An attempt to digitally scan and publish the former computer magazine 'Computer Shopper' boasting a huge number of pages is underway
The computer magazine '
Preparing for the Incoming Computer Shopper Tsunami « ASCII by Jason Scott
http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/5543
Computer Shopper is a monthly magazine specializing in computers that was published in 1979 and gained strong popularity among hardware and software enthusiasts in the 1980s and 1990s. It seems that it was a `` fun little tabloid paper '' at the beginning of publication, but eventually the number of pages was overwhelmed by many people, and sometimes one book exceeded 800 pages.
Where Computer Shopper stood out among the various computer magazines was that vendors ran advertisements with up-to-date price lists for individual parts. Computer Shopper posted prices related to all kinds of computers, such as capacitors, power supplies, wiring, switches, floppy disks, etc., Scott said, which was very beneficial for core users.
Also, at the end of the book, the contact information of all kinds of BBS operated in the United States and Canada was posted, and it was said that it looked like an 'online version of the phone book'. However, as various information became available on the Internet due to the spread of the web, the demand for Computer Shopper, whose information transmission speed is inferior due to print media, decreased, and publication ended in 2009.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of cases where various past printed materials are digitally scanned, preserved, and published. There are many obstacles to scanning, such as the layout where characters are printed close to the throat,
In 2023, Scott said that no one had digitally scanned Computer Shopper so far, and he was complaining on the Internet about the loss of information posted on Computer Shopper. In that flow, he said, 'If I happen to come across a fairly large collection of Computer Shopper, I will think of a way to scan it.'
Then, at just the right time, a person appeared on eBay who had put up a 'computer shopper collection of nearly 200 issues'. The total amount of the collection was about 3000 dollars (about 412,000 yen), which was not cheap at all, but while the Computer Shopper exhibited for each issue can reach up to 50 dollars (about 7000 yen), this The collection was quite cheap at $ 13 (about 1800 yen) per book.
Scott wasn't able to come up with $3,000 himself, but when he announced that he would win and scan the Computer Shopper collection if donations of $3,000 were collected from supporters, $3,000 was raised in just three hours. We got together.
Although delivery was not an option, several volunteers undertook the role of transporting the boxed Computer Shopper from the exhibitor to Mr. Scott's home, and safely nearly 200 Computer Shopper arrived under Mr. Scott.
Also, a scanner that can scan paper as large as tabloid paper was quite expensive, but an anonymous person donated a Fujitsu business scanner for $ 3,500 (about 487,000 yen). ``I didn't have to crowdfund for the scanner,'' Scott said.
Scott, who got the Computer Shopper collection and printer, finally started working on disassembling the magazine and digitally scanning it. Mr. Scott read
When I actually scanned it, it turned out that Computer Shopper uses very thin paper, so when scanning, even what was printed on the back side was reflected. Therefore, Mr. Scott decided to cooperate with
The image below is the raw data actually scanned by Mr. Scott. You can see that not only the front side but also the lines and characters printed on the back side are slightly visible.
Below is the 'readable version' of raw data processed by Gaming Alexandria. Although the original texture is lost, it is said that the investigation of the contents will be greatly simplified by being able to read by OCR etc.
And in April 2023, Scott and Gaming Alexandria released the February 1986 issue of Computer Shopper, an Internet archive that stores and publishes all information on the Internet and magazines published in the past.
Computer Shopper February 1986 : Computer Shopper : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/computer-shopper-february-1986/Computer%20Shopper_February_1986_Aesthetic
It takes a huge amount of time to disassemble and scan the Computer Shopper, which has hundreds of pages, and Scott will continue to spend a long time on this project. Therefore, in order to make his work more meaningful, he wants people who are interested in past Computer Shoppers to notice this project, investigate the contents, and spread it so that they can enjoy it.
In addition, it seems that there are some missing issues in Mr. Scott's Computer Shopper, so if you are planning to donate or sell to Mr. Scott, please contact the e-mail address '[email protected]' He said he wanted it. The issue Mr. Scott is looking for is:
・All issues before 1983
・January, October, November 1984
・October 1985 issue
・December 1986 issue
・June and November 1988 issues
・April 1989 issue
・1994 April, May, August, November issue
・February and March 1995 issue
・1996 April, May, June issue
・July/September 1997 issue
・January and May 1998 issue
・1999 April, July, August issue
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