CDRom Project News

[robject]

I'm sure that requires a staff of more than one. I'm not talking about improving the published material. That sounds like a quagmire.

But supposing we can turn our love for the game into a fixed MT-CDROM. Supposing you can get the fix to your copy at cost? Would that be worth the effort?

To some, yes. To others, no. It depends on what you want.

And it may be that we can't do it. But I bet we can.


First step: a text-searchable PDF of Hard Times, and Player's Manual 3ed if possible. Enough talk. If we can't get past step one, all this is moot.

 

[robject]

I'm sure that requires a staff of more than one. I'm not talking about improving the published material. That sounds like a quagmire.

But supposing we can turn our love for the game into a fixed MT-CDROM. Supposing you can get the fix to your copy at cost? Would that be worth the effort?

To some, yes. To others, no. It depends on what you want.

And it may be that we can't do it. But I bet we can.


First step: a text-searchable PDF of Hard Times, and Player's Manual 3ed if possible. Enough talk. If we can't get past step one, all this is moot.

 

[kafka47]

Given also the relative desire and need for continuity of storyline, Marc also ought to fix up Arrival Vengence. It is not so much that one has the GDW library label (which why did he not steal the image from Swordy's Ill. Bib.) everywhere but ugly black boxes interspersed amongst the text.

My vote would be turn the whole thing over to a fan effort and mount it on QLI's site and sell it for some thing like $5.00. This would get more MegaTraveller out there and give fans a chance to have clean copies. The fact that QLI is making a real quality product both in terms of their books and this website make me think that they ought to be rewarded with what be an act of love by a grateful community and cash cow to allow them to get needed capital to continue the great work that they are doing.

 

[kafka47]

Given also the relative desire and need for continuity of storyline, Marc also ought to fix up Arrival Vengence. It is not so much that one has the GDW library label (which why did he not steal the image from Swordy's Ill. Bib.) everywhere but ugly black boxes interspersed amongst the text.

My vote would be turn the whole thing over to a fan effort and mount it on QLI's site and sell it for some thing like $5.00. This would get more MegaTraveller out there and give fans a chance to have clean copies. The fact that QLI is making a real quality product both in terms of their books and this website make me think that they ought to be rewarded with what be an act of love by a grateful community and cash cow to allow them to get needed capital to continue the great work that they are doing.

 

[kafka47]

Given also the relative desire and need for continuity of storyline, Marc also ought to fix up Arrival Vengence. It is not so much that one has the GDW library label (which why did he not steal the image from Swordy's Ill. Bib.) everywhere but ugly black boxes interspersed amongst the text.

My vote would be turn the whole thing over to a fan effort and mount it on QLI's site and sell it for some thing like $5.00. This would get more MegaTraveller out there and give fans a chance to have clean copies. The fact that QLI is making a real quality product both in terms of their books and this website make me think that they ought to be rewarded with what be an act of love by a grateful community and cash cow to allow them to get needed capital to continue the great work that they are doing.

 

[whartung]

Send me a cleaned-up Hard Times in searchable PDF.

And while you're at it, send me the MT Players' Manual (third printing) in searchable PDF. (Don't send me the DTRPG version; they probably have a copyright or something).

PM me when you've got 'em ready.

Send me one of the books you want with the spine cut off (or with permission to have it cut off), get me permission to actually make the copy from the copyright holder, and then send me some assurance that the final result will be distributed to others (in some way -- i.e. you're not the only one getting the result of the work), and I'll do one book.

Then I'll write up my process, what tools I used, and how others can duplicate the effort.

I won't do it simply for one person, but if I knew everyone else would have the opportunity to get the result, then sure.

See, if I knew that by doing one book I would be helping others get the material, and also be getting the rest of the material myself (because others would be doing the same thing), then it's not a horrendous project.

A perhaps even better idea, but would take some more initial work, is literally retyping and relayout of the works. The beauty of this is that you end up with an editable "source" for the books that can be used to generate PDFs, or HTML, or whatever. It's also easy for ANYONE to contribute, because they would mostly just have to type text from the books, and that means that a lot more people can participate.

The hard part is setting up some macros for the page layout software and publishing a style guide for folks to use. The other hard part would be for things like tables. We'd also need scans of the art. But none of that is necessary to start the process. The most basic markup would be useful right off the bat.

But most of the books are simply bulk text. Once it got rolling I'd think it would go rather quickly if we had enough contributors. Imagine setting up a web page with some simple markup rules, and fields for book, page, and the page text. Any Joe with the book can sit down for 15 minutes and type a page in. With an 80 page book, and 80 Joes, we get one book in 15 minutes . So, unlike 9 mothers and 1 month baby, this project can scale.

You also end up with REAL text, not scans of text, so it's easier to cross reference, index, incorporate typo fixes, add hyperlinks, etc.

There's a book, called "Thinking Forth", that was basically out of print and literally digitally retypeset by a group of volunteers. They scanned and rekeyed the whole thing into LaTEX. The author was kind enough to let them redistribute the book for free (both in PDF form and the LaTEX source).

No, I don't expect MWM to free traveller, but getting the text rekeyed and laid out is still an interesting idea.

 

[whartung]

Send me a cleaned-up Hard Times in searchable PDF.

And while you're at it, send me the MT Players' Manual (third printing) in searchable PDF. (Don't send me the DTRPG version; they probably have a copyright or something).

PM me when you've got 'em ready.

Send me one of the books you want with the spine cut off (or with permission to have it cut off), get me permission to actually make the copy from the copyright holder, and then send me some assurance that the final result will be distributed to others (in some way -- i.e. you're not the only one getting the result of the work), and I'll do one book.

Then I'll write up my process, what tools I used, and how others can duplicate the effort.

I won't do it simply for one person, but if I knew everyone else would have the opportunity to get the result, then sure.

See, if I knew that by doing one book I would be helping others get the material, and also be getting the rest of the material myself (because others would be doing the same thing), then it's not a horrendous project.

A perhaps even better idea, but would take some more initial work, is literally retyping and relayout of the works. The beauty of this is that you end up with an editable "source" for the books that can be used to generate PDFs, or HTML, or whatever. It's also easy for ANYONE to contribute, because they would mostly just have to type text from the books, and that means that a lot more people can participate.

The hard part is setting up some macros for the page layout software and publishing a style guide for folks to use. The other hard part would be for things like tables. We'd also need scans of the art. But none of that is necessary to start the process. The most basic markup would be useful right off the bat.

But most of the books are simply bulk text. Once it got rolling I'd think it would go rather quickly if we had enough contributors. Imagine setting up a web page with some simple markup rules, and fields for book, page, and the page text. Any Joe with the book can sit down for 15 minutes and type a page in. With an 80 page book, and 80 Joes, we get one book in 15 minutes . So, unlike 9 mothers and 1 month baby, this project can scale.

You also end up with REAL text, not scans of text, so it's easier to cross reference, index, incorporate typo fixes, add hyperlinks, etc.

There's a book, called "Thinking Forth", that was basically out of print and literally digitally retypeset by a group of volunteers. They scanned and rekeyed the whole thing into LaTEX. The author was kind enough to let them redistribute the book for free (both in PDF form and the LaTEX source).

No, I don't expect MWM to free traveller, but getting the text rekeyed and laid out is still an interesting idea.

 

[whartung]

Send me a cleaned-up Hard Times in searchable PDF.

And while you're at it, send me the MT Players' Manual (third printing) in searchable PDF. (Don't send me the DTRPG version; they probably have a copyright or something).

PM me when you've got 'em ready.

Send me one of the books you want with the spine cut off (or with permission to have it cut off), get me permission to actually make the copy from the copyright holder, and then send me some assurance that the final result will be distributed to others (in some way -- i.e. you're not the only one getting the result of the work), and I'll do one book.

Then I'll write up my process, what tools I used, and how others can duplicate the effort.

I won't do it simply for one person, but if I knew everyone else would have the opportunity to get the result, then sure.

See, if I knew that by doing one book I would be helping others get the material, and also be getting the rest of the material myself (because others would be doing the same thing), then it's not a horrendous project.

A perhaps even better idea, but would take some more initial work, is literally retyping and relayout of the works. The beauty of this is that you end up with an editable "source" for the books that can be used to generate PDFs, or HTML, or whatever. It's also easy for ANYONE to contribute, because they would mostly just have to type text from the books, and that means that a lot more people can participate.

The hard part is setting up some macros for the page layout software and publishing a style guide for folks to use. The other hard part would be for things like tables. We'd also need scans of the art. But none of that is necessary to start the process. The most basic markup would be useful right off the bat.

But most of the books are simply bulk text. Once it got rolling I'd think it would go rather quickly if we had enough contributors. Imagine setting up a web page with some simple markup rules, and fields for book, page, and the page text. Any Joe with the book can sit down for 15 minutes and type a page in. With an 80 page book, and 80 Joes, we get one book in 15 minutes . So, unlike 9 mothers and 1 month baby, this project can scale.

You also end up with REAL text, not scans of text, so it's easier to cross reference, index, incorporate typo fixes, add hyperlinks, etc.

There's a book, called "Thinking Forth", that was basically out of print and literally digitally retypeset by a group of volunteers. They scanned and rekeyed the whole thing into LaTEX. The author was kind enough to let them redistribute the book for free (both in PDF form and the LaTEX source).

No, I don't expect MWM to free traveller, but getting the text rekeyed and laid out is still an interesting idea.

 

[robject]

whartung, if you are interested in taking the initial project on, a lot of us would be grateful. I'm not quite sure how to go about converting pages to searchable PDF; maybe you do.

I don't know, but I suspect that if you were to produce a proof of concept that you can create a decent PDF of Hard Times (doesn't have to be perfect the first time -- just has to be better than what we've got now... or at least a proof of concept), and send that to Marc with a short email explanation, he might be willing to deal. Taking that kind of action and then presenting the product to him for his approval or dismissal could grease wheels.

The point is that positive and appropriate action (i.e. not wasting Marc's time while also not going behind his back) can get approval.

If you did this, I would back you up to Marc (it can't hurt).

Of course, if you got a go-ahead, then you'd probably have to deal with Marc on a business level, because Marc has to manage distribution again, which may or may not be a pain in the neck.

At any rate, what you can do about it now is get the proof-of-concept done, then find someone (Colin Michael, for instance) who has Marc's ear, and is willing to tackle re-production of the product in whatever way Marc is willing to.

Really, in my mind that's the only way anything's going to happen. I could be wrong, but otherwise we're just sitting here doing nothing, and that won't get anything done.

 

[robject]

whartung, if you are interested in taking the initial project on, a lot of us would be grateful. I'm not quite sure how to go about converting pages to searchable PDF; maybe you do.

I don't know, but I suspect that if you were to produce a proof of concept that you can create a decent PDF of Hard Times (doesn't have to be perfect the first time -- just has to be better than what we've got now... or at least a proof of concept), and send that to Marc with a short email explanation, he might be willing to deal. Taking that kind of action and then presenting the product to him for his approval or dismissal could grease wheels.

The point is that positive and appropriate action (i.e. not wasting Marc's time while also not going behind his back) can get approval.

If you did this, I would back you up to Marc (it can't hurt).

Of course, if you got a go-ahead, then you'd probably have to deal with Marc on a business level, because Marc has to manage distribution again, which may or may not be a pain in the neck.

At any rate, what you can do about it now is get the proof-of-concept done, then find someone (Colin Michael, for instance) who has Marc's ear, and is willing to tackle re-production of the product in whatever way Marc is willing to.

Really, in my mind that's the only way anything's going to happen. I could be wrong, but otherwise we're just sitting here doing nothing, and that won't get anything done.

 

[robject]

whartung, if you are interested in taking the initial project on, a lot of us would be grateful. I'm not quite sure how to go about converting pages to searchable PDF; maybe you do.

I don't know, but I suspect that if you were to produce a proof of concept that you can create a decent PDF of Hard Times (doesn't have to be perfect the first time -- just has to be better than what we've got now... or at least a proof of concept), and send that to Marc with a short email explanation, he might be willing to deal. Taking that kind of action and then presenting the product to him for his approval or dismissal could grease wheels.

The point is that positive and appropriate action (i.e. not wasting Marc's time while also not going behind his back) can get approval.

If you did this, I would back you up to Marc (it can't hurt).

Of course, if you got a go-ahead, then you'd probably have to deal with Marc on a business level, because Marc has to manage distribution again, which may or may not be a pain in the neck.

At any rate, what you can do about it now is get the proof-of-concept done, then find someone (Colin Michael, for instance) who has Marc's ear, and is willing to tackle re-production of the product in whatever way Marc is willing to.

Really, in my mind that's the only way anything's going to happen. I could be wrong, but otherwise we're just sitting here doing nothing, and that won't get anything done.

 

[Ptah]

The first step of converting a PDF into a searchable PDF is pretty easy, go to "Document" on the menue bar then select paper capture, start capture. This does an OCR on the document. The next step is to clean-up the typos introduced.

>Document
>Paper Capture
>Start Capture

 

[Ptah]

The first step of converting a PDF into a searchable PDF is pretty easy, go to "Document" on the menue bar then select paper capture, start capture. This does an OCR on the document. The next step is to clean-up the typos introduced.

>Document
>Paper Capture
>Start Capture

 

[Ptah]

The first step of converting a PDF into a searchable PDF is pretty easy, go to "Document" on the menue bar then select paper capture, start capture. This does an OCR on the document. The next step is to clean-up the typos introduced.

>Document
>Paper Capture
>Start Capture

 

[Michael Schulz]

Soooo, as someone who owns some, but not all, of the books and Drive-thru PDFs, would y'all recommend these CDs?

 

[Michael Schulz]

Soooo, as someone who owns some, but not all, of the books and Drive-thru PDFs, would y'all recommend these CDs?

 

[Michael Schulz]

Soooo, as someone who owns some, but not all, of the books and Drive-thru PDFs, would y'all recommend these CDs?

 

[Gruffty]

Cad Lad: I've got nearly all the dead tree MT books and the CD ROM. I've found that the CD is very useful when writing stuff up - I have the CD open in Acrobat at the relevant book/page whilst I'm tippy-tapping on my own work. I can read and write without having a book constantly falling off the desk or my lap as I type, or the book closing on the page I'm reading.

The very few MT items I haven't got are on the CD ROM which makes it worth the cost as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Gruffty]

Cad Lad: I've got nearly all the dead tree MT books and the CD ROM. I've found that the CD is very useful when writing stuff up - I have the CD open in Acrobat at the relevant book/page whilst I'm tippy-tapping on my own work. I can read and write without having a book constantly falling off the desk or my lap as I type, or the book closing on the page I'm reading.

The very few MT items I haven't got are on the CD ROM which makes it worth the cost as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Swiftbrook]

A perhaps even better idea, but would take some more initial work, is literally retyping and relayout of the works. The beauty of this is that you end up with an editable "source" for the books that can be used to generate PDFs, or HTML, or whatever. It's also easy for ANYONE to contribute, because they would mostly just have to type text from the books, and that means that a lot more people can participate.

The hard part is ...

Getting the rights holders to say OK.

If you did that, you would have lots of volunteers and all of MT could be done in about a year. One book a month. Your process is a great idea. Count me in, for any part of it. Type, scan, layout, convert, and publish PDF. The first step, getting permission, should only take you about a lifetime though.

-Swiftbrook