Dreamcast Magazine Preservation (esp. France, Germany, Italy, but also UK & USA)

[lozz]

Hi all,

I've recently been looking into the various Dreamcast magazines that were published during the consoles heyday (for no other reason than curiosity).

I've found that there are some excellent full-run scans of certain mags available online - such as those for the official UK and US editions. However, from what I can see, a huge number of magazines have not yet been preserved (I.E. been scanned, and made publicly available online). It seems a shame to me that this is the case, and I am interested in the possibility of taking some steps to resolve this.

My initial searches (covering websites such as the Internet Archive, SegaRetro, RetroMags.com and the Out-of-Print Archive) lead me to believe that scans of the following issues of European and North American DC mags are currently unavailable:

DC Magazine (Spain) 4, 5, 6
DC Tips (UK) 1
DCM (USA) 1-4
Dreamcast Arena (Italy) 2-16
Dreamcast Galaxy (Italy) 1-10
Dreamcast Kult (Germany) 1-14
Dreamcast Losungen (Germany) 1-2
Dreamcast Magic (Germany) 1-9
Dreamcast Solutions (UK) 4 & 10
Dreamcast Trucchi e Soluzioni (Italy) 1-3
Dreamzone (France) 1-9, 11-20, 22-23, 26-28
Game Dream (France) 1-18

Before I set out on a labourious task of potentially acquiring and scanning some of the above magazines, I was hoping you folks could let me know if you happen to have an answer to either of the following questions:

1. Are you aware of any websites that are currently hosting scans of the specific magazine issues listed above? Please provide a link if so!

2. Are you aware of anyone who is actively undertaking a project to scan and upload any of the magazine issues above? If so, please could you share their name and contact details?

Of course, any other relevant information or comments would be most welcome, but I am particularly keen to get some clarity on what is already available and what may be in the pipeline (to avoid duplication of labour).

Cheers,

Lozz

[beanboy]

I've been trying to get my hands on some physical dreamcast magazines for a while now. Moreso the one with SoulCalibur in it. It was actually kinda tough to get them in game stores, here in the tropics. And when some game stores did get some, it would sell out immediately.

Check retrocdn.net
https://retrocdn.net/Category:Official_ ... (UK)_scans

[lozz]

Thanks for the link Beanboy. 'SegaRetro' is one of the sources that I checked when compiling the list above, and RetroCDN is basically part of the same website group, so unfortunately they don't have any of the missing issues I listed above.

I posted my initial message above on the RetroMags forum and on the SegaRetro forum some weeks ago, and nobody has chimed in to confirm that any of these magazine issues are already available, or are currently being scanned/prepared by anyone else.

Therefore I'm going to assume that these issues need preserving. I have a near complete run of Dreamzone (France) and about half of the issues of Dreamcast Arena (Italy), so will be making a start with scanning these in the near future. It is quite a laborious task and so I may also see if there are any other scanners who would be willing to take a donation of mags and split the workload with me.

[Tomleecee]

I have a copy of DCM from Fall '99, pretty sure I've got DC Tips issue 1 somewhere too. I'll have a look

[corrigo]

If you're looking for french magazines, you will find some of them here :

• Dreamcast, the official magazine : https://www.abandonware-magazines.org/a ... hp?mag=183
  Dreamzone : https://www.abandonware-magazines.org/a ... hp?mag=241
  Dreamcast Player : https://www.abandonware-magazines.org/a ... hp?mag=147

[pipporamone]

Hi there!

I have several italian copies (different editors) of italian Dreamcast Magazines.


Feel free to contact me in private, ready to help

[lozz]

Hi all,

Here's a little update on this project. I have managed to acquire the following magazine issues that are currently not digitally preserved and available online, all of which I am willing to donate or attempt to scan myself:

- DCM (USA): Issue 3
- Dreamcast Arena (Italy): Issues 3-6 and 8-16
- Dreamzone (France): Issues 3-6, 8-23, and 28-29

The trim size of DCM is smaller than A4 and so I will most likely aim to scan this myself. If the results are good with Issue 3 then I'll seek to acquire Issues 1, 2 and 4 and do the same with those.

Dreamcast Arena and Dreamzone both have trim sizes which are considerably larger than A4, and so will most likely require an A3 scanner. I am going to ask the folks at SegaRetro and RetroMags if there are any willing volunteers to take on scanning these - if there is then I will donate my copies and report back here.

If anyone has the issues of these three magazines that I'm missing (or any of those listed in the first post of this thread) then please do give me a shout. Please be aware that scanning is a destructive process though, as the magazine has to be debound into loose pages. Therefore, donating really does mean just that (donating, not borrowing), but it is for a very good cause!

Cheers.

[rjay63]

I own DCM Issue 2 (Winter 2000). My copy has my own (22/23 year old) notes added to the Soul Calibur strategy page so it's not in the best condition. Here is a low-quality video I uploaded a decade ago:

https://youtu.be/Xe-D9j4VVis

[lozz]

Hi all,

I'm pleased to report that this magazine preservation project of mine is finally beginning to bear fruit. The first 15 issues of Dreamzone have been scanned and are now publicly available online. A retrospective on this particular mag and some details about the project can be found in my Dreamcast Junkyard article https://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/ ... ssues.html

Once I've scanned and uploaded the remaining issues of Dreamzone, I'll most likely move on to two English magazines with short runs:

- DC-TIPS (UK, Future Publishing) 3 issues
- DCM (USA, Ziff Davis) 4 issues

I am still missing issues 1 and 4 of DCM though, so if anyone happens to be willing to donate these, they would be put to good use!

Cheers,

Lozz

[bjwoodruff]

Copy of these magazines would be amazing.