News:

Printed Amstrad Addict magazine announced, check it out here!

Main Menu
avatar_Gryzor

OCR'ed pdfs of Amstrad Action

Started by Gryzor, 10:32, 15 March 11

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Gryzor

Hey guys!


Look what I found : http://www.demonoid.me/files/details/2576200/002130706434


From the description:
Quote
Amstrad Action Issues 1-117 complete (October 1985 - June 1995)

Amstrad Action was Future Publishing's first magazine, dedicated to the
CPC range of home computers. And it definitely was NOT an official
Amstrad publication.

These PDFs are the complied collections of page scans available on
public Torrent trackers. They've been OCR'd to allow text searching and
copying - this should prove very useful for the retro archivist who'd
like to have their own local searchable archive. They look great on most
PDF readers, including the iPad.

The OCR software has done it's best, but has struggled with some of the
more unusual fonts and layouts used, and some of the horrendous colour
schemes in the later issues. The relatively low DPI of the source images
doesn't help either, and paragraph formatting is a bit random at best;
again, this is worse in the later issues.

The file size is a bit larger than the combined size of the original JPG
images; I've done my best to make the PDF's as compact as possible
without losing image quality. Be grateful for cheap storage :)

More OCR'd scans will be periodically available - please check
http://retropdfs.wordpress.com for more information.

Thanks to Martijn van der Heide for the wonderful World Of Spectrum site
(www.worldofspectrum.org), and everyone on the WoS forums for help and
advice.

90's style "greets" to anyone formally or currently involved in the
Amiga scene, especially Pazza, Mic Flair, Violator, Denzil, Tango, Fat
Will, mUb and Maximan, and anyone else who read or wrote for LSD
Grapevine. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be ;)

I'm downloading - start downloading and share, too, I've asked permission to host them here... :)

Gryzor

Aaand, great news, I'll also have Amtix! soon, and ACU is in the works :)

Gryzor

Wow, search-able PDFs and the ability to copy text off AA is really great... sample copy from ish #1:

QuoteThe Showbiz Factor
In keeping with a venerable
tradition, Amstrad launched the
new machines at a showy press
conference > n central London
complete with a 'personality' to
guide the assembled hacks and
dealers through the details They
chose newsreader Richard
Whitmore. perhaps hoping that
someone from the BBC would
make us think we were listening to
the Nine O'Clock News rather
than a PR exercise
Whitmore stood at a lectern at
one side of the stage and started
off by taking us through The
Amstrad Story', or "How a
manufacturer of perspex hi-fi
turntable lids became a company
with a £100 million turnover'. Alan
Sugar was introduced. :o a ripple
of applause. He told us about the
6128, announced the 464 price
cuts, and then left.
Back to Mr Whitmore. who now
engaged in a dialogue with a
succession of actresses
pretending to be Amstrad's
computer competitors in the small
business stakes The first was a
charming, i f rather scatty, young
lady who left the stage with a flea
in her ear when we found out
she'd cost £5.000. Far too
expensive.
On came Charlie Chaplin, a
man who advertises IBM
computers, but who was here
impersonated by a woman. As far
as we could tell. He/she remained
silent, while Richard Whitmore
ruthlessly discovered that IBM
were also a bit pricey Exit
Charlie, speechless.
The next contender was a
cheeky cockney lady who told
some jokes while fluttering her
eyelashes She's always breaking
down, and she doesn't have a
servicing contract. She had to go.
Then on to the stage walked the
embodiment of the efficient
secretary smart business-suit,
hair swept back, owlish specs
She seemed a bit stuck-up at first
but soon melted enough to make
a few jokes - 'Mr Sugar, he's
such a sweetie.' I t quickly
became obvious that she was the
new Amstrad, the PC8256,
nicknamed Joyce - after Alan
Sugar's secretary
As Joyce warmed to the task of
telling us her specifications she
began to relax. First she took off
her glasses. Then she undid her
ribbon. Her long hair, free at last,
tumbled over shoulders. By this
time the audience were on the
edge of their seats. Where would
she stop?
Well, she stopped right there
and was replaced by a video in
which people from all walks of life
explained what they wanted from
a computer. Al l of them had
microphone wires trailing from
their ears. Many seemed to have
French accents, but that didn't
stop them from saying their piece.
Alan Sugar then returned to
give details of the 8256 and to
explain why it's a 'revolutionary
product'. Questions were asked,
answered, and finally the
audience filed out to get their
hands - at last on the 20 or so
machines which had magically
appeared outside.

Bryce

That make the Type-ins projects sooo much easier :) now why didn't we have that back in 1987 :(

Bryce.

AMSDOS

I simply don't understand why they have to throw in the whole kitchen sink with these magazines - you've got to me nuts downloading 3Gb at once!  ???
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3


KenD

Quote from: CP/M User on 10:18, 16 March 11
I simply don't understand why they have to throw in the whole kitchen sink with these magazines - you've got to me nuts downloading 3Gb at once!  ???


Fair enough - but each issue is an individual PDF within the torrent, why not just pick and choose which ones you want?


http://www.ehow.com/how_5146452_download-individual-files-torrent.html


AMSDOS

Quote from: KenD on 15:03, 16 March 11

Fair enough - but each issue is an individual PDF within the torrent, why not just pick and choose which ones you want?


http://www.ehow.com/how_5146452_download-individual-files-torrent.html

Sounds like a marverous idea if it would only let me do that!
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Gryzor

Quote from: CP/M User on 07:44, 17 March 11

Sounds like a marverous idea if it would only let me do that!

Well, I use μTorrent and when I add a torrent I have the chance to choose the files I want to download... which program do you use?

AMSDOS

Quote from: Gryzor on 09:23, 17 March 11
Well, I use μTorrent and when I add a torrent I have the chance to choose the files I want to download... which program do you use?

It gives me some stupid Maintenance rubbish which lets me do nothing!  >:(
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Gryzor

What give you "some maintenance rubbish" and what exactly is that maintenance rubbish?

AMSDOS

Clicked on this link earlier which gave me the maintenance message which wouldn't let me do anything but view their maintenance message!  ???  I just tried it again now which work, so I copied and pasted the URL (in unlinked form) from the message body into my web browser, which got me to the links with all the magazines in them, and clicked on Torrent which gave me this file (which failed to be attached in here) which I've got no idea what to do with it, are all the 3Gb of PDF files within this small 40k file?
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Gryzor

Ahhh you obviously never used torrents before. Well, welcome to a wonderful world then. And of course no, this little file does not contain acutal data of the magazines.

What it does contain is , simplistically (very much so), how to download this archive from other users who are have it in its entirety or parts of it. At the same time you'll be downloading from other users, you'll also be uploading to others the parts of the archive that you got.

Since it's a big archive I think it took me a day or two for it to finish downloading, but since then I've uploaded it over two times (and the Amtix! one some five times I think).

AMSDOS

Quote from: Gryzor on 18:56, 19 March 11
Ahhh you obviously never used torrents before. Well, welcome to a wonderful world then. And of course no, this little file does not contain acutal data of the magazines.

What it does contain is , simplistically (very much so), how to download this archive from other users who are have it in its entirety or parts of it. At the same time you'll be downloading from other users, you'll also be uploading to others the parts of the archive that you got.

Since it's a big archive I think it took me a day or two for it to finish downloading, but since then I've uploaded it over two times (and the Amtix! one some five times I think).

Unfortunately yes I've never touched this stuff before. I'm still confused what the file I downloaded means. I opened it in Notepad which gave me garbadge, opened it in Open Office Writer which appeared to be a bunch of links, is there some specific program I can download which takes that torrent file and allows you to select the Individual Files. I had a read of Downloading Individual Files, but I'm not understanding it and it doesn't seem to be relating back to the Torrent File I've got or any program which makes downloading seem easy - I tried what I thought might of worked and copied the link from the torrent file into my web-browser, but it doesn't work! (Not sure if it's because I'm downloading Adobe Reader 55Mb in size as I'm writing this!  :( )
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Devilmarkus

Quote from: CP/M User on 08:27, 18 March 11
Clicked on this link earlier which gave me the maintenance message which wouldn't let me do anything but view their maintenance message!  ???

Here the same. I think they like maintenance messages :D
When you put your ear on a hot stove, you can smell how stupid you are ...

Amstrad CPC games in your webbrowser

JavaCPC Desktop Full Release

Gryzor

Man, you didn't even read what I wrote earlier on :D

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+use+torrents

Try downloading μtorrent (utorrent.com I think?). Of *course* you need a special program to handle .torrent files...

Btw, by now I've shared AA 3 times and Amtix! 9 times... Also Zzap!64 5 times :D
Quote from: CP/M User on 10:34, 20 March 11

Unfortunately yes I've never touched this stuff before. I'm still confused what the file I downloaded means. I opened it in Notepad which gave me garbadge, opened it in Open Office Writer which appeared to be a bunch of links, is there some specific program I can download which takes that torrent file and allows you to select the Individual Files. I had a read of Downloading Individual Files, but I'm not understanding it and it doesn't seem to be relating back to the Torrent File I've got or any program which makes downloading seem easy - I tried what I thought might of worked and copied the link from the torrent file into my web-browser, but it doesn't work! (Not sure if it's because I'm downloading Adobe Reader 55Mb in size as I'm writing this!  :( )


AMSDOS

Quote from: Gryzor on 11:58, 20 March 11
Man, you didn't even read what I wrote earlier on :D

Not really, but then I haven't read anything helpful, unless it's encoded. Quotes which weren't written by you shouldn't be credited as being written by you, unless you want to be busted or something!  ;)

Quotehttp://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+use+torrents

Try downloading μtorrent (utorrent.com I think?). Of *course* you need a special program to handle .torrent files...

Ok.

QuoteBtw, by now I've shared AA 3 times and Amtix! 9 times... Also Zzap!64 5 times :D

I still don't know what that means! If it's on the Wiki that would be good!  ;D  (saves messing around with usless Torrent files).
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

Gryzor

Quote from: CP/M User on 01:51, 21 March 11
I still don't know what that means! If it's on the Wiki that would be good!  ;D  (saves messing around with usless Torrent files).

...yeah, and it takes up gigs of space and tons of bandwidth.

And, torrents useless? Ohhhh man..>!

AMSDOS

Quote from: Gryzor on 10:09, 21 March 11
...yeah, and it takes up gigs of space and tons of bandwidth.

And, torrents useless? Ohhhh man..>!

Sorry I keep forgetting this isn't the Yahoo Mail Servers!  ???

Well with the µTorrent program in play torrent files make a lot of sense!  ;D  It just seems to dump a few temporary files where the downloaded PDFs are going!  ???  Not a serious problem I guess!
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
Popular Computing Weekly Programs
Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

ssg

Yes it's straightforward to selectively download files in a torrent. Almost any client allows you to do that.


Whoever did this work should be directly sent to heaven. This is more than enough stuff to read in the bathroom :) Thanks for sharing.

Gryzor

Actually the mags themselves have been available for quite some time now (hey, CPCWiki is credited for the Amtix! issues in the relevant torrent package). It's the OCR that makes the difference here.

But, hey, indeed that's an awful lot of WC material :D God bless company printers - I've printed all of them, one time or the other... Most of them I re-read when I was in the army, bored out of my effin' mind.

CPCOxygen

If anyone interested they can download the OCR'ed PDF versions of Amstrad Action, one by one at http://www.cpcoxygen.net

Eight Bit Magazine The Number One Magazine for the 8-Bits.

Retro Format New Games - Old Hardware.

Gryzor

How much traffic are you getting from it?

Btw, you can add your link to the relevant pages of the wiki :)

scooby1970

I'm going to have to download this as I have a few letters in those letter pages!

:) Mark
Retro gamer by day, retro gamer by night.

Gryzor

Still seeding....

13,4xAA
23xAmtix! :)

Powered by SMFPacks Menu Editor Mod