The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Hiya all,

I am new to the forum and have a quick question for you:

What is the quality of the scans on the Zzuperstore DVD package? Can anyone give me a brief idea of what to expect? Would a hi-quality print be possible -- say of the covers? Also, how are the files presented? As PDFs? Is every issue a PDF?

I originally started reading Zzap!64 when I lived in South Africa up until 1990. I left SA to go back to live in Germany that year. I sold all of my C64 stuff and magazines to finance my Amiga and later sometimes read my friend's Zzap! issues in 91 and 92 but sadly, the mag deteriorated (as did the 64). I would love to have all of the issues to read on my iBook now.

If any of the former editors (Penn, Rignall, Gordon H. etc.) or staff writers are reading this, I'd like to express my gratitude for your work. I always dreamt of becoming a magazine writer (as most of us did at the time, I guess) as a teenager. You guys were an inspiration. Today, aged 33, I am working for a former Amiga hardware developer and ended up writing the English edition of Winnie Forster's `Game.Machines´ book. So my career as a writer did culminate in a way I guess.

Thanks for the memories!

Any words on the scans would be most welcome.

Rafael

PS. Retro Gamer is great, innit?

I believe the same scans are used on the main site (e.g. http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/displayissue.pl?issue=1 ) so you can check for yourself.

Apologies to Iain/Mort if I'm wrong.

That's correct.

Same as the scans on the site but the DVDs come with more stuff as well not on the site (mainly because I'm too lazy to add it, rather than any evil capitalist motive to make loads of money!!) like covertapes, specials etc.

There's no PDF's I'm afriad, would take too long to OCR the text over, especially with the mad crazy colours in the background of later issues

Hello Ian,

Thanks.

But how do you access the pages? Browser or are they single JPGs or something? What I am trying to get at: How are the mags `read´ as such?

Rafael

In Win XP here, put CD in, boot up first picture, browse to next using the built-in picture viewer in Win Explorer. That's how I do it.

Alternatively, drop them in a folder, zip it up, change the file extension to .cbz and then view them in a comic reader like CDisplay (PC) or FFview (Mac).

Ok, guys. Final question - is the DVD (it IS a DVD, not 5 CDs, correct?) `properly´ printed or is it a DVD-R with a handwritten label? Not that it would matter though...

BTW, Ian -- you should contact that Dutch dude who has touched up the scans (there's a link on Gordon's page somewhere) and use those front covers instead. I know I will.

Thanks for all your help.

Rafael

PS: Has anyone here actually read the Game.Machines book? What did you think?

Hi Rafael,
It is a Dvd, but with my own lovely hand written signature writting saying ZZap64 Dvd, the personal touch (ie not printed), the dvd does come in a nice Amaray case though with label.

Cheers again

Stephen aka Mort

And to clarify, the scans are JPEG images, which makes them quite versatile.

Those touched up covers are pretty great alright. Maybe they are on the DVD already.... Mort?

To be honest can`t remember in my old age

I really need to buy my own DVD with all the lovely issues on it. In fact...

*checks PayPal account*

What would be really great, would be if Mort could redo the DVD cover so it fits a DVD case and isn't just a streched CD cover, which still mentions content on CDs on it.....

Been trying to get him to redo it for a couple of years... maybe a bit of pressure from you lads might help?