I have suggested to Kalmbach that they create and market back issues of MR on CDs. For example, National Geographic has available a set of 32 CDs that contain the first 112 years of their magazines. These CDs contain everything in each issue from cover to cover. They also have an excellent indexing feature.
I would love to get rid of the more than 20 feet of shelving that holds the back issues of MR which I have. They take up valuable space in my train room that I could use for layout expansion. These back issues could be replaced with an indexed set of CDs that would use about the space of 1 good book.
Does anyone else like to see this offering from Kalmbach?
I like the idea, but would have to see the price. Also would want to be able to print out plans and articles. My collection is on shelving under the layout.
Enjoy
Paul
A fantasic idea. Of course, this would cut into their pdf business, but then I can print out the material that I need and still have everything to browse through.
I agree completely. I only have two years worth but like you say that space could be used for something more useful. As far as the question on printing from a CD? Should be no problem, just like printing from any file on your computer.
Terry T
While I would love this as much as the next guy, much of MR exists previous to the advent of desktop publishing. This means very labor-intensive scanning and indexing work to get anything that would be searchable.
While the market might be there for National Geographic because of circulation, the market for MR is a drop in the bucket in comparison. The price of the electronic copy would be astronomical, no doubt … so it’s not going to happen unless it was a labor of love for a cadre of vounteers.
Dragon Magazine, certainly a ‘niche’ publication, is available on DVD. It goes back- OK, not as far as MR, but well before Desktop Publishing was big. I can’t remember how searchable it is- haven’t had time for much RPG-playing since I got married, but it wasn’t all that bad, IIRC.
As far as the PDFs, it is interesting to ask- how many people are actually buying them? Personally, they’re too expensive for what you get. $6 for ~12 pages, $15 for 45 pages ($.50 to $.33 per page), etc. is kinda steep- compare with $20-$25 for the ~100-page books ($.25 per page), when all you’re getting is data- not even nicely-printed. If they were offering the PDFs around $.10/page, I would be more interested.
Having moved about fifty years worth of Model Railroader for the third time in five years, I would love nothing better than to have MR on CD, if the price were right, and all the material in the magazine were included. But I tend to agree with Joe Fugate that the cost might be too high against the potential market. (Actually, the last time this subject came up, a Kalmbach editor said as much.)
OTOH, Bob Hundman has announced that he will be releasing N Scale on CD in the near future. (But then again, N Scale is published only six times a year, is a smaller, less intensely graphic, publication, and first appeared around 1990.)
This is an issue that will not go away. Hopefully, advances in technology will make it possible.
True enough … but they did have computers when Dragon started so while not pasted up electronically, they probably have all the text in electronic form. That alone is enough to make a huge difference. My guess is none of MR prior to about 1970 is available in electronic form in the Kalmbach archives.
This means almost 40 years of magazine would need to be scanned as an image page by page, then OCR’d page by page, and meticiously proofed for scan errors. That’s probably several person years of work … and somebody would have to pay for it.
Kalmbach would probably sell a few thousand copies. Dragon could even have been done by some fans on the cheap, since there’s probably less than 10 years worth of magazines that would need to be done this way.
If space is an issue for storing MRR mags, you can always do what I did. I used to store my mags (nearly 25 years worth) in copy paper boxes and had 6-8 boxes worth. First, I thinned the crop by picking out issues that had no articles of value to me and gave them away (to friends and to the local club for use as giveaways for the kids at shows).
I then took the remaining issues (still several boxes worth) and a razor knife. I went through each issue page by page and cut out all the potentially useful articles and other interesting items. I kept only a few layout articles, most construction articles and prototype info, all paint shop colums, and occasional other tidbits I found interesting. I placed the table of contents on top of the stack and placed the cover face down on the bottom, and corner stapled the stack. Everything I didn’t keep (mostly ads) went into the recycling bin. I then placed each issue into its own clear plastic “page protector” sleeve and put 3-4 years worth into a 3" three-ring binder. Now, my Model Railroader collection takes up only 6 binders - less than one shelf on my 3’ wide bookcase. Total magazine collection takes up only two shelves.
I also keep some issues whole (newer or significant ones) for occasional browsing.
Yes, there are some disadvantages to this. My idea of what information is relevant has changed slightly over time and there are some issues I wish I hadn’t given away or articles I wish I hadn’t disposed of. But guess what, I can pick up back issues for 50 cents at the LHS, and I have bought a few issues that I have owned once before. No big deal.
The main advantage is the space saved (it’s amazing how few “meaty” pages there are in some issues of MR). And when I want to look for an article, I can skim forwards through the binders to check the ToC or I can skim backwards to look at the covers.
No, this system isn’t for everyone, but if you want to save space and can’t wait for a CD or DVD that may
Actually, the first several years-worth in the DVD were just scans of paper copies. It was longer than that before Dragon was done even mostly electronically. You’re right, though- that it would take some work.
Nope, it was done by Wizards of the Coast, the owners of all things AD&D. 250 issues were included at the time. Also, I doubt that more than a thousand or so copies of the Dragon DVD were sold- us gaming fanatics aren’t all THAT common. [:)]
Anyway, I’m not saying you’re totally wrong, just that it >has< been done. Bigger concerns are actually in the area of copyright protection and piracy- once something is commonly available these days in electronic form, it seems that there are too many people who feel that it should now be available via file-sharing systems for free. If you want an example of something that I also wish were available electronically, and likely NEVER will because of these concerns, consider the board game Advanced Squad Leader. I know, from discussions with the publishers, that just about everything is in electronic form (and what isn’t, will be Real Soon Now because they’re trying to get it back into print…). However, because of the prevalence of file-sharing systems, and the extremely limited market (there’s probably around 1000 of us worldwide who both play and would purchase this), I doubt it would ever happen. Even if the publishers decided it was worth the risk, I’ll bet that the lawyers at Hasbro (which actually owns the rights to the system) would sign off on it.
The nice thing about an electronic version of a magazine is that once created, it’s available forever… it might take Kalmbach a few years to recoup the expense, but it’s possible that they eventually would.
I wonder if they could look at the possibility of creating one out of the issues for which they do have electronic files to guage interest? One thing… even if it had 50 issues on it, they couldn’t price it like that. I could see maybe $50 per decade.
This subject has, of course, been broached quite a number of times in the past on this forum. On at least one occasion a Kalmbach rep responded that at the time they had no interest in committing MR to CDs. I suspect their position is unlikely to change in the short term.
As Joe and others have pointed out, with at least 40 years of the magazine only accessible in a paper format, the job of tranfer to CDs would be huge and one really has to wonder how many copies could actually be sold…especially if the project turned out to be very expensive. Likewise, it would cut into MR’s sale of back issues, PDFs and other similar projects we’ve yet to get wind of.
OK, I doubt the cost of such a manual intensive indeavor would stop anyone in this day of outsourced labor. I think 10 bucks would likely get them some Chinese prison labor to scan the whole 40 year’s worth in less than a couple of weeks. [:)]
Obviously, the CDs would be “off the charts” expensive because they would be giving away the store. Most importantly, the security on something like this would be enormous. The same Chinese laborer who scanned the things would likely be selling them on the not-so-black-market within days (weeks?). Once the electronic cat is out of the bag, back issues would become next to worthless. MR is taking the prudent route with this by selling things peicemeal, thereby reducing their risk of mass distribution. [;)]