classic arcade graffix artwork package down to $999.00

[rlemmon]

One hell of a price drop. Maybe someone can get it and put it to good use. If I had the cash I would get it my self.

[Level42]

This is a bit sad isn't it, first they close-up business then they try to sell their artwork package for 7 grant and now it's only a seventh of that price.....probably no buyers.

A groupbuy is coming closer now ! Anyone willing to participate ?

[jhanson]

This is a bit sad isn't it, first they close-up business then they try to sell their artwork package for 7 grant and now it's only a seventh of that price.....probably no buyers.

A groupbuy is coming closer now ! Anyone willing to participate ?

Just wait another couple of weeks until it's down to $142.71.

[Kevin Mullins]

Link for those that are curious as to what you are refering to.

http://www.classicarcadegrafix.com/sunshop/index.php?action=news_template

[diverdown]

This is a bit sad isn't it, first they close-up business then they try to sell their artwork package for 7 grant and now it's only a seventh of that price.....probably no buyers.

A groupbuy is coming closer now ! Anyone willing to participate ?

I'll put in $50

Can the entire lot be hosted/available through BYOAC too?

[Level42]

This is a bit sad isn't it, first they close-up business then they try to sell their artwork package for 7 grant and now it's only a seventh of that price.....probably no buyers.

A groupbuy is coming closer now ! Anyone willing to participate ?

I'll put in $50

Can the entire lot be hosted/available through BYOAC too?

That would be nice, but I don't think the (former) classicarcadegrafix guy(s) will like that idea.....and it will take a LOT of harddisk space and bandwidth....

But I'll put in 50 bux as well, so there's only 899 to go....who's next ?

[arcadefever]

i put $50 

[slycrel]

I'll pledge in $50 assuming that saint (or someone who isn't going away anytime soon) will host/store the files so that they are freely available.

KevSteele, is  this too much of a grey area for you to get involved?  I don't know the legalities of reproduction artwork.  I'm sure there are a few issues selling it, but making plans for it freely available doesn't seem out of the question.  But again, I'm not sure where the legalities are.

[cw]

ill toss my 50 into the hat....

[rlemmon]

"That would be nice, but I don't think the (former) classicarcadegrafix guy(s) will like that idea....."

I don't think they would care beings there out of the business and if they did, too bad whoever buys it can do as they please. It Wouldn't be like they could sue you for something they sold and never owned the rights too in the first place. But who knows.

[CheffoJeffo]

I am not overly worried about what classicarcadegrafix would think since, apparently, much of the library was taken from other places/people without permission.

I've got $50 ...

Cheers

[Level42]

"That would be nice, but I don't think the (former) classicarcadegrafix guy(s) will like that idea....."

I don't think they would care beings there out of the business and if they did, too bad whoever buys it can do as they please. It Wouldn't be like they could sue you for something they sold and never owned the rights too in the first place. But who knows.

Very true, all that graphic art is copyrighted in some way and not by classicarcadegraffix. I don't mind if it's being hosted and freely available but why would I shell out the 50 bucks and the others nothing ?

Anyway, counter is at 6x $50,- = $300,-    $ 699 to go....

[davieboynj]

$50

in.

[edge]

I pledge $50.

[NinjaEpisode]

I'm down for $50

[mccoy178]

Count me in for $50.

[davieboynj]

whooah

we're halfway there...

whooah

Livin on a prayer  Take my hand and well make it - I swear  Whooah  Livin on a prayer  Tommys got his six string in hock  Now hes holding in what he used To make it talk - so tough, its tough Gina dreams of running away  When she cries in the night  Tommy whispers baby its okay, someday  Weve got to hold on to what weve got cause it doesnt make a difference If we make it or not Weve got each other and thats a lot For love - well give it a shot Chorus  Weve got to hold on ready or not  You live for the fight when its all that youve got

[NinjaEpisode]

whooah

we're halfway there...

whooah

Livin on a prayer  Take my hand and well make it - I swear  Whooah  Livin on a prayer  Tommys got his six string in hock  Now hes holding in what he used To make it talk - so tough, its tough Gina dreams of running away  When she cries in the night  Tommy whispers baby its okay, someday  Weve got to hold on to what weve got cause it doesnt make a difference If we make it or not Weve got each other and thats a lot For love - well give it a shot Chorus  Weve got to hold on ready or not  You live for the fight when its all that youve got

Thanks!  Now I've got that damn song in my head! 

[davieboynj]

be proud of your 80's heritage...  be proud. 

[JONTHEBOMB]

I have $50 to spare.

[JeepMonkey]

I'll throw in $50 if it is legal / BYOAC would host it.

[saint]

With due regret, BYOAC can't host it due to the question of copyright ownership of the various images. I hope to see a group buy succeed though!

[MaximRecoil]

What about the "Arcade Art Library"? Given this statement from that site...

I WILL be happy to let companies that specialize in printing arcade art promote themselves here (a "free" one-page ad) in exchange for a minimum donation of 3 high-res scans of quality arcade art per month.

...I would think they would be more than willing to host the files, assuming they have the resources to do so.

[somunny]

Put me down for $50.

[More Cowbell]

I'm in for $50 also.

[shardian]

Here is their ebay auctions for their printing equipment.
Ebay Link

[Level42]

With due regret, BYOAC can't host it due to the question of copyright ownership of the various images. I hope to see a group buy succeed though!

So where's your 50 bucks John ?



There are other ways of hosting...everyone still aboard ?

It's going fast and we're at: $699 - (8x$50)= Only $299 to go !!!

[shardian]

Exactly how big is this collection, data-wise. If the $50 includes a dvd collection copy of the artwork, I am totally in.

[CheffoJeffo]

http://www.arcadecompany.com/arcade-list.txt

Cheers

[JONTHEBOMB]

There are other ways of hosting...everyone still aboard ?

My $50 is still in the pot. 

To me it looks like we have three other possibilities:

1. Kevin over at Retroblast might be able to host the artwork.

2. mahuti here at BYOAC created and maintains the Arcade Art Library might be able to host the artwork.

3. One of us creates a site that can host the artwork.

Any other possibilities?

[RayB]

Perhaps donate it to MameMarquees ...

[ChadTower]

Do something a little less likely to get you a 20 page C+D letter, like set up a quiet little FTP site in the woods behind the big maple.

[JoyMonkey]

I'd be in for $50 too, but I can see how hosting something that size would be a major headache unless you've got a dedicated server to dump it all onto. All those high resolution bitmaps must take up a crazy amount of space; must be at least 400gb I'd guess.

I'm sure ArcadeGraffix wouldn't be pleased if we were to buy it and then just dump the artwork somewhere for anyone to download either; only the people that front the $$ should have access to the  artwork.

[shardian]

http://www.arcadecompany.com/arcade-list.txt

Cheers

I was not aware it was that big. I mean DAMN!

I started to add it all up from your link. I started from the bottom, and went up thru Star Wars. Someone else start at Star Trek and keep counting. I rounded of course

Current total: 106.3 gigabytes 

I don't see that being hosted any time soon. 

[CheffoJeffo]

It comes in around 400Gb for the $999 version of the collection:

http://www.arcadecompany.com/

Cheers,

[ChadTower]

I would be in pending details on how it would be available, when, and to whom.  $50 doesn't bother me but throwing $50 in on an undefined plan does.

[screaming]

I would be in pending details on how it would be available, when, and to whom.  $50 doesn't bother me but throwing $50 in on an undefined plan does.

I agree. I'm in for $50 on a plan.

[CheffoJeffo]

I've been trying to figure out how it might work.

400Gb is a lot to host and, moreover, a lot to move across the wire.

Folks are going to want local copies (I know I do), the additional cost of which will not be insignificant (e.g. 100DVDRs, hard drive).

We could choose a "lead" person, who we would pay and who would take care of the transaction and receive the files. This person should be someone most of us trust and be located in the USA (I guess I'm out on both counts!). That person would agree to make and ship 2 copies (at receiver's prepaid expense!) to other "members", who would agree to the same thing.

Not sure about a hosting option, although a closed FTP site (or 2 or 3) might be easiest (once you move the files).

Anybody ?

Cheers

[ChadTower]

I was thinking something similar, though I would try to negotiate a second copy as part of the purchase.  Two external hard drives would probably work, one each to two trusted holders.  We would always want more than one copy of the entire archive out there at any time in known locations.

Then a plan could be worked out to transport copies to each of the contributing members.  Perhaps they purchase their own similar hard drives and send them in to be filled.  Those people would (and the first two) would be free to do whatever they want with the artwork.  Put it on their own private FTP, sell or give away individual pieces, whatever they deem appropriate.

[shardian]

100 dvd's is an insignificant cost, compared to what you get. The question is who has the time to burn over 1600 dvd's? I think we need to find someone on here who is setup with one of those machines that make a bunch of copies. we had a cd-r machine when I worked for the government that could load 100 cd's burn them and lightscribe them.

So does anyone on here have access to a bulk dvd burner - preferably a dual-layer version? 

[ChadTower]

It's an insignificant cost but the usability is very low.  The bad disc rate would be a real pain in the ass, too.  Just labelling them with what is actually on each disc would take quite a while.

When I worked at Kodak we had mechanically fed CD burners... could do 16 in parallel and queue up something like 1000 blanks and/or originals (to be duped).

[shardian]

It's an insignificant cost but the usability is very low.  The bad disc rate would be a real pain in the ass, too.  Just labelling them with what is actually on each disc would take quite a while.

I think "Arcade Art - Br thru Bt" Or something like that would be plenty for a label.
An index Word file on the 1st disc could be referrenced for finding a specific file.

[Ninten-doh]

Count me in for $50 as well.   

[ChadTower]

I think "Arcade Art - Br thru Bt" Or something like that would be plenty for a label.
An index Word file on the 1st disc could be referrenced for finding a specific file.

Right, but we're talking about upwards of ninety single layer DVDs.  At the very least it would need to be dual layer just to reduce the failure rate.

[shardian]

So does anyone on here have access to a bulk dvd burner - preferably a dual-layer version? 

Way ahead of you Chad.

[shardian]

Even with a high end burner, that would be a TON of hours devoted to making copies.

The feasibility of this project may be too great, I am afraid. 

Another option would be to tag-team the burning with a partner. We could pair off, and each person of the team could copy 50 dvd's. Then each would ship the other guy his copy. In this case, we would all have the same amount of time and money invested.

[ChadTower]

I've been involved with way too many community projects like that where people not completing their tasks, or taking months to do it, became a huge hassle.

I suspect that given the volume involved, and the total cost of the material, that hard drives would definitely be the way to go.  This isn't like a ten disc MAME set.

[edge]

Taking a quick look at pricewatch.com, I think we can get 400GB external USB or Firewire drives for about 150-175.  If we do a group buy, we maybe able to get it even cheaper.  It looked like some of resellers would offer discounts.

I think, with this much data, hard drives would be the only way (and easiest way) to go.  It will cost more, but would be worth it.

[MaximRecoil]

The set price which includes the USB Drive and all listed artwork is $999.00.

Who would keep the USB hard drive that the artwork comes on? A drive that can hold 400 real GB of data would have to be bigger than 400 of the fake marketing-friendly hard drive GB's, and as far as I know, the next size up jumps to 500 GB. An external USB 500 GB hard drive is two or three hundred dollars alone.

[screaming]

Won't kinkos, or someplace, duplicate DVDs for us?  I wonder how much they cost?

[ChadTower]

Who would keep the USB hard drive that the artwork comes on? A drive that can hold 400 real GB of data would have to be bigger than 400 of the fake marketing-friendly hard drive GB's, and as far as I know, the next size up jumps to 500 GB. An external USB 500 GB hard drive is two or three hundred dollars alone.

If the cost jumps too much I wouldn't mind going to an internal IDE.  You can get external USB housings for IDE drives fairly cheap.

[screaming]

What about splitting up the duplicating work amoung us that have DL DVD burners? How many are there?

[MaximRecoil]

Who would keep the USB hard drive that the artwork comes on? A drive that can hold 400 real GB of data would have to be bigger than 400 of the fake marketing-friendly hard drive GB's, and as far as I know, the next size up jumps to 500 GB. An external USB 500 GB hard drive is two or three hundred dollars alone.

If the cost jumps too much I wouldn't mind going to an internal IDE.  You can get external USB housings for IDE drives fairly cheap.

Well, a USB hard drive is included in the $999 price in the first place, so technically the files themselves cost $600 or $700 and the rest of it is going for that USB hard drive...and whatever the book they include costs.

I'm not sure why people are talking about buying hard drives or DVD's to put the files on, since it already comes on a hard drive that is included in the $999 price...unless the plan is to give all the financial contributors complete personal copies of the files, in which case you are talking twenty 500 GB hard drives, not just one; and it raises the total cost to about $5,000 at least, meaning each contributor needs to come up with $250, rather than $50.

Now if whoever is going to host the files has a dedicated server that they leave on 24/7/365, then they could simply plug the included HDD into their server and call it good. I see this scenario as unlikely. More likely is, that whoever ends up hosting the files, does so through a hosting service, and they will have to upload all those files to the hosting service's server (uploading 400 GB is no small task in and of itself). In which case, that leaves someone with a "free" 500 GB USB HDD; though I suppose it could be sold and the money split up among the contributors.

Another option would be that the person hosting the files keeps the USB HDD with the provision that it is not a gift for personal use, but an official backup copy of the files.

[JONTHEBOMB]

Well were not quite to the mark yet.

19 members x $50 = $950

Names of members contributing $50:
(Please say something if you would like to be taken off the list)

- diverdown
- Level42
- arcadefever
- slycrel
- cw
- CheffoJeffo
- davieboynj
- edge
- NinjaEpisode
- mccoy178
- JONTHEBOMB
- JeepMonkey
- somunny
- More Cowbell
- shardian
- JoyMonkey
- ChadTower
- screaming
- Ninten-doh
- Kremmit
- Oddfeld
- MameMaster!
- Truecade
- Jabba
- Nannuu
- NickS
- woodygjw

Still room for one more!

We have hit the $1000 mark, but we do need to decide if we should let more join.  Opinions?

We are still adding more people at this time.

[Kremmit]

Guess that better be me, then.   Yay for me! 

[JONTHEBOMB]

Through research I have come up with some plans.

Plan 1

We put the artwork on discs.

400GB / 5GB (about the amount of data that can fit on a DVD-R) = 80 discs

A 50 pack of DVD-Rs costs $30 x 2 = $60 = 100 DVD-Rs

In addition a service like kinkos could perform the copying.

So the cost would be $60 + kinkos service = I will call when I wake up tomorrow and find out.

Plan 2

We put the artwork on 500GB harddrives.

External 500GB hardrives cost $200 each.

Chad, you mentioned an internal harddrive with a USB 2.0 enclosure.
Unfortunately, I found that a USB 2.0 enclosure that supports a 500GB harddrive costs $30 and a 500GB internal harddrive costs about $200.

Plan 3

We put the artwork on 80GB harddrives.  One member would keep the original.

400GB / 10 parts = 40GB

This is how we would split it up:
Two 80GB hardrives have part 1 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 2 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 3 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 4 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 5 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 6 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 7 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 8 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 9 of the artwork
Two 80GB hardrives have part 10 of the artwork
One person would have the master if say both harddrives containing part 4 of the artwork didn't work.

External 80GB harddrives cost $60 each.
Internal 80GB harddrives cost $41 each.
USB enclosure that will support 80GB harddrive costs $19.

With this plan everyone would have to be willing to share their 80GB harddrive with everyone else.  Also, we could trade harddrives say one person wanted part 9 of the artwork, but had part 3.

Plan 4

We come up with another plan. (This plan took the most research. )

Note: All these plans will require shipping costs too.

[mccoy178]

I nominate Level42 to handle the collection of money and the purchase.

[NinjaEpisode]

To me, buying a 400-500 gb HD for this material is a minimal expense considering the contents.

I only need access to the original drive once.  I'll buy a drive to copy all the goods.  Once I have them, I'll gladly share them at no cost, as needed to anybody who needs a specific marquee, or cpo, or whatever.   

Getting someone to host 400gb worth of files and then allowing people to freely download them, would take a HUGE pipe.  Look at it, 3 people download the entire collection and just like that, you've done a terabyte of traffic.  That just doesn't seem feasible.

[CheffoJeffo]

Agree with NE and like some of screaming's ideas ...

Perhaps we can have those folks who are happy to buy a 500Gb drive (me!) and they get a full copy.

Those who don't want to buy 500Gb drives can have partial copies if they want (need to work out the details, but I like screamings plan for "coverage"). If, in the future, they opt for a full copy, they contact the folks with a full copy and arrange.

Everybody is free to provide specific artwork (as opposed to just a bulk copy) they have to anyone else.

Cheers

[Oddfeld]

If you still need more money, I'll go in for $50.

If you want to ease the logistics of collecting $1000 and possibly hundreds more for hard drives or hosting or whatever, might I suggest something like http://www.fundable.org/?

They skim 7% of your cash, but it saves the hassle of refunding money if your group purchase never hits its target.

[screaming]

Plan 1

We put the artwork on discs.

400GB / 5GB (about the amount of data that can fit on a DVD-R) = 80 discs

A 50 pack of DVD-Rs costs $30 x 2 = $60 = 100 DVD-Rs

In addition a service like kinkos could perform the copying.

So the cost would be $60 + kinkos service = I will call when I wake up tomorrow and find out.

  A 100 pack of SL DVDRs ccosts $20 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817132389

  A 25 pack of DL DVDRs costs $36 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817132394

  At 6x the price, and considering the market penetration of SL DVDR drives, it seems that SL is the way to go.

  I still suggest we get some form of DVD burning tree going. I'm in for a couple sets to mail out to people.

[NinjaEpisode]

If you still need more money, I'll go in for $50.

If you want to ease the logistics of collecting $1000 and possibly hundreds more for hard drives or hosting or whatever, might I suggest something like http://www.fundable.org/?

They skim 7% of your cash, but it saves the hassle of refunding money if your group purchase never hits its target.

Nice find.  If we went that route, we'd be looking at $53.50 per person to cover the 7%.

[CheffoJeffo]

If you still need more money, I'll go in for $50.

If you want to ease the logistics of collecting $1000 and possibly hundreds more for hard drives or hosting or whatever, might I suggest something like http://www.fundable.org/?

They skim 7% of your cash, but it saves the hassle of refunding money if your group purchase never hits its target.

Nice find.  If we went that route, we'd be looking at $53.50 per person to cover the 7%.

Or add another person ...

Cheers.

[JoyMonkey]

I'd be willing to host a scaled down version of the collection; every image could be resampled to a more manageable web-friendly size with Photoshop's batch convert function. Then I could make a thumbnail gallery of all those scaled down images. Then if anyone wants the original full-size version of something I could email it or put it on a shared FTP or something.

Might be a good short-term solution while the full logistics of the distribution are figured out.
 

[NinjaEpisode]

I'd be willing to host a scaled down version of the collection; every image could be resampled to a more manageable web-friendly size with Photoshop's batch convert function. Then I could make a thumbnail gallery of all those scaled down images. Then if anyone wants the original full-size version of something I could email it or put it on a shared FTP or something.

Might be a good short-term solution while the full logistics of the distribution are figured out.
 

I could mirror said site and do the same with JM's permission of course.

[screaming]

I was thinking the same thing.. Even implementing some sort of full-size request system..?

[CheffoJeffo]

I believe Mike has generated thumbnails (about 200Mb) ... interesting (and good) idea.

I am also happy to burn 2-5 of sets of DVDR in a tree.

Cheers

[ChadTower]

Well, a USB hard drive is included in the $999 price in the first place, so technically the files themselves cost $600 or $700 and the rest of it is going for that USB hard drive...and whatever the book they include costs.

Reasonable data management practice demands multiple copies at all times.  That means at least two drives making up at least two full copies of the entire dataset.

Now if whoever is going to host the files has a dedicated server that they leave on 24/7/365, then they could simply plug the included HDD into their server and call it good. I see this scenario as unlikely.

The plan, as it stands now, most likely doesn't include hosting or making them freely available.  It does not preclude that possibility if one of the buyers so chooses. 

[screaming]

We have 3 "hosters" so far.  What if we split up the collection?  400GB is pretty tough, but 100GB maybe? 50GB maybe? What's the limit?

I could reasonably do 50GB. 100GB, probably, at least until the collection is propagated through the group.

[ChadTower]

400GB / 5GB (about the amount of data that can fit on a DVD-R) = 80 discs

It's not 5g, it's a MAX of 4.6g, with a more likely scenario of 4-4.5g or so.  That pushes it to closer to 95 discs if you play conservatively (and this isn't exactly a dinner bill here, play safe).

Another possibility is SATA 400G drives.  Looks like they can be had for around $120 before shipping.  That probably brings us just under the actual capacity needed, though, so it is probably prudent to find out the exact size requirements.  If it's 450G, we come up with another plan.  If it's 410G, perhaps we just eat the extra size in a couple of DVDRs to bring the cost down.  There could be a lot of crap in there that most people aren't going to want or could be pulled out to "cold storage" because it will rarely if ever be accessed.

[NinjaEpisode]

We have 3 "hosters" so far.  What if we split up the collection?  400GB is pretty tough, but 100GB maybe? 50GB maybe? What's the limit?

I could reasonably do 50GB. 100GB, probably, at least until the collection is propagated through the group.

I like the idea of just hosting thumbnails and lower res images as needed then fulfilling requests as needed.

[JoyMonkey]

Looking through the file list, there's a lot of ridiculously big PSD and TIFF files in there. The 005 marquee is 300mb, the 10 Yard Fight CPO is over 350mb, Cops N Robbers has a bunch of files over 400mb.

If the PSD files are final, I see no point in keeping these that way. They could be flattened and saved as jpegs.
The TIFF files can also be saved as high quality jpegs without loosing any noticeable quality, or even saved as TIFFs with zip compression.

Converting files this way, I'd imagine the entire size of the collection could be cut in half.

[screaming]

good point, to both NE and JM.

[NinjaEpisode]

Given JM's idea, theoretically, that would mean a 250gb drive with enclosure would work, keeping the price point right at $100 bucks for the HD and enclosure.  Not bad if you ask me.

[JoyMonkey]

Here's an Excel spreadsheet with the filenames and filesizes (sortable). The biggest offender is the Martial Champion Sideart; weighing in at over 2gb!

[screaming]

...which is a little large to be downloading anyway..

[shardian]

I really don't want to do the HD route. DVD's are cheap and replaceable. If any one of us loses or ruins a dvd, any other guy can hook said person up with a replacement. I also don't want to spend $100-$200 on a HD just for this artwork. I think it would be neat to have, but I don't want it that bad.

I would be willing to burn a copy.

I like the idea of trimming and zipping the majority of the files, especially the lesser known titles.

I also like the idea of using this fundage site.
If joymonkey is offering to cut down the file size, then it would theoretically save us all time and money in burning dvd's. That money savings (around $20 probably) should go into a separate account to be payable once the job is completed for his services. That seems like it would be a time consuming job.

[JoyMonkey]

We won't know exactly how much storage we're dealing with until we get the drive and start going through it all.

I say we start collecting money now (it's paydal after all) and immediately make a web gallery as soon as we get the drive. We could use any of the freeware gallery scripts that allow comments on each image; we can use the comments to submit and fulfill requests for the full size images.

Whoever has a large hard drive to spare can immediately get a copy of the full thing exactly as it is.

Then the crazy big files can be started to be converted to a more manageable size (as small as possible without loosing any noticeable quality). Once they're all sized down a DVD mailing tree will be much more manageable.

[JoyMonkey]

And FYI, the total file size (from the Excel spreadsheet) is 344.92 gigabytes.

[screaming]

Do we have a volunteer to collect and manage this thing?

[markrvp]

To confirm what JoyMonkey is saying...

By converting the full-size Tiffs and PSD files down to JPEGs at a quality of 10 in Photoshop, you can get this whole collection down to less than 25% of its current size.  PSDs, especially if they are in layers, are big bloated files.  I kid you not, when I work with photographs I can have a PSD file that's 1 gig down to under 1 MEG and still get great quality by flattening the image and then saving as a JPEG at QUALITY 10.

I would suggest that 1 person keep the original drive, another person keep an EXACT DUPLICATE of that drive.  These two people are the "caretakers."  Once that's in place, convert all the files to JPEGs and make a DVD tree.  20 DVDs at MAX, probably less for the whole collection.  Then, two people still have the original files which could be available on request.

[ChadTower]

Would print quality be lost if converted to JPG?  Honestly, I can see reducing some of it, but say a person wanted to derive something from one of the pieces that had been converted to JPG?  One of the reasons I'd want to buy it is for the source material, not just the printable image files.  Source material is a lot more valuable than the compiled result.

[screaming]

I can't imagine that these are "source material". Aren't they just hi-res scans?

[markrvp]

Would print quality be lost if converted to JPG?  Honestly, I can see reducing some of it, but say a person wanted to derive something from one of the pieces that had been converted to JPG?  One of the reasons I'd want to buy it is for the source material, not just the printable image files.  Source material is a lot more valuable than the compiled result.

Print quality would not be lost.  The only time you lose visible quality with JPEGs is if they are compressed OVER and OVER.  If the PSD files have layers where each part of the artwork is a separate layer, then YES there is great value to that to make your own NEW artwork from the different pieces.  However, if you just want the art as it is, then you are doing yourself a service to flatten the image and save it as a JPEG as we do with all our final images in our portrait studio once they have been retouched.

I can't imagine that the TIFF files are in layers.  Those should definitely be re-saved as JPEGs.

[JoyMonkey]

The PSDs probably aren't in any useful editable form anyway, but the original PSD files would still be available from "the caretakers" if needed.

[ChadTower]

Okay.  So, given that this guy is a professional printer (or at least was), how reasonable is it of us to just assume that all of the PSD/TIFF files are only bloat and not actually stuff with layers and separations that make those heavy formats necessary?

I think we've reached the point where we can't really make much more useful discussion until the data is in hand and can be evaluated.

[CheffoJeffo]

Thanks JM and markrvp for the latest insights ...

I would possibly extend markrvp's suggestion and suggest that any "member" who wants an exact copy can have one (so nobody feels that they get shortchanged on "source material"), if they provide a 400Gb drive. Then proceed with flattening/conversions for DVD sets for everybody else.

Plan sounds solid to me.

Now, who wants to coordinate ?

Cheers

[ChadTower]

I would possibly extend markrvp's suggestion and suggest that any "member" who wants an exact copy can have one (so nobody feels that they get shortchanged on "source material"), if they provide a 400Gb drive. Then proceed with flattening/conversions for DVD sets for everybody else.

That does sound like it works.  The cost in that situation is borne by the individual's choice, and copying to a 400G drive is actually easier than making 25 DVDs.

[JoyMonkey]

If nobody has any objections, I'll start one of those fundable.org groups to get this thing rolling.
Does anyone know if shipping is included in that $999 ?

[NinjaEpisode]

You'll probably want to contact Classic to get full details.

[ChadTower]

Another thing that concerns me:  this guy has a ---smurfy--- rep, for quality, for customer service, for shipping, pretty much the whole picture.  And we're considering sending the guy a thousand dollars without inspecting the merchandise.

Are we doing something stupid?

[More Cowbell]

You guys have been busy this morning. I agree with the plan to do it on a person by person basis so everyone can decide what form they want their files in. I prefer the scaled down jpegs on a hard drive.

I guess this makes us the Fellowship of the Art.  

[MameMaster!]

I'm in for $50....and why not just do a drive mailing of this?

Person one copies the files (so we have a safe copy)....mails the drive to the next person etc. etc.

That way EVERYONE has a copy and it will safe on their personal HD.

[JoyMonkey]

Another thing that concerns me:  this guy has a ---smurfy--- rep, for quality, for customer service, for shipping, pretty much the whole picture.  And we're considering sending the guy a thousand dollars without inspecting the merchandise.

Are we doing something stupid?

I wouldn't even think about sending him any cash without first seeing a couple of samples picked at random out of his file list.

[ChadTower]

Oh, ech... just reviewed the listing, there is no pinball art in there.  That is a major interest for me... doesn't reduce it enough to bail, though.  He also says in one place that there are no multigame art pieces in there but lists them anyway in the breakdowns.

There is definitely a LOT of bloat in there...

Code: [Select]

   
276,972,933 Playboy Pinball backglass poster -folded.tif
299,117,037 pinbot poster.tif
751,126,808 peter-packrat_cpo1.psd
542,290,608 pit-fighter_marquee.psd
525,589,917 point blank sideart bot.tif
562,488,537 point blank sideart mid.tif
520,396,509 point blank sideart top.tif
471,992,911 police-trainer_sideart.psd
327,200,637 POW bezel.tif
306,651,057 Prehistoric Isle bezel -cutoff.tif
489,801,837 Road Burners header.tif
Directory of H:\R\RoboCop     ->   1,925,415,683 bytes
Directory of H:\R\Run & Gun   ->   1,359,489,949 bytes


That's just SOME of the gigantic stuff that could be chopped down as suggested.  So really, if we cut out the less desirable bloat, but keep the source material for the actual classics, we could still cut this sucker down but a strong double digit percentage and not lose a ton of usable classic source.

I would definitely suggest we take a close look at the Star Wars art as part of our evaluation.  Looks like there is a LOT in there and that is some of the largest value in the lot.

[Kremmit]

I used to work in the printing biz, and .jpg was a big no-no.  You always, always wanted .tif or .psd.  Now, it's been a few years, and maybe things have changed, but I definately lean towards a full, un-edited set.  On an HD; a giant set of DVD-Rs is crazy talk.

We're also going to have to decide just how many versions of the collection we are willing to create/manage/distribute.  Obviously, there are going to be full, un-edited sets- but then we're talking about a thumbnail set, a "useless files removed" set, a "compressed to .jpg" set- is that all? 

[ChadTower]

I used to work in the printing biz, and .jpg was a big no-no.  You always, always wanted .tif or .psd. 

That's my recollection from when I worked in animation.  That was the late 90s, though, and mark is a professional photographer/portrait studio operator, so I trust his opinion has real weight behind it.

[shardian]

a giant set of DVD-Rs is crazy talk.

It is alot of work up front, but I plan to tuck my set tidily into the bottom of one of my cab's. It's not like I am going to be accessing it all the time or if at all to tell the truth, so it is wasteful to put a $150 hd on the shelf somewhere just to collect dust.
I just think it would be neat to own a major collection of arcade history. 20 years from now, all this art will be long gone.

Personally, I think we should look to see if the CAG guys are located close to one of us in the group buy. Maybe they would let said person inspect the hard drive in person. They are in SO CAL. Anyone in here in the same area?

[Truecade]

I'm in for $50.  Just let me know where/how/when to pay.

My preference would be one of the following:

1) Compress all of the images to high quality .jpg files and hopefully burn to a small number of DVDs.  Honestly though, whoever does this is looking at a major time committment and needs a fairly powerful PC.  I also think whoever does this should keep the original external HD for their efforts.

2) I can send a 500GB external HD to whoever is the "caretaker" for the original with a pre-paid return shipping label.  After I get my copy, I would be happy to make additional copies for anyone who sends me their external HD with pre-paid return shipping label. This is my prefered option.

Here is a 500GB external drive for $185 shipped. 

Thanks,
Ken

[shardian]

In order to reduce the price we have removed the original raw scans which were real space hogs. These raw scans were not needed for most items since they had cleaned Photoshop versions already available in the collection. The few pieces that have not been cleaned still include the raw scans so every piece is still in the collection.

Has this little tidbit been noticed before? Apparently alot of those big files are already gone from the list. Wonder what the new actual total size is?

[ChadTower]

Has this little tidbit been noticed before? Apparently alot of those big files are already gone from the list. Wonder what the new actual total size is?

It appears as though the stuff being listed is after this was done.

[screaming]

Has this little tidbit been noticed before? Apparently alot of those big files are already gone from the list. Wonder what the new actual total size is?

It appears as though the stuff being listed is after this was done.

  Why? I was going to say the opposite.

[ChadTower]

Taking a closer look, I do see a lot of PSDs right next to a MUCH smaller JPG.

Of course, we don't know for sure those PSDs don't have more useful info (e.g. layering) than the JPGs do.

[Oddfeld]

Has this little tidbit been noticed before? Apparently alot of those big files are already gone from the list. Wonder what the new actual total size is?

It appears as though the stuff being listed is after this was done.

  Why? I was going to say the opposite.

It looks like the 400gig set is after they've weeded out the extra files, their website says this:

By removing the large unneeded scans we have reduced the size of the collection to under 400gigs.

I particularly like this quote though  :

No one can argue that the full collection is well worth the $7k price tag

[markrvp]

I used to work in the printing biz, and .jpg was a big no-no.  You always, always wanted .tif or .psd.  Now, it's been a few years, and maybe things have changed, but I definately lean towards a full, un-edited set.  On an HD; a giant set of DVD-Rs is crazy talk.

A lot of that was because people would bring 640x480 size JPEGs from their digital camera and want to use those in their print material.  Because the consumer had no understanding of pixel dimensions, places started saying "NO JPEGs."

Print shops still tell people they need a 300 dpi image.  300 dpi is an output resolution and has nothing to do with the actual pixels contained in the image.  I could give you a 300x300 image at 300 dpi and you could print it at one inch.  No offense to print shop guys, but almost all of the print shops I have dealt with don't really understand the mis-information they tell the consumers.

If you were concerned about the JPEG quality, then they could be compressed at the highest quality setting which is 12.  Typically an 8x10 image would be around 1 MEG at 10 and around 4 MEGs at 12.  The same size file would be around 18 MEGs as an uncompressed TIFF, soooo.....  You can still reduce the size of the set to 25% using the very highest quality JPEG setting.

[JeepMonkey]

I would be interested in having them as high res jpgs on DVD.  How often are say 20 of us going to have side art made for a cab?  I would venture to say that if someone was actually making art for a cab that that person could request the original version of the file.

[screaming]

If you were concerned about the JPEG quality, then they could be compressed at the highest quality setting which is 12.  Typically an 8x10 image would be around 1 MEG at 10 and around 4 MEGs at 12.  The same size file would be around 18 MEGs as an uncompressed TIFF, soooo.....  You can still reduce the size of the set to 25% using the very highest quality JPEG setting.

  Okay, so if someone were to get sideart done for a cab, and only had JPGs, what size (and filesize) would they have to send to get decent art producted?

  If the "average" filesize of that is 4MB, then that's only 16GB.  That could easily be put on 4 SL DVDs and sent to people.

[ChadTower]

Yes, after someone went through each and every file, evaluated it, converted it, and only if every single file fits those criteria.

[Truecade]

I will probably only use 1 or 2 of these art sets a year, but I would still like to have the whole colection.  My plan is to have my own gameroom over the next 5-10 years by building a replica of each of the classic cabinets by myself.  Having the art collection will just make the final product that much more fun to build.   

[JONTHEBOMB]

We put the artwork on discs.

400GB / 5GB (about the amount of data that can fit on a DVD-R) = 80 discs

A 50 pack of DVD-Rs costs $30 x 2 = $60 = 100 DVD-Rs

In addition a service like kinkos could perform the copying.

So the cost would be $60 + kinkos service = I will call when I wake up tomorrow and find out.

The kinkos service would cost $3 per disc for eighty discs and the time frame would be around two weeks.

$3 x 80 discs (this number cannot fit the whole collection of artwork at it's current state remember) = $240

I will keep adding members to the list since I have heard no opposition to this idea.  The more people we have the more the cost will go down.

[ChadTower]

Eff that, I'll dup them for half that cost. 

[Jabba]

I'm in on this project. 50$ should reeude the overall individual cost.

I'd prefer to get the full image of the set in one drive. I'd mail a 400 GB drive to the coordinator.

Good find guys...

[Wade]

You guys need to forget about the details and just assign a SINGLE, TRUSTWORTHY member to collecting the cash and acquiring the images before it's too late.  They could pull this offer at any time...

Then worry about a website or passing harddrives around LATER.

Wade

[NinjaEpisode]

You guys need to forget about the details and just assign a SINGLE, TRUSTWORTHY member to collecting the cash and acquiring the images before it's too late.  They could pull this offer at any time...

Then worry about a website or passing harddrives around LATER.

Wade

I'm w/Wade, we need to move quickly before he gets another buyer.

[screaming]

JoyMonkey has offered already, hasn't he?

I've put aside that time where he got me drunk and stole all my credit cards. He's probably changed his way by now.  I trust him.

[JoyMonkey]

Okay, I'll start the fundable.org group.

It seems there's more than 12 of us in on this now. Should we all give $50 anyway and use the additional funds for shipping and perhaps a random prize drawing?

[JONTHEBOMB]

Currently we have 24 members.

$50 x 24 = $1200

or

$1000/24 = about $42 each

perhaps a random prize drawing?

I like that idea.

[Nannuu]

Ok, so I'm super late due to vacation.  But I'll throw in as well.
So can I be number 25?

[ChadTower]

I'm w/Wade, we need to move quickly before he gets another buyer.

Says right on his site he will sell it to anyone who pays.  There is "no exclusivity" in the sale.

Joymonkey, I say we just let folks pay and see who actually sends funds.  12 folks may be in now but we've all seen enough situations like this to know it's common for people to drop out when the cash comes due.

[shardian]

Okay, I'll start the fundable.org group.

It seems there's more than 12 of us in on this now. Should we all give $50 anyway and use the additional funds for shipping and perhaps a random prize drawing?

FYI, you will need a business account with paypal to receive more than $500 in a month.

[JONTHEBOMB]

25 members now

If everyone throws in a fifty we will have $1,250.

List of everyone:

- diverdown
- Level42
- arcadefever
- slycrel
- cw
- CheffoJeffo
- davieboynj
- edge
- NinjaEpisode
- mccoy178
- JONTHEBOMB
- JeepMonkey
- somunny
- More Cowbell
- shardian
- JoyMonkey
- ChadTower
- screaming
- Ninten-doh
- Kremmit
- Oddfeld
- MameMaster!
- Truecade
- Jabba
- Nannuu
- NickS
- woodygjw

[CheffoJeffo]

Okay, I'll start the fundable.org group.

It seems there's more than 12 of us in on this now. Should we all give $50 anyway and use the additional funds for shipping and perhaps a random prize drawing?

FYI, you will need a business account with paypal to receive more than $500 in a month.

I think the limit only applies to Personal accounts, not Premier ... but I could be wrong.

Cheers.

[RayB]

balancing cost with time and labour, might be better to just bite the bullet and put it on a hard drive. Cost would be under $100 for that. And the odds of a harddrive losing data over the next decade are MUCH lower than with recordable DVD media (recordable media degrades much faster than the manufacturers want us to believe!)

[shardian]

Okay, I'll start the fundable.org group.

It seems there's more than 12 of us in on this now. Should we all give $50 anyway and use the additional funds for shipping and perhaps a random prize drawing?

FYI, you will need a business account with paypal to receive more than $500 in a month.

I think the limit only applies to Personal accounts, not Premier ... but I could be wrong.

Cheers.

you are right. Need a business or premier.

[JoyMonkey]

How do I tell if I've got a premier account?

Edit: Nevermind, it says right on my login screen that it's a Premier

[shardian]

How do I tell if I've got a premier account?

If you accept credit cards, then you are good to go.

[Nannuu]

25 members now

Thanks!

[miles2912]

Hey guys.  I have a server here in house that I will need to add some more hard drive space to.  It has a fast fiber connection.  1.8mb.  During the day I need the bandwidth for work stuff, but at night -  9pmPST to 9amPST I could open it up and let the primary contributors download.  It would take a while but everyone will get their fill.  I can't host this forever .. maybe a month or untill everyone gets what they need.  I don't have to time/patience to make CD/DVD ROMS.  If you are in Los Angeles/ Orange County California you can bring an external HD over and grab it that way.

Let me know if I can help...

Don

[diverdown]

has the second fundable.org thingy been setup?

I think this should be bought soon before someone with the same twisted sence of irony as me (but has more money) buys this for $999 and sells it back to us for (what are we up to now) $1200

where do i send my bucks?

Also......  Will someone else help out those of us way down here in OZ when this is all done?

[diverdown]

forget above... i worked it out and sent the $50

[Wade]

I'm w/Wade, we need to move quickly before he gets another buyer.

Says right on his site he will sell it to anyone who pays.  There is "no exclusivity" in the sale.

Joymonkey, I say we just let folks pay and see who actually sends funds.  12 folks may be in now but we've all seen enough situations like this to know it's common for people to drop out when the cash comes due.

What it says on the site doesn't matter.  He could simply PULL the offer at any time.  Or, Namco or someone else could shut it down.  If there is some really good art in here... don't let it slip away.

Personally... I think if everyone chipped in and there were $150+ dollars left, Joymonkey should get it to pay for the big drive, not to mention the obviously huge commitment and amount of work ahead of him (even if he just disperses it to a handful of others to disperse).

Wade

[ChadTower]

What it says on the site doesn't matter.  He could simply PULL the offer at any time.

What it says on the site is all we can go by.  He could just as easily take the money and deliver nothing.

[miles2912]

Here is the whois info. 

Registrant:
   ClassicArcadeGrafix Inc
   355 N Lantana St #562
   Camarillo, CA  93010
   US

   Registrar: DOTSTER
   Domain Name: CLASSICARCADEGRAPHICS.COM
      Created on: 19-JUL-03
      Expires on: 19-JUL-07
      Last Updated on: 07-APR-05

   Administrative, Technical Contact:
      Inc, ClassicArcadeGrafix  dns@network-one.net
      355 N Lantana St #562
      Camarillo, CA  93010
      US
      707-885-2580

[NickS]

I would be delighted to put up $50 as well. I was very concerned when I found out about the new Classicarcadegrafix shutting up shop as I had a long list of artwork I wanted from them.

Just p.m. me with the details when the time comes.

[JoyMonkey]

20 people have already contributed $50 to the Fundable.org fund. Once those payments clear Fundable will take its cut ($70) and PayPal the remaining $930 to me, then PayPal will take a portion of that. This will end up being $902.73
Three other people have sent me $50 directly through PayPal (probably would have been a better idea that using Fundable), so that's another $144.75.

So right now we're at $1047.48 and 23 people have contributed.

Once the Fundable payment goes into my PayPal account I'll transfer it to my Bank Account (will take about 3 days), then I'll get a money order for $999 and mail it (by registered priority mail) to Mike.

More people are welcome to donate more; additional funds will be used for shipping charges, blank DVDs and probably another hard drive that will be given to a random member of the group.

[leapinlew]

I would like to offer hosting services.

In 2 weeks I will be at a new location in Alexandria, VA. We currently have a co-location that has a fat pipe to the internet. I am alloted 100gigs of transfer on a OC3 per month. Additional 100gigs is $125. What I could do is:

• Someone could send me a hard drive with the files properly setup (i.e. files are set to appropriate sizes, remove bloat, etc.)
• Create an FTP and allow all contributing members to download their data
• After a couple months, I'd pull the FTP and ship back the hard drive.

   

This way, everyone would be responsible to put the data on whatever medium they want. If anyone is interested let me know. I could probably host this from the middle of February till the end of April. Or, with any luck, everyone could download it in a few weeks and I can finish it early.

The other option I thought of is Bit-torrent instead of FTP, but we'd still want a fat pipe either way.

Let me know if I can be of service!

[JoyMonkey]

That's definitely something to consider, thanks Lew!
We'll just have to wait until we get our grubby hands on the artwork and see how well we can trim it down.

[leapinlew]

That's definitely something to consider, thanks Lew!
We'll just have to wait until we get our grubby hands on the artwork and see how well we can trim it down.

Yeah, it would be best if the artwork could be condensed and possibly compressed. FTP doesn't usually like downloading multiple files. If you do decide to let me host it - I would expect the hard drive sent to me would be ready to be installed on my server and setup on the FTP.

After the bloat is removed, the file will probably be small enough that I could probably make room on the FTP so someone could upload it. I wouldn't even need the external drive.

[woodygjw]

I would like to get in on this as well.  Sent a PM to JoyMonkey...

woody

[JoyMonkey]

Thanks Woody.

To try and keep things simple on my end I'm not going to accept any more contributions.
Thanks to everyone thats provided the funds, looks like this thing is actually going to happen now!   

[diverdown]

I would like to offer hosting services.

In 2 weeks I will be at a new location in Alexandria, VA. We currently have a co-location that has a fat pipe to the internet. I am alloted 100gigs of transfer on a OC3 per month. Additional 100gigs is $125. What I could do is:

• Someone could send me a hard drive with the files properly setup (i.e. files are set to appropriate sizes, remove bloat, etc.)
• Create an FTP and allow all contributing members to download their data
• After a couple months, I'd pull the FTP and ship back the hard drive.

   

This way, everyone would be responsible to put the data on whatever medium they want. If anyone is interested let me know. I could probably host this from the middle of February till the end of April. Or, with any luck, everyone could download it in a few weeks and I can finish it early.

The other option I thought of is Bit-torrent instead of FTP, but we'd still want a fat pipe either way.

Let me know if I can be of service!

This is a problem for me as I only get 8Gig a month download and as fast as i can get is 156Ksec.  I was kinda hoping this would be hosted ad-infinitum----- or at least be in a format that can be shipped via snail mail...... even if I have to mail a HDD to the states.

[scottp]

Damn... I guess I need to keep an eye on the Misc forum also, I typically only browse the Main and Artwork forums... 

A couple of days ago I (mamemarquees) partnered up with Gremlins solutions In the UK and sent CAG $999 for the collection.  So we will have the images available for printing on our sites in a couple of weeks.  I do plan on cleaning up any color and scanning issues that I come across as people order them.

Scott

www.mamemarquees.com

[Ninten-doh]

Hey Scott, how about a discount for those of us who had pitched in to save the artwork?   

[rlemmon]

Damn... I guess I need to keep an eye on the Misc forum also, I typically only browse the Main and Artwork forums... 

A couple of days ago I (mamemarquees) partnered up with Gremlins solutions In the UK and sent CAG $999 for the collection.  So we will have the images available for printing on our sites in a couple of weeks.  I do plan on cleaning up any color and scanning issues that I come across as people order them.

Scott

www.mamemarquees.com

This is fan- ---smurfing--- -tastic ! Now We can get there stuff printed in better quality. Looks like I will cancel my plans to go with new old stock for the data east side art I will be needing.  


You Rock Scott 

[RayB]

*ahem*  Page 1:

Perhaps donate it to MameMarquees ...

Scott: Make sure you transfer it all to a hard drive. As I mentioned earlier, recordable discs are not reliable.

[scottp]

He is sending it on a 500GB external.  I plan on getting another internal 500GB and transferring it onto the internal, and put the 500GB off site at a buddies.  Plus there will be another copy sent to Andy at Gremlins solutions in the UK.  So if anything... it will not be lost due to a hardware failure.

Scott

[ChadTower]

Obviously, then, you know enough to come up with a backup strategy for your ongoing work, but I'll mention that you should have a good one just in case.

[shardian]

Damn... I guess I need to keep an eye on the Misc forum also, I typically only browse the Main and Artwork forums... 

A couple of days ago I (mamemarquees) partnered up with Gremlins solutions In the UK and sent CAG $999 for the collection.  So we will have the images available for printing on our sites in a couple of weeks.  I do plan on cleaning up any color and scanning issues that I come across as people order them.

Scott

www.mamemarquees.com

Why exactly is it going to be a couple of weeks? I would hope shipping would be expedited for a purchase of this size...

[ChadTower]

He didn't say it would take two weeks for him to receive the material.  He said it would be two weeks before he could print and ship orders based on the material.  He needs time to receive it, evaluate it, tweak it to suit his business' needs, and perhaps make adjustments to his business' abilities based on new requirements.

[scottp]

Exactly right, I will probably get it either this weekend or the beginning of next week.  Then I have to figure out the best way to present it on my site, putting 1000+ images on a website with different options is not easy.  I use an open source cart (OScommerce) and it has a bulk load option, but I hear it does not work great, so it may take some time if we have to do them individually.  I actually work a full time job during the day and print at night, so I also have that going against me.  Either way it will get online, it may just take a couple of weeks.

Scott

[Mickey Juice]

Hey guys,
Only just found this thread 

Are you still taking donations?? 
I'd love to get a copy, even though im in the same boat as Diverdown..  living in Aust.

[FrizzleFried]

Frankly,  I am wondering why mamemarquees hasn't snatched this up yet...

...hell...I am considering going in to business...and I have the $1,000 (it's just getting the wife to let it go).

What do you guys think?   I could buy the collection myself,  set up an ordering service,  shoot out the artwork on a per order basis (so I wouldn't have to host 400gb of art),  for say,  $5.00 per image?

[CheffoJeffo]

Frankly,  I am wondering why mamemarquees hasn't snatched this up yet...

Miss this ? 

Damn... I guess I need to keep an eye on the Misc forum also, I typically only browse the Main and Artwork forums... 

A couple of days ago I (mamemarquees) partnered up with Gremlins solutions In the UK and sent CAG $999 for the collection.  So we will have the images available for printing on our sites in a couple of weeks.  I do plan on cleaning up any color and scanning issues that I come across as people order them.

Scott

www.mamemarquees.com

[Mickey Juice]

What do you guys think?   I could buy the collection myself,  set up an ordering service,  shoot out the artwork on a per order basis (so I wouldn't have to host 400gb of art),  for say,  $5.00 per image?

Wouldn't you run into copyright problems? i.e. selling copyrighted artwork for profit?

[CheffoJeffo]

What do you guys think?   I could buy the collection myself,  set up an ordering service,  shoot out the artwork on a per order basis (so I wouldn't have to host 400gb of art),  for say,  $5.00 per image?

I think that is exactly what I was hoping to prevent.

But, by all means, don't let me stop you .. it is a free world and Mike says there are no non-competes.

Cheers.

[ChadTower]

$5 for the service of finding a decent printer, getting it printed, and having the artwork on hand to print... that's pretty good.  He'd have to take in 200 orders to just get back his initial capital and probably 250 before he made a single dollar profit.  It takes years to get 250 orders in this hobby if you ever get past 25.

[diverdown]

I think this should be bought soon before someone with the same twisted sence of irony as me (but has more money) buys this for $999 and sells it back to us for (what are we up to now) $1200

So whats happening with the BYOAC purchase?

And maybe those of us dwon here in Aus (and I guess NZ) could band together to get a HDD sent up there and back?

[FrizzleFried]

I wouldn't charge $5.00 for the artwork,  more like the artwork is free...$5.00 service charge to locate, package,  and transfer the file to you.

...I certainly wouldn't be doing it for the profit though.

[diverdown]

 

I'm not selling any roms or copywrited software on my mame cabinet. You are buying some chipboard, computer parts, joysticks and buttons. It plays 3000 games which you get for free when you buy the other stuff

[Kremmit]

Now there's a discussion we really, really need to have.   

Stop it.

[FrizzleFried]

Price: FREE!

Shipping & Handling: $5.00

See!

[scottp]

I was actually tossing that around also....  I purchased classicarcadeart.com domain name earlier in the week for that purpose, but I need to see if it would be worth the hosting and bandwidth fees. 

These are not Vector images, and even converting to Jpgs, especially the full sidearts, will be pretty large at 300dpi. 

I was also thinking about having some free Multi-arcade vector artwork available for people to download on the new site, people could download them and customize and then and have them printed (hopefully by me, but does not have to be) I was going to see if Pixelhugger still wanted to offer his services for putting some images together for the group.

Lots of ideas... never enough time...

Scott

[FrizzleFried]

To clear up any misconceptions...it was just an IDEA...i am NOT going to purchase the set...and if I ever did (say,  because the BYOC group decided against getting it),  any charge I would set would be in order to recoup the $999.  I am not out to burn the community....sheesh.

AGAIN...I have no plans on purchasing the set...

[ChadTower]

I don't see any problems even if you were going to buy it for profit.  That's your choice.  I doubt Scott plans on making them available free of charge either.  A business investment is a business investment.

[CheffoJeffo]

I am not out to burn the community....sheesh.
AGAIN...I have no plans on purchasing the set...

I am going to presume that this was aimed at me since I was the only one who offered a differing viewpoint (how one response warrants a sheesh is a little baffling).

Having one person handle this is not my preferred approach, although my concerns would  somewhat mitigated with someone like Scott who has been around and looks like he will continue to be around. My preferred solution is to have a bunch of people with copies.

It's not a big deal so, as I said, go for it.

[FrizzleFried]

Cheffo...actually it was more directed to the (more than one) person who PMed me.

[rlemmon]

Hey scott,  Did classicarcadegraffix send you the files ?

[scottp]

Yep, I have them.   I am having my developer do the dirty work, but before I can give it to him, I have to sort everything into categories and create thumbnails.  I also am looking through each one to make sure they are good scan/reproductions. Very time consuming....

[Kaytrim]

Good luck on the sorting.  Thank you for saving this collection from digital dumpster. 

[Hockeyboy]

So what was/is the final outcome on this purchase?

For those of us who came in "late" what can the average hobbyist expect to have happen from this?

[JoyMonkey]

For those of us who came in "late" what can the average hobbyist expect to have happen from this?

Eventually most of the artwork will be available to the BYOAC community in one form or another. Right now most of us that originally donated have access to the artwork, but as a courtesy to Classic Arcade Graffix we'd prefer not to turn around and give his product to the whole community for free straight away; doing so would completely devalue the artwork that he's put a serious amount of time and effort into and wouldn't be fair on him, or others that have bought the artwork as business investments (like MameMarquees).
I'm putting together a web-gallery with low/medium resolution versions of everything, so everyone gets to take a look at the artwork.

Edit: Okay, cat's out of the bag. Here's the site I've been working on (with a lot of Screaming's help):
http://artwork.joymonkey.com

[koz319]

Wow, I completely missed this thread  

I would have liked to contribute $'s - but looks like thats a bit late.

If there is still interest is hosting a dedicated FTP site,  I might be able to help.  I can set up a box running FreeBSD as an FTP server with a dedicated 100Mbit connection.

I can help with admin of the box, but its not something I would really want to do full time.  I'd prefer to set up someone else with an SSL login so they could handle creating user logins etc.   I can pretty much leave this up indefinitely.

I don't seem to get a chance to contribute to the community very often, so I'd be happy to do this.   If there is interest in this, Saint or any other (non commercial) mame/arcade related site ops would be welcome  to host (legal) files as well.

Just let me know if there's any interest in this,

Koz

[Dervacumen]

Wow, I completely missed this thread  

I would have liked to contribute $'s - but looks like thats a bit late.

No kidding.

[shardian]

Wow, I completely missed this thread  

I would have liked to contribute $'s - but looks like thats a bit late.

No kidding.

There is a new group buy in process over in the main forum. Cheffo is heading it up.

[CheffoJeffo]

There is a new group buy in process over in the main forum. Cheffo is heading it up.

Cheffo was in on the first buy ... Fozzy is heading it up (it's easy to confuse us, we're both muppets and we both know that Bob's your uncle!).

Those interested, haul @$$ over there:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=62823.0

Cheers

[shardian]

Yeah, what he said.

[JoyMonkey]

Yeah, Sally's your aunt! Or something to that effect.

[ChadTower]

His monkey looks like a coconut that's staring at me.

[Level42]

Almost three years since I suggested the groupbuy and today I received the full copy !

(Totally my own "fault" that it took so long, but I wasn't in any kind of rush )

Thanks to all involved, thanks to Zorg for doing the final copy for me !


 

[ChadTower]

Heh, I just recently got mine too, for the same reasons.  Just didn't get around to it.   

[SavannahLion]

I don't know whether to laugh or say congrats. 

[Beretta]

interesting so are there any plans to make the collection available outside of the buy group?

i would'nt mind having a copy however thats probably not practical given that 400 gb is still a lot in 2009, maybe in 5 years someone will host the whole 400gb and it'll be no big deal.

anyway i am specifically interested in getting a hold of double dragon 1 bezel, and double dragon 2 control panel.

was either of those included in the art collection? i dont need original psd or tiff bloat, a jpeg would be fine i can do any snipping and cropping from that..

im concerning using them in my project even though it's not a double dragon restore i just like the dragon artwork and wanna toy with what it might look like.

[ChadTower]

The original intent of the first group was to make it public domain somehow.  The size of the data just hasn't been practical yet but I'm sure someone can help you out with those individual files if they are present.  I'd have to dig my drive out but if no one else has it handy I can take a look for you.

[Level42]

Here's all the DD stuff, not much I'm afraid:

[CodeWhite]

Is there any way you guys can send the Mechanized Attack Side Art to Mame Marquees so I can have it reproduced?  Ive been looking everywhere and I cant find it available. 

[CheffoJeffo]

Is there any way you guys can send the Mechanized Attack Side Art to Mame Marquees so I can have it reproduced?  Ive been looking everywhere and I cant find it available. 

If we have it, then Scott has it ...

Damn... I guess I need to keep an eye on the Misc forum also, I typically only browse the Main and Artwork forums... 

A couple of days ago I (mamemarquees) partnered up with Gremlins solutions In the UK and sent CAG $999 for the collection.  So we will have the images available for printing on our sites in a couple of weeks.  I do plan on cleaning up any color and scanning issues that I come across as people order them.

Scott

www.mamemarquees.com

[CodeWhite]

If we have it, then Scott has it ...

Thanks brother you just made my day.  Ill e-mail Scott and get a quote.

[CheffoJeffo]

Thanks brother you just made my day.  Ill e-mail Scott and get a quote.

 

[Level42]

Digging up this ancient thread again.

I was wondering about the financial situation on this. I see Joymonkey is still hosting the site and files and requiring a donation of 10 bucks which seems really fair, but as the initiator of the group buy idea I'd like to see some financial break-down. Are you still running this on a cost basis Joymonkey ? Do the donations cover it ? Maybe there's even some "left over" ? Just would like to read a word about it that's all.