Updated: My magazines platform in Bigbox

[JaysArcade]

See updated video below.

I recently set up a bunch of magazines as a platform in Bigbox. All the magazines were sourced from @RetroHumanoid on his Youtube channel and converted to CBR format. I use CDisplayEx as the reader. Works very well with an arcade cabinet using a keyboard controller (ipac4) but I understand CDisplayEX may have issues with game controllers. The clear logo can be found in the downloads section linked below. The video is some stuff I copied from the MetalJesusRocks channel of him flipping through some magazines. Music in the video is from OCRemix - Apex 2016: I Got Next - Track 2 The Path of Heaven (Street Fighter V) [Neblix]. I'm sure someone with more talent than me could make a much nicer video, but for now its a nice filler for the platform. Since I made this for personal use and didn't ask permission for the source files, I won't be able to share the video, but to be honest, It was really pretty simple to make if you have any video editing skillz at all.

Update: I've redone my magazine video. The video is a recorded hyperspin theme using an OCRemix track for the sound. See the youtube page for all the details including a download link for the media.

 

Edited February 12, 2017 by jaythompson
Updated video

[screwball69]

Ok this is a real cool idea, might add this to my big box when I get it

[eric]

yaa was thinking of doing something like this for " Nuts Magazine "  cool idea.

[JaysArcade]

I've updated the original post with a new video. I recorded an old Hyperspin theme and am using that now. I've decided to share the media if anyone is interested. The link is below.

https://mega.nz/#F!XwQzVKiJ!LILz81kKfirq1bai_Ug6ww

[elements604]

This looks great. Would you mind sharing your cover media? It is hard to come by.

[Pr0FiT]

On 5/23/2018 at 7:36 PM, elements604 said:

This looks great. Would you mind sharing your cover media? It is hard to come by.

After seeing this post I was inspired to set this up myself. Its actually pretty easy to generate your own "front box" images to use in LB.....

Requirements: pdftk, image magic

1. If cbr/cbz convert to pdf

2. Copy the cover page in the pdf to a temp file with a command like `pdftk <input file> cat 1 output <outputfile>

3. Convert the single page pdf to jpg with a command like `convert <input pdf> <output jpg>

 

Here's a script I wrote to automate it. This crops the first page off, copies the cover page, then converts it to a jpg. I got my set form retromags and they have a watermark or whatever you want to call it inserted as the first page on most scans so thats why I crop it out in the first step. Adjust paths as needed

 

@echo off

set im="C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.7-Q16\convert.exe"

::move converted cbrs to next folder
move /y cbr\*.pdf raw

for %%f in (raw\*.pdf) do (
	echo Processing %%~nxf
	
	::trim the first page
	pdftk "%%f" cat 2-end output "extracted\%%~nxf"
	
	::copy first page so it can be converted
	pdftk "extracted\%%~nxf" cat 1 output "imgpdf\%%~nxf"
	
	:: and convert the page to jpg
	%im% "imgpdf\%%~nxf" "images\%%~nf.jpg"
)

pause

 

For the scans that didnt quite match this (like maybe there was no watermark insert as the first page) you can use this script to fix it

Where

num=issue number (will glob all matches)

trim=start of range to include in the trimmed file, so a value of 2 would trim the first page, a value of 3 would trim the first two pages, a value of 1 would not trim any pages

page=the page in the trimmed file that is the cover shot you want, usually 1

so example usage would be: fixone.cmd 25 1 1  (process issues 25, include pages 1-end, cover page is page 1)

@echo off

set im="C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.7-Q16\convert.exe"
set num=%1
set trim=%2
set page=%3

for %%f in (raw\*#%num%*.pdf) do (
	echo Processing %%~nxf
	
	::trim the first page
	pdftk "%%f" cat %trim%-end output "extracted\%%~nxf"
	
	::copy first page so it can be converted
	pdftk "extracted\%%~nxf" cat %page% output "imgpdf\%%~nxf"
	
	::and convert the page to jpg
	%im% "imgpdf\%%~nxf" "images\%%~nf.jpg"
)

pause

 

Edited May 25, 2018 by Pr0FiT

[JaysArcade]

On 5/23/2018 at 7:36 PM, elements604 said:

This looks great. Would you mind sharing your cover media? It is hard to come by.

Its been a while since I did this but I believe I just used the script this guy posted on this page. http://comicrack.cyolito.com/forum/13-scripts/3052-extract-only-1st-page-in-archive-cover-page

I think it is the 1.1 version (post 3094) along with ComicRack of course. I just removed ComicRack when I was done as I didn't see any further need for it other than extracting the images.

You should read the whole thread because there is a change you make to the script to make the images rename the same as the file name of the comic. (post #3100)

[elements604]

8 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

Its been a while since I did this but I believe I just used the script this guy posted on this page. http://comicrack.cyolito.com/forum/13-scripts/3052-extract-only-1st-page-in-archive-cover-page

I think it is the 1.1 version (post 3094) along with ComicRack of course. I just removed ComicRack when I was done as I didn't see any further need for it other than extracting the images.

You should read the whole thread because there is a change you make to the script to make the images rename the same as the file name of the comic. (post #3100)

Thanks this worked, except i changed the line to remove "pagecover" from the extracted text so it matches better, destinationFilePath = destinationFolder + book.FileName + '.jpg'

[elements604]

Im now getting issues with the way the comics are numbered. Anyone know  a way to solve this? As they do not appear in order. 

[elements604]

20 minutes ago, elements604 said:

Im now getting issues with the way the comics are numbered. Anyone know  a way to solve this? As they do not appear in order. 

Never mind figured it out using renamer lite , adding the rule to add 00's infront of the single and digit numbers

[JaysArcade]

Yep. Some of those files were numbered funny. Had the sam,e issue if I recall.

[JamesBond@ge]

On 5/25/2018 at 4:48 PM, Pr0FiT said:

After seeing this post I was inspired to set this up myself. Its actually pretty easy to generate your own "front box" images to use in LB.....

Thanks for this mate. I started a platform of this ilk quite a while ago, and was manually screenshotting and cropping the covers of magazines (PDF's) for the box art but it was so cumbersome that I gave up after 30 magazines lol. Your post might inspire me to carry on with it.

[thegreatiandi]

Ummm...wait...you have digital game magazines?! 

I've never heard of this before. 

Most interesting....i think i want to try this! 

[AceEsCloud]

I'm actively working on this.  Have all the covers for GamePro, Nintendo Power, Electronic Gaming monthly and about 800 Prima strategy guides.  I am using Comic utility belt to copy the front cover to a .jpg format.  Issue is, some of the CBR / CBZ files get skipped during conversion (about 5-10%).  The ones that it skips, I convert to .pdf and then run it again.  This has been very successful although time consuming (nowhere near as bad as manually finding covers though).  I'm creating an emulator for each magazine so GamePro has an emulator called "CDisplayEX (Gamepro)" and Nintendo power has an emulator called "CDisplyEX (Nintendo Power)" etc.  "Magazines" is the parent category of all all of the different types of magazines.  This works well when viewing by "platform category".  Anyways, I'll keep working on this and try to get an upload together.  If anyone has anything to contribute please do, I need theme music, platform videos, platform clear logos, etc...  I'll try to create a torrent or something when I get further along.  

[AceEsCloud]

Attached is a torrent file which includes the image files for the front covers of the magazines listed below.  I also attached an example screenshot of what this looks like in launchbox.  Magazine covers in the torrent;

Nintendo Power (168)

GamePro (222) 

Electronic Gaming Monthly (153) 

Primka strategy guides (540)

These are just the images of the front covers.  If you download the magazines from RetroMags.com, the image file names in the torrent match the retromags .cbz files so you wont have to edit anything.  After importing as a platform, you simply drop your image files in the corresponding launchbox image folder and it should appear (eg.  C:\Users\Arcade\LaunchBox\Images\Nintendo Power\Clear Logo <---change your specific directory to whatever you created the platform in of course).  Don't forget to refresh your images in launchbox after putting them in the folder (veiw > media > refresh all images)...  I'm sure most people here know how to do this but I remember how frustrating it was learning some of this so maybe this helps one person who is new and was worth typing in the end...  I used CDisplyEX for the .CBZ files and SumatraPDF for the files in .pdf format.  This was simple, I opened each app pressed F11 for Fullscreen, set my preferred zoom level (so that you see the entirety of the page) then closed it and both apps retained those settings.

I downloaded the Prima strategy guides from internet archive.  I had to download wget.exe and put it in my c:\windows\system32 then download an emulated terminal app then enter the wget code that I linked below in the terminal.  You can find some info on this website on how to do this below (install cygterminal64 and wget.ext).  If your new to this, take your time;

https://blog.archive.org/2012/04/26/downloading-in-bulk-using-wget/

Here was the code I put into the cygterminal to download these strategy guides from internet archive (about 20 gb);

wget -r -H -nc -np -nH --cut-dirs=1 -A .pdf,.epub -e robots=off -l1 -i -B 'https://archive.org/download/Tekken3PrimasOfficialStrategyGuide1998'

I hope this helps.  I could really use platform image files, videos, music or anything like that that relates to this content so if you have some please post.  I am going to take a break from this for now but when I recover from being "burnt out" on this, I'll try to get some more magazine covers uploaded.  This was very painstaking because after I extracted the images, I literally cropped all of the strategy guides that were in front of white backgrounds.  This is cool as hell though and brings me back in time.  Anyways, if you need any help send me a message.  

-AceE

Magazine Images.torrent

[DerSchlachter]

@AceEsCloud You can also use this tool to download from archive.org 
 

 

[fespinoza831]

Are you setting the magazines as their individual platforms then putting them all in a magazine playlist?