Input magazine

[dv8]

Over the next couple of weeks I intend to start scanning the complete set of Input magazines from Marshall Cavendish.

My plan is to not only scan the mags but also OCR them to create searchable PDFs, a HTML version, ASCII text listings and finally disk images containing the programs.

I'm a bit surprised that they haven't been scanned already but nothing has shown up in my web searching efforts. If anyone knows differently would you please speak up now so I'm not duplicating the work of others.

Thanks,
Paul.

EDIT: The full set of PDFs are available from here

[garfield]

Big job. Good luck! It will be very nice to see these online.

Wasn't there an "Advanced" Input series too?

[Fraser]

No. You might be thinking of The home computer advanced course.

[CMcDougall]

sort of off topic, but does anyone have any of the listings on disc? and do they work? i have a couple of the mags from BITD, and typed the listings in, and they never worked
Think it was some kind of 'chess' game Fox & Geese ??

[dv8]

Putting the programs on disk is one of the things I am going to do. The plan is to OCR the listings from the magazines then manually apply any corrections in the errata. Hopefully, most things should then run, although I'm not looking forward to doing Cliffhanger!

[MurrayCakaMuzer]

Oh my god! Good luck with this. Make sure you get the non-beeb stuff too!

(The first retro computer I bought, a C64, came with the first two issues of Input and I've been trying to track down online versions of the later ones for a while. I <3 type-ins!)

[dv8]

I'm definitely going to do disk images of the Beeb and Commodore listings. These will be done first because they are the machines I'm most familiar with.

Hopefully I'll be able to do disks/tapes for the Speccy and Dragon too. It will be a good way of learning more about those machines. At the very least, the listings for all machines will be available in ASCII text format.

I've done a few dry runs to streamline the whole scanning/OCRing/PDFing process and am pretty happy with the results. Everything's ready to start scanning for real in the new year.

[dv8]

A quick update:

The magazine scans were completed a few months ago. I recently got enough spare time to go though the scans, tidying them up and putting together PDF editions.

The first two volumes (issues 1 thru 26) are now available as 200 DPI PDFs from Bombjack (one of the best Commodore document preservation sites).

Higher quality 300 DPI images are available to anyone willing to host them. PM me if you are interested in doing so.

The last two volumes will follow in a couple of weeks.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Fraser]

Have you and Dave Edwards both done a set of scans of Input?

[mjforbes]

I really must thank "dv8" for these - you've brought back a flood of memories from my teenage years, and I'm actually reliving the experiences of 'type-ins' again (and then debugging and altering the things - a good thing or not?!)

All I really need to do is get around to getting the second graphics card in my PC, link it up to the spare monitor that's been sitting on the floor in the box room, so I can avoid alt+tabbing every few seconds between BeebEm and Acrobat.

Once again - many thanks (although "she" thinks I've gone mad, but I'm getting the little man interested in something that's not a Playstation at last..!)

Best Regards,

Matt
(Should be at the show tomorrow morning - had a blowout on the A34 this morning, so didn't get the chance to drop in today.)

[dv8]

Thanks Matt, It's good to know the effort is appreciated

I agreee the Alt+Tab thing is a pain. Did you know that the PDFs have an OCR text layer? It's not perfect, but it's a good starting point. What I usually do with listings is copy+paste them from the PDF into a text editor, make any corrections there, then copy+paste that into the emulator. A lot less hassle than trying to type them in swapping between windows all the time.

Have you and Dave Edwards both done a set of scans of Input?

It would appear so. It looks like Dave has also typed in the listings. So I guess folks who just want to read the mag in conveniently packaged PDF form can grab my scans for free. Those who want the added value of the pre-typed listings can buy Dave's DVD when it comes out.

[dv8]

The full set of PDFs are now available here

[leenew]

Hi dv8
Did all of the other games apart from ESCAPE and CLIFFHANGER ever get OCR'd?
What beeb games were there apart from those 2?
Cheers,

Lee.

[dv8]

Did all of the other games apart from ESCAPE and CLIFFHANGER ever get OCR'd?

No, I moved on to other projects. I did do 'Fox & Geese' and I think I also did the simpler adventure that came before Escape.
The version of Cliffhanger we have looks a bit buggy, I was thinking of re-doing that at some point.

What beeb games were there apart from those 2?

From a quick scan through the index...

Minefield
Alien shooter
Duck shooter
Lunar Lander
Pontoon
Othello
Flight sim
Snakes and Adders
Gold Mine (business strategy game)
Mark My Words (educational word game)
Fruit Machine
Fox & Geese
Freddy and the Spider From Mars
Cavendish Field (war strategy game)
Desperate Decorator
Match That (colour matching puzzle game)
Tumbling Dice

[leenew]

Thank you.
Is anyone up for OCRing any of these

Lee.

[dv8]

I don't mind doing them but there are other things I want to finish off first.

I've managed to find Fox & Geese... the disc image can be downloaded from this post.

[leenew]

That's really appreciated dv8
It may be best to put them in "archive submissions" as and when you do them
Lee.