Effin' Kalmbach

[sirenwerks]

[quote author=reinhardtjh link=topic=52631.msg720253#msg720253 date=1630619723
Kirk Redde and N Scale Railroading back issues as well.



I forgot about that.  He's on TRW... Kirk? 


And I still have to buy my Mainline Modeler DVD, been meaning to order that.

[Missaberoad]

I would pay large sums of money for RMC and N Scale Railroading digital scans!

I feel like Kirk is waiting to sell off his back issue collection...

And White River has said a digital version is not viable...

But still obscene amounts of money...

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[ncbqguy]

Back issues of Railroad Model Craftsman, ToyTrains, Model Trains, and other pre-2000 magazines are worth more than current magazines.
Yes, you may have to translate “strathmore” into styrene but the construction articles are more in number and more inspiring than the current infomercials for advertisers in most of the current rags.  Participation in the content from ordinary MRs was much higher...not just the elite mega layouts or “famous” modelers.
Yes, N wasn’t around prior to 1965-ish but we are able to adjust to that, aren’t we?!!
Charlie Vlk

[sirenwerks]

If Mainline Modeler can do it, why not RMC.  Carstens was a professional operation, you would think they keep a library of everything it published/printed.  Was there a great silverfish epidemic in that part of Jersey, or something?

[peteski]

I venture a guess that any magazine published in the last 50 40 (or more) years, was laid out on a computer. So unless the files were deleted, there should be a fairly easy way to provide it in a digital format.

[Missaberoad]

I venture a guess that any magazine published in the last 50 (or more) years, was laid out on a computer. So unless the files were deleted, there should be a fairly easy way to provide it in a digital format.

Did word processors exist in 1971? Were they obtainable by small publishers? I know Kalmbach had to scan issues older then the late 1990s (or even some point in the 2000s) for their digital collections...

[Point353]

Did word processors exist in 1971? Were they obtainable by small publishers? I know Kalmbach had to scan issues older then the late 1990s (or even some point in the 2000s) for their digital collections...

Word processors, of a sort, existed in 1971. Wang Labs introduced a word processor with a CRT display in the mid-1970s.
Desktop publishing, with the ability to do page layout, generally started with PageMaker running on a Mac in the mid-1980s.

[C855B]

Did word processors exist in 1971? ...

No. The Vydec 1400 is considered the first true word processor, introduced circa 1973. Wang was 3rd in line in '75, with the rare Lexitron somewhere between.

Programming and managing word processors and the earliest fully computerized typesetting systems were what I did for a living at the time. Newspapers were just getting their feet wet in primitive page layout systems then; I converted more than one Linotype (lead type) operation to electronics, and to say the process was fraught is polite understatement. It took me and my peers nearly two years to achieve (semi-)reliable data conversion between early word processors and the newfangled typesetting computers. Many of these conversions had to be programmed by reverse-engineering proprietary diskette formats at the bit level.

Proprietary full-page systems appeared ~1980, also primarily in the newspaper industry. PostScript came along in 1984 and changed the landscape to include commercial typesetting and full-page layout systems. I installed and ran several PostScript-based page imaging systems in the mid- to late-1980s.

Commercial magazine production was primarily a paste-up process from semi-photographic proprietary machine output until at least the late '80s. PDF imaging appeared in 1993, and didn't gain widespread adoption as a page publication standard until nearly 2000. It is possible that some PostScript imagery from that era was retained, but we need to consider the mass storage technology at the time versus the very large (relatively speaking) PS files. Not a lot was kept, I am personally responsible for deleting boatloads of image data because content value versus the storage costs wasn't there yet; most page images then were archived as press-ready plates with retentions of 10 years or so.

In so many words electronic page images of minor-market periodicals before the turn of the millennium are unlikely.

[Chris333]

Our paper wasn't digital till 1998, and even then they still out put to negatives.

[peteski]

Did word processors exist in 1971? Were they obtainable by small publishers? I know Kalmbach had to scan issues older then the late 1990s (or even some point in the 2000s) for their digital collections...

Um, what I meant was 40 years. I was aiming for the '80s.  I'll correct my post. 

And Mike -- thanks for the insight.  Very enlighting.

[JMaurer1]

Look at all of the nerds coming out of the woodwork...

WordStar - 1981
WordPerfect - 1985

Of course, by then I was using Easy Script on my C64 .

[ncbqguy]

Computer shomuter.....just get a full set of each magazine and digitally image it at a decent resolution....and do it with people intelligent enough to image the entire two-page or fold-out plan pages.
Digitally Indexing the print table of contents would be nice but full search functionality is an excuse not a requirement.   
It’s about getting to content not bringing old issues up to today’s standards....in fact, it’s about getting back to better standards and interesting content.
Charlie Vlk

[basementcalling]

I recently decided to declutter my old magazine collection, as I rarely look at them anymore. MR was great in the 80s-early 90s before the internet siphoning of content began.  I wouldn't think many people would pay much for them though, as the mag dealers I used to see at train shows pretty much go home with every issue of every magazine they come in with. I've seen people try to give away back issues with no takers.

N Scale and NSR might be different. I'll be keeping my collection of GMR though I rarely buy a new issue any longer thanks to repeats and lack of anything but a token feature outside of HO. MRP might be their best issue right now and for the future. And these issues also take content away from their montly rag.

[ncbqguy]

PS- And while we are at it...how about Railroad Magazine and some of the other old pulp railroad publications.   They had great photos sent in by readers, coverage of then-new locos and cars, rosters, and fiction that were thinly disguised real stories. 
(Oops..meant to edit my previous post....Charlie Vlk)

[John]

Of course, by then I was using Easy Script on my C64 .

I remember hand jamming HEX into a file for my C64 to get a word processor.. I think it was published in COMPUTE magazine?  https://archive.org/details/YourCommodoreIssue54Mar89/page/n15/mode/2up

I was also in CUCUG -- Commodore Users Group -- Champain Urbana .. Btw -- Kevin Hisel ( http://kevinhisel.com/ ) who also worked for Tower Hobbies was a member