state of mind is the healthiest thing you can do, or at least beneficial.

A got alot of things I'd like to discuss regading the 90's of videogames and magazines and am glad I found the perfect site to discuss them, considering I think videogames and videogame magazines go hand in hand for me. Sure there are good fansites regarding retro games out there, but there is really something when you read a journalism from that time, like how every game is just coming out or just played, then the letter from gamers and so on and so on. It's really great and I really like the way you guys on this site are handling this and doing a great job.

Now in response to triverse, I really glad to hear that about UK magazines and it's nice to read such great mags I never even had access to. Not to mention there are a ton of US magazines I've never read.

I started colecting magazines with GamePro with their 58 issue I think? But I didn't know that wasn't really the #1 Magazine back then, they were definately good (at least when I was younger), but they definately got crap around the 32-Bit systems. This made me look at other magaziones more and that's when I discovered EGM and slowly made my transition between the 2. I couldn't really afford to collect at least 2 magazines every month all the time, but I made sure I did get at least 2 mags every month.

Now instead of GamePro I started getting getting EGM2 slowly (it started becoming really apparant of the BS they were). My first GameFan Magazine, being the Nov.96 issue (probably because they did great coverage of a game I was looking forward too or something, will check later), and I decided I liked it enough to make it the 3rd mag a month. This lasted till a couple of issues in 98 and for some reason I couldn't find them anymore. I only found out recently through the internet of what been going on with them and it wasn't because my store wasn't carrying them anymore, but that they missed a couple issues.

Now the reason I'm mentioning this is because back then I didn't think much of GameFan for some strange reason... Oh yeah, my love for EGM kinda blinded my a little bit because I was so used to their format. The reason I started and liked EGM the most at the time, is because I though then I related the most with their game reviews and that was the most important thing to me about Videogaming Magazines, even though when they discussed a game outside of special features, they were kinda lame. And that's why I like GameFan the best out of the US magaziones. That I really noticed those few issues of Game fan I have are the best and most read and re-read by far.

Sorry for the extra long post, but I guess it's OK since I was replying to both of you. I'll write more later because I better stop writing right now.

[triverse]

No need to apologize for writing a long post, I do it from time to time, if you have something to say, then type away!   We are happy to have you here, it is always great to have another member that is interested in enjoying OoPA and discussing things, we are kind of like a time warp of sorts, stuck in the mid 90's at this point.  lol

That is cool about how you got into Gamefan.  They really had a soul when other magazines at the time were going more for the "sterile" journalism and keeping emotion and such comments in ONE area and the rest of the magazine reading like a news report or something.  I am not saying other mags didn't have souls, just they had different ones.  You could almost feel the emotion of the writer when reading a Gamefan review, it showed in the words, the layout of the page, the additional above and beyond coverage they provided.  While most mags were content with one screen shot of an import title, Gamefan usually gave us pages and close to 50 screenshots (99% of the time clearer and sharper too).

I believe that during 1998, Gamefan only put out 6 or 8 issues, at best.  This was during their end days of major troubles internally (I believe Express.com had taken over control shortly before this point or maybe it was Eidos, either way, things were obviously wrong at Gamefan).  I remember reading somewhere, probably on the net, that Gamefan was indeed cancelled, dead and gone.  Express.com had shut it down and was done with it (I believe Express.com also folded shortly afterwards).

EGM2 was a weird magazine to me, it was like getting EGM minus the part that made it interesting and different from Gamepro or Game Players.  The Review Crew.  Everything else was there, and they even had some articles that carried over from EGM to EGM2 (which depending on if your local newstand carried both or not could have come off as a sore spot since you may not have been able to get EGM2 to finish the article).

I still like the old EGM style of gaming coverage, I really hope it comes back in the relaunch that Steve Harris is planning, at least in some form.  Probably not going to happen since the Internet has kind of marred that style of magazine being a profitable endeavor.

[Addicted to Chaos]

You guys really have good tastes and know your videogame magazines. I so glad I'm finally gonna be getting 2 of my favourite mags plus many other favourites plus ones I've just discovered and ones I never knew about.

OSSM I just discovered recently, but before that I've been waiting forever for someone to scan some GameFan Magazines. It seems you and meppi are like the only ones that that like GameFan and/or OSSM.

EGM2 was kinda disapointing for the same reasons you mentioned and I mostly felt compelled to get them because of the strong bond I had with EGM back then.

I like all the things you said about GameFan, and yes, the way they talked about gaming it was like they really love games. It explains why they don't give the worst scores in reviews, and I actually like and respect that way alot more now. This way if you don't like the game that much, don't completely hate it because if you give it a descent score someone else might find the hidden fun factor in that game. But ususally GameFan reviewers were/seemed so hardcore that they could put up well with so-so games and still brought some good points about it. Instead of completely dismissing it or investigating a bit more or deeper.

A good example of a game people are quick to judge as so-so but grows on you once you give it a couple of chances, is X-Men 1 for the Genesis. At least for me and some other people. But I'm pretty sure mostly the people that haven't beat it yet only hate it? So maybe this is the biggest reason for bad reviews?. But being a fan might be a must. Either way, I hated or was disapointed in this game at first but now I love it as one of my favourites after not giving up as time passed. I don't know how GameFan rated it, but most mags and other people are pretty quick to judge it, however as long as some people think it's very good, that's good enough for me. Not too sure why I rambled on about this and how well it fits with the rest of this post, but I tired and going to bed right now.

[meppi]

That's actually a very interesting point about the magazines back then being written in a different style and mindset actually.

This is probably also what drew me to my favourite magazines, well that and them also seeming to be much more interested than most publications in bringing Japanese only games to our attention. Which is something I've enjoyed from the early days up till now.

The first that did this was the French Joypad magazine as they would have not only a special import section, but also do extensive previews on Japanese and US games.
The only problem was that my French was/isn't actually very good.

I only recently found out, (a year or 2 ago when I started buying the magazines on ebay) that Joypad actually copied the entire style, and I'm positive much more, from the UK Mean Machines. Not talking about the content itself naturally, but the way the magazine was set up and felt to an extent, as well as being somewhat of a carbon copy when it comes to the layout of certain sections.
How I wish Mean Machines was available over here in those days...

The thing that drew me to CVG under Paul Davies, as well as OSSM later when I got my Saturn and EGM as well to some extent (although it might be different for me since I'm European and could identify more with how  things went down here back in the day when it came to video games ), is the way the people who write for it as if they are just a bunch of friends enjoying games and trying to get the most fun out of them and sharing that with the rest of us.
That's probably what we mean when we talk about the soul of a magazine.
You felt like you were a part of it and somehow the magazine was written just for you.
Which is something that you never will be able to recreate in a magazine that takes itself too serious and tries to be as objective as possible.
In doing this it distances itself from the reader, which might be good to bring news across, but doesn't really work when you're trying to identify with a writer to see if he shares the same tastes in games as yourself.

This is also the biggest reason why I've collecting so many other magazines from people who worked on some of my favourites.
So glad to have discovered Maximum for instance, even though it had such a short run. Or Mean Machines and MegaTech just to give an example.

[atik]

Yeah, GameFan was one of my favourite magazine's too back in the day. I never read any of the early issue's but I did get every single issue in 1996 and 97 when it all of a sudden showed up in most of the news agent's in my part of the World.

I really liked their coverage of import game's too and the layout of the magazine looked great. They always had so many screen shots on every page and I seem to remember the magazine being printed on really glossy paper which looked great.

I also liked the cartoon version's of the editor and staff (E. Storm, Nick Rox etc.) which had a lot of character. Great magazine.

[Addicted to Chaos]

Wow, your collection is very simular to mine, except mine is 1997-1998. Yeah I loved that nice thick glossy paper they used too. Nice to know of another GameFan fan.

Yesturday I roughly glanced through Mean Machines Saga, march 1994 issue, with the Streets of Rage 3 cover, and I'm rather enjoying alot too at the moment (It's seems they might of had very good quality paper too siular to GameFan). I'm very glad at the very nice variety of this site too and can't wait to see all the other magazines I've never heard of or read as well. And to discuss my thoughts on other magazines here and see what others think.

Anyways, this particular MMS issue is rather good and I'm taking a deeper look/reading more articles and stuff today. I'll start another topic to discuss released magazines from this site here later.

[Nreive]

Yesturday I roughly glanced through Mean Machines Saga, march 1994 issue, with the Streets of Rage 3 cover, and I'm rather enjoying alot too at the moment (It's seems they might of had very good quality paper too siular to GameFan).

No, MMS, and the majority of EMAP mags in ther early 1990s, were never printed on good quality paper.  It wasn't until the Official Sega Magazine and later MAXIMUM, that EMAP used good quality paper - both launched by Rich Leadbetter funnily enough.  I suspect that the great quality scans from BarbieOnWeed gives the impression that the paper used to print MMS on was also of good quality.

[Addicted to Chaos]

I not sure what made me assume MMS was on good quality paper? The excellent quality of the scan definately help towards. But I can't also believe, that if it wasn't the better quality paper, that that magazine is in such good shape. How do you guys handle a magazine that has a couple of rough spots, ie. what treatment do you give them then?

I think it may also of been maybe because the setuo of the page layout of kinda reminded me of GameFan too, that and/or it being really colourfull?

On a side note, I definately thought MAXIMUM was on the good quality paper without even thinking about it. However, I never really thought if the OSSM was or wasn't for some reason? 

[meppi]

How do you guys handle a magazine that has a couple of rough spots, ie. what treatment do you give them then?

Well it's an extensive process and depends on many, many factors really.
I once wrote a pretty straightforward tutorial for the old program I used in the past years and it ended up being 15-20 pages or something.
If I were to do this today for Photoshop with all the new techniques I've learned along the way it would easily be double that.

Basically we start of by scanning the pages, sometimes up to 4 times depending on the size of them. As some of them are way too large to fit on an A4 scanner.
The we join the pages together, pertly with the automated option in Photoshop, but also manually for certain sections as not everything turns out the way is should when done automatically.

Then the page is straightened so the text is nice and level. The page is then cropped so that it has a nice and clean edge all around.

And then every little speck of dirt and dust gets scrutinized and manually edited out. White pages get cleaned up due to the way they turn yellow and the same is done with black ones as they turn grey.
Black bars and larger black on white or white on black text is cleared up in the same manner.
Any errors like tears, ink smears or just about anything you can think of is removed and if those run through text or images, everything possible is done to reconstruct those by hand, which can take a long time.

It's a bit much to explain all in detail as I would be talking for hours here.

But lets say that a single page can go anywhere from between 5-10 minutes in a best case scenario up till 45-60 minutes for ones that need extensive editing. Most average out at 15-20 minutes or so. And when you account for an average of 100 pages in one magazine, you can see why we don't churn out 15 magazines a week.
Oh and all that time is only for the editing part and doesn't take into account the scanning or joining+cropping of the pages.

[Addicted to Chaos]

OH    MY... I just read this to my brother too as he is alot more familiar with these programs than me and we discussed it as I read it. It is unbelievable the work you guys are doing, and my resect for you guys shot through the roof. And my respect for you guys were high enough. One thing my brother and I were first shicked at and didn't know, is that the scanner is not big enough to take the whole page in one? Or does this have to do with it getting a higher quality shot? Yeah, this is a stab in the Dark with this last quess.

You did a fine job at giving me an insight at what goes on too, since I forgot to mention I just wanted a laymans explanation. This way I have I rough idea of what is going on. Oh yeah, It's pretty cool that my brother and I pretty much share the same hobbies too, ie. retro videogames and magazines. He's 24 and I'm 29, we started videogaming with the NES and Mario 1-3, TMNT, and other cool NES games in the 90's. Oh yeah, I just showed my brother this site again (since he forgot about it , and he is admiring the giant Link article of yours just now. He is more of a Nintendo fan than me a more Sega fan. I told him about the great Nintendo mags I never heard about here on your site too (again  , well I didn't notice the second one, he read the Super one, thought it was a NES dedicated one. His fav Mag is Nintendo Power, but personally I'd like too see the Nintendo mags I never heard of first ), plus he's a quality fan himself. It' pretty cool, we spend most of our time enjoying our videogaming hobbies. Don't mean to brag, but I never seen any other siblings in my life get along, and everybody is surprised that we trust each other and what not. Oh, we also love comic books too.

Anyways, enough talk about this. Keep up the excellent good work and remeber, there is no rush from my (our) end. Quality over Quantity all the way, forever. ... My brother is currently reading and asking me, trying to figure out how he did this, since he is noticeing it's pretty solid and stuff... now he noticed the videos and is watching that now. Well, later.

[meppi]

Hehe, yeah most people never realize just how much work goes into these, which is actually the intention.
To try and to the job in such a way that people won't stop and think: "hey this part has been touched up, or you can clearly see there was something here before".

The closest thing I've seen was on one of the many Hong Kong Legends DVDs that I have.
It was a digital restoration special about all the processes they go through to restore old 70s and 80s movies which were damaged beyond recognition.
I've looked around on youtube to see if I can find that special as I know it has been on there a while back, but I can't seem to find it.
The manual removal of scratches and dirt after the print had gone through an automated process was extremely close to the way I myself work, so it was a very big surprise to me when I first saw it.

About the size problem.
It's the physical size of most magazines themselves that's the problem.
Something like EGM is very friendly to work with since the pages fit on an A4 scanner, but a huge number of magazines are either to wide, resulting in the spine side being very blurry, or are too long, which results in a part of the bottom of the page being cut off.
Many magazines have both, which is a bit of a nightmare if you want to present a true to life scan instead of just a quick and dirty A4 section that doesn't have the full page on there.

So the pages have to be scanned once from the left and once from the right. Then cropped to remove the blurred section on the other side so the program doesn't choose to work with those parts.
These are then put together by the automated join option in Photoshop.
We then scan the bottom strips of the magazines, mostly in 2 pieces as well and edit those to the joined pages manually using the transparent layer option so they fit perfectly.

It's a large amount of steps to take, but in the end I feel it's more than worth it.