FAQ
From Retromags
Rules of The Forum!
- No Linking to or Requesting (Roms, Warez, Keygens, Bios...etc) (Instant Ban!)
- No Posting Nude Pictures
- No Dodging the Curse Filter
- No Posting Racist Stuff
- No Flaming/Trolling
- No Spamming
- No Double Posting
- No Links or Pictures to Gross Stuff (Animal Cruelty, Mutilation, Dismemberment...etc)
- No 1 word replies, Your post should contain at least 2 coherent sentences.
- No Advertising other Websites (signature links are ok)
- No Requesting Video Game Magazines that are from 2000-Present!
- No Clone accounts/Duplicate accounts
FAQ's
What are the different user groups?
- Administrators = Admins Of The Site/Forum (3.6GB of Downloads Per Week)
- Super Moderator = Moderators Of The Site/Forum (3.6GB of Downloads Per Week)
- Newbies = Members who have 0-24 Posts
- Members = Members who have 25+ Posts (3 Direct Downloads Per Week)
- Premium Members = Members Who have Donated Magazines or Funds (1.8GB of Downloads Per Week)
- Premium Member ★ = A Lifetime Premium Member (1.8GB of Downloads Per Week)
- Team Member = Members who have helped scan or edit a magazine (1.8GB of Downloads Per Week)
- Super Team Member = Members who have helped scan or edit over 10 magazines (7.5GB of Downloads Per Month)
What are the different post ranks?
- 0= Newbie
- 5-25= Member
- 26-50= Advanced Member
- 51-100= Retromags Regular
- 101-250= Expert Member
- 251-500= Forum Dweller
- 501-1000= Postaholic
- 1001-2500= Retromags Pro
- 2501-5000= Retromagologist
- 5001-10000= Retromags Legend
Where can I download the releases from?
http://www.retromags.com/forums/downloads.html
How much am I allowed to download?
- Newbies = 0-24 Posts (Must use Rapidshare Links)
- Members = 25+ Posts (3 Direct Downloads Per Week)
- Premium Members = (1.8GB of Downloads Per Week)
- Team Member/Super Team Member = (7.5GB of Downloads Per Month)
What is a .CBR/.CBZ file and how do I read it?
.CBR stands for Comic Book Reader, You will need to install the reader. http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay
Why don't you guys use .PDF?
We stay away from PDF files because of the need for Adobe Acrobat Professional. Most of our members do not have access to this $400 program. Also due to limits on our hosting, we do not have ample storage to provide PDF versions.
Why don't you guys use torrents?
We used to distribute our releases with torrents, but no one would help seed. So we have stopped putting effort into using torrents.
Whats a .NFO page?
An .NFO file is basically just a text file that is accompanied by some of our releases. Just use Notepad to open these files. We have strayed away from creating these for new releases.
Where is this months issue of....
You wont find it here! We only deal with older magazines from 197x-1999
I have some old magazines, do you want me to scan them?
Absolutely, Click on the following! Scanning_FAQ
Who is Newsbot?
He is a Robot that posts news on the forum every few days. I hope to get rid of him in the future, so feel free to post gaming news in the Front Page section and a moderator will approve it
Can I advertise my website on Retromags?
Generally this is frowned upon, We ask that if you wish to link to your site....you do so through your Signature field in your profile. No huge banners, only text is allowed for such things. Also if we notice that your site has to do any of the following things (foreclosures, casinos, sex, pharmaceuticals, get rich quick) or anything similar to those we will remove your signature. Linking to your blog or emulation site in your signature is perfectly fine though.
About Premium Membership
Retromags is a small community and we realize that 98% of the people that come to this site are only here to download as many of our releases as they can and then leave. These are the same people who immediately stop seeding torrents once they have 100% and honestly this site is not set up to be beneficial to them. This site is set up for the other 2% of people visiting this site who are NOT leechers and wish to help us out. We give members of this site multiple ways to help us out and it is up to them to decide if they wish to help or remain part of the 98% of leechers. We created the Premium Members group to show who on this website has stood up and put forth an effort to make this site better. Premium Members are any member of the following groups....
- Premium Members
- Team Member
- Super Team Member
- Moderators
- Super Moderators
- Owner
How to become a Premium Member
Becoming a Premium Member is achieved through any of the following methods....
- Donating a Magazine/Game Guide (if in good condition)
- Scanning a Magazine
- Helping Edit a Scanned Magazines (Crop, Resize, Straighten up)
- Mention our website on your Emulation or Gaming Website
- By Joining Our Folding@Home team to help fight diseases (our team number is 54458)
- Donating a few bucks to help with purchasing hard to find magazines off Ebay
Helping Out in Other Ways
These are other things that you can help out with around the website that may or may not earn you a Premium Membership....
- Mentioning Retromags on your Website, Blog, Myspace,or Facebook page
- Using a Retromags signature on other forums you may belong to (if allowed)
- Distributing our releases on Binary Newsgroups
- Helping out on our wiki (listing contents of magazines or uploading cover shots)
- Posting interesting topics on the forum
- Helping Seed our torrents
About Folding@Home
Folding@Home is a distributed computing program. This program is free of spyware and viruses and runs in the background of your computer almost unnoticeable. It performs calculations and returns those results to the Folding@Home creators so that they may better understand diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, mad cow disease, cancer, Huntington's disease, cystic fibrosis, osteogenesis imperfecta.
Members of Retromags are encouraged to download this program and install it, a small icon will appear down where your clock is, if you right click on that icon a menu will pop up. You will want to choose "Configure..." and then go to the "User" tab and create a user name for yourself that matches your user name on these forums. You will also need to enter the Retromags team number which is 54458. Your results on how many Work Units you have completed will then show up on our Retromags Team Page. For every 25 Work Units that you complete you will earn 1 month as a Premium Member. If a member reaches 100 Work Units they will earn a 1 year Premium Membership. You can install this program and use the same user name on as many computers as you own, as long as your team number and name are the same they will show up as a combined total.
About Redoing Work
Let me start off by saying that Retromags appreciates EVERYONE who steps forward and lends a hand. Running a project such as this, where you depend on people to lend their time and effort free of charge...well it puts you in a tough situation. What happens when someone offers help, but there help is not of the highest standard? How do you approach such a predicament? Not everyone has a scanner that can scan 300DPI, nor do many people have a high end photo editing suite such as Photoshop. So do you dismiss such people wishing to help? How can you nicely say "Thanks for helping but can you improve on this aspect"? Well these common things that come up all the time.....So here is my official thought on the topic.....
When you count on people to step forward and help out, you cant really demand what their work quality should be. So if you see a contrast in work quality between certain members on this site, realize that each of them is putting forth time and effort for nothing more then a Thank You. But with that said, if you see a release and believe that YOU can do a better job....by all means go right ahead! I don't care if its a magazine that I personally did myself, if you believe that YOU can redo it better.....Go right ahead! I will not take offense to my work being redone....nor should anyone else.
The only thing that will not be tolerated is complaining about the quality of a members work! Our members do this out of the satisfaction it gives us to protect and preserve this aspect of gaming history.
About Distributing Releases
Members are welcome to distribute the Retromags releases in any of the following ways....
- Peer to Peer (Kazaa, Morpheus, etc)
- DC++
- Binary NewsGroups
- Private Torrent Sites (Demonoid, Black Cats)
- Public Torrent Sites (Mininova, Piratebay)
- File Storage Sites (RapidShare, MegaUpload)
The only thing that we ask is that you distribute the files as they were received and that you do not remove the "Thank You" page at the end of each of our releases. It would also be appreciated if when you distribute the Retromags releases on a torrent site (private or public) that you insert a clickable link back to the Retromags home page.
- Not Recommended = This magazine came from Retromags.com
- Recommended = This magazine came from www.retromags.com
About Using Material from the Releases
We realize that many members out there run fan websites and may want to remove an Article or Advertisement from one of our magazines releases for use on their website. We allow this but ask that if you remove a piece of the magazine release for use on your website that you create a clickable link back to Retromags each time you do so. For example, if you run a website that talks about Final Fantasy....and you want to pull a 3 page article out of one of the Retromags releases for use on your website or forum, we would ask that you create a link back to this website stating that the scans originated from here.
- Not Recommended - I got these scans from Retromags!
- Recommended - This Article came from EGM Issue 45 on www.retromags.com
On Recompiling Our Work
If you have downloaded any of our releases and wish to compress them down or rework them and such. We would ask that you not do so! If you feel as though you can improve on any aspect of the releases we have provided, you are encouraged to come and join our team. But we really would rather not have random people redoing our work and releasing it back out on to the internet. It causes confusion for people to see unauthorized reworks on the internet and its is generally seen as a slap in the face to the original people who worked on providing those scans. We do not provide any scans of work we did not do ourselves from start to finish, and we also do not recompile other peoples scans that we have found on the internet.....we hope you can show us the same respect.
Helping Out On The Wiki
For members that do not have scanners, we can always use a helping hand on our Wiki section. We hope to grow our Retromags Wiki to be the largest searchable database of video game magazines. We are always looking for people to add cover shots of magazines or to help list out the contents of a magazine. Also remember that the Wiki does not have a limit on the age of the magazine you are working on. If you want to list the contents for this months GamePro or a PSM magazine from 1995....you are welcome and encouraged to do so.
Our Wiki can be found at http://www.retromags.com/wiki
All About Wiki Code
Wiki code is fairly simple to understand, and the best part about it is there is plenty of tutorials. Most people will only need to know a handful of the code such as bold, underlined, bullets and font colors. Below I will list a tutorial for new users to get acquainted with MediaWiki,
Creating New Pages http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing_pages
Formatting http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting
Indexing Magazines Contents
One of the biggest reasons we started a wiki was to allow members to search for what magazines covered what games. If a member goes onto our Wiki and does a search for "Contra", then all the magazines that have articles or reviews for Contra should show up in the results. The amount of detail you wish to index is up to you, I would recommend listing down the sections of the magazine and then what is covered in each of those sections. Most magazines will have a Preview section for games yet to be released and a Review section for games that just came out....and most will have a password and cheat section also. Even if you don't own any gaming magazines, you can always index magazines that you have downloaded from Retromags. Most of the Nintendo Powers have been indexed already which can be viewed here...
Uploading Magazine Covers To The Wiki
Uploading magazine covers is very simple, if you have already scanned a magazine cover and wish to upload it.....just go to the following page.....
http://www.retromags.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Upload
You will need to be logged in to upload files to the Wiki, and then once you have uploaded the file you can show that uploaded cover on any page by using the following code.....
CODE [[Image:Filename.jpg]]
