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Magazines


funkymoose

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Hi,

 

I have a large retro gaming magazine collection in real format and PDF digitally. They are my passion as much as games themselves. Now i see in the new version you can read game manuals i was wondering whether it was possible to import your magazine collection like your roms somehow and read them from within the program with pad control etc? This would be awesome from my perspective and i cant be the only one who would benefit from this. Then again, maybe i am the only one sad enought to collect old mags!!

Anyone got any thoughts on this? A usable reader would be brilliant!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have magazines as their own platform, same with books, comics, and multimedia. You could also make a platform for each publication and then group them into a magazine category. I use SumatraPDF as the emulator.

sd.thumb.png.e1b62082453cec5441ca3461fb8182a6.png

Edited by Omen
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1 hour ago, DOS76 said:

Omen do you add all the artwork manually?

Yeah, I usually just screenshot the cover to get the art. I also had to use JoyToKey for controller support. I wish there was a way to set LaunchBox as the emulator and just use it's built in PDF reader.

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On 10/03/2018 at 4:35 AM, Omen said:

I have magazines as their own platform, same with books, comics, and multimedia. You could also make a platform for each publication and then group them into a magazine category. I use SumatraPDF as the emulator.

sd.thumb.png.e1b62082453cec5441ca3461fb8182a6.png

Nice! Any idea if it's possible to set up SumatraPDF so it opens full screen on start-up without the menu bar etc?

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  • 1 year later...
On 3/9/2018 at 1:35 PM, Omen said:

I have magazines as their own platform, same with books, comics, and multimedia. You could also make a platform for each publication and then group them into a magazine category. I use SumatraPDF as the emulator.

sd.thumb.png.e1b62082453cec5441ca3461fb8182a6.png

Resurrecting an old post, but I do love this idea.  I've created the platform but how exactly do I import the magazines?  I must be missing something obvious.  Thanks!

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13 hours ago, SirTay said:

Resurrecting an old post, but I do love this idea.  I've created the platform but how exactly do I import the magazines?  I must be missing something obvious.  Thanks!

just drag an drop them into your new platform to start the import process. I had to take the cover art from the PDF files, since the LB DB doesn't have magazines.

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6 hours ago, Omen said:

just drag an drop them into your new platform to start the import process. I had to take the cover art from the PDF files, since the LB DB doesn't have magazines.

I extracted the Cover art using the Comic Belt Utility but what folder do I import the actual .pdf and .cbz files?  I created a platform called 'Nintendo Power' and have it rolling up to a Platform category 'Magazines and Comics.'  The platform category shows up in Launchbox but not the platform itself (I assume since it's not recognizing any files).  So I put the files into the Games folder but still nothing.  

Sorry if I'm missing something basic but I really appreciate the assistance.  

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3 hours ago, SirTay said:

I extracted the Cover art using the Comic Belt Utility but what folder do I import the actual .pdf and .cbz files?  I created a platform called 'Nintendo Power' and have it rolling up to a Platform category 'Magazines and Comics.'  The platform category shows up in Launchbox but not the platform itself (I assume since it's not recognizing any files).  So I put the files into the Games folder but still nothing.  

Sorry if I'm missing something basic but I really appreciate the assistance.  

You can just import it like any rom file. If you have a utility to open the cbz and pdf files you can set that up as an emulator for the platform and link it to your comic platform name. Import the cbz or pdf for the comic into the platform you want it in. 

A platform will not show up until you import a file into it. Platform Categories though, will show up without and platform in it. 

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1 hour ago, Retro808 said:

You can just import it like any rom file. If you have a utility to open the cbz and pdf files you can set that up as an emulator for the platform and link it to your comic platform name. Import the cbz or pdf for the comic into the platform you want it in. 

A platform will not show up until you import a file into it. Platform Categories though, will show up without and platform in it. 

That worked!  Thank you both.

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  • 2 years later...
  • 1 year later...

I love being able to add electronic gaming magazines to Launchbox.  I use CDisplayEX to open and view them.  However, is there a better way that allows me to still use my game pad to view them?  I don't want to be forced to use the keyboard, when all my other games and navigation can be done with the game pad.  Thanks if anyone can help! :)

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So I've added Nintendo Power magazines to my collection, and took some time to remove an extra image file in each magazine that was making it display incorrectly in book view.  However for some reason when I use comicbelt utility to export the cover pages, it's not working.  This worked fine with other magazines.  Is there something I'm doing wrong, or any other options I'm overlooking, or software I should try?  Also, while I'm viewing magazines in Bigbox, is there a way to add a music theme in the background while I'm actually skimming through the pages?  I also read it was possible to eliminate the PLAY button, hide all the unneeded rom options on the left side, and magazines would just open up when selected?   Thanks if anyone could help me a little further :)

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7 hours ago, NicoDirkfan said:

So I've added Nintendo Power magazines to my collection, and took some time to remove an extra image file in each magazine that was making it display incorrectly in book view.  However for some reason when I use comicbelt utility to export the cover pages, it's not working.  This worked fine with other magazines.  Is there something I'm doing wrong, or any other options I'm overlooking, or software I should try?  Also, while I'm viewing magazines in Bigbox, is there a way to add a music theme in the background while I'm actually skimming through the pages?  I also read it was possible to eliminate the PLAY button, hide all the unneeded rom options on the left side, and magazines would just open up when selected?   Thanks if anyone could help me a little further :)

You should be able to just right click on the page and export it. I uploaded alot of my magazine covers and backs to make it easier for others to add some magazine collections, I added the whole set of Nintendo Power. You can find the downloads here:

 

Edited by KingSlayer420
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On 8/16/2023 at 8:44 AM, KingSlayer420 said:

You should be able to just right click on the page and export it. I uploaded alot of my magazine covers and backs to make it easier for others to add some magazine collections, I added the whole set of Nintendo Power. You can find the downloads here:

 

THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!   Love it!  I had to rename my magazine files to match, but totally worth it.  Is there also a way to play music in the background while reading magazines?  I guess that would be difficult to setup, since it's opening and closing Sumarta.  I wish I could just set it to play background music continuously while I'm browsing in my Magazines platform.  Thanks if you can share any ideas of how that might be possible. :)

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