This was an interesting one to cover, I won't spoil the conclusions in this comment but here's a scan I took with the system this morning to help someone out with an Arcade FPGA core they are making. Some things to notice are very small print in the schematics section and distortion around the finger cot removal process on some pages. drive.google.com/file/d/1MrrGBqs7pbN_7RC3J7pTpe5b9r-C4u3X/view?usp=share_link Thanks for watching, Neil

The legalities are pretty clear: It's copyright infringement to share scans in most circumstances. The Internet Archive is a library, so the rules are a bit better - if still muddy - for them sharing stuff. But us uploading to them is usually a violation. And we should all still do it.

News just in from the manufacturer: ""CZUR" is pronounced as [' si:zə(r)], and this acronym is derived from "Continue Zeal until Real". Which expresses we hope to move forward with passion until our dreams come true:)" May all your scanning dreams come true Neil

I would love to see another video where you interview an expert to discuss the topic of sharing and preserving old magazines. I think defunct companies still have a copyright for 70+ years. But they're not profiting anymore from the issue, and you're not charging for the magazine. I'd say you're doing a public service to prevent these issues from being forgotten.

Seeing those amiga magazines and the desktop PC sales advert instantly took me back to 1991, got the adrenaline pumping and for that moment I remembered why I got into IT and my love for all things computer, THANK YOU!

Very interesting. Most 8/16-bit UK magazines are widely available (albeit in various quality). What isn't widely available are the subscription magazines. Those little extra pages or mini-magazines which came only if you had an annual subscription. If the Cave has any of these, their preservation would be a great addition to the world.

I think the hour I spent flicking through magazines at the Cave was probably the highlight of my visit. I'd forgotten how wonderfully varied the art in INPUT was.

I own all the PC Gamer UK magazines from issue 0 from 1993 (yes, a rare test issue) to issue 130 - I think it's a shame these old mags are not made available to the public. They contain so much interesting information - I still read them whenever I can. I recently got hold of a Dutch magazine collection from 1990-1999 which is also a fascinating read. They often contain insider info that leaks from contacts with developers & publishers that you can't find anywhere online. For example, did you know Theme Park used to have a very different view point? I have beta screenshots that I can't find ANYWHERE online!

Hi from France, Neil, Concerning copyright issues I think you might want to ask the question to another KZfaqr called « Blackbelt Barrister ». As his name suggests, he might be able to answer your question. I’m also a subscriber to his channel which is teaming with really interesting subjects. Hope this helps, Cheers, Thierry -a Commodoroholic since 1982 :-D

Interesting. The advanced system I use is to slice the magazine spine off, then run it through my double sided color (40 page per minute) document scanner in one go, and have it convert to searchable PDF's. Makes perfect searchable copies but does sacrifice the magazine. I think you should scan yours, put barcodes on the magazines and then use some tablet or e-ink e-readers for visitors to read them.

I'm surprised publishers like Future Publishing aren't more proactive about preservation and sharing. British videogame magazines have early work from some incredibly talented creatives, people like Charlie Brooker, Kieron Gillen, Gary Whitta, Tom Francis and more. It shouldn't be hidden away behind copyright enforcement.

I visited a site of the Bibliothèque National de France where they archive old books for the Gallica digital library using a similar yet more professional system. One tidbit that might interest you is that the books are placed on a V shaped support to avoid putting stress on the spines when opening them fully. I wonder how the laser system in the CZUR would behave with that.

Back in late 2000 through 2003 I was doing photography work for the Art History department at the University I was attending. I would carefully cut the spine out of course required art textbooks in order to take pictures of the individual images in the textbook to make slides for the professors teaching the classes. When shooting the textbooks I used Tungsten lights setup at 45 degrees to either side of the subject material I was shooting with the overhead florescent lights turned off as they would throw an off color haze on the plate glass over the pages and that haze would be there in the resulting positive slides that were produced from my original film photos. Obviously you are not shooting with a film camera and don't have the plate glass haze to interfere in your scans but the Tungsten lights would give much better light and color to your scans than the ceiling lights.

An good alternative to scan books and magazines without damaging the spine would be to use a "borderless" scanner like the Plustek 3800/4900 or Microtek XT3300. Those have the glass right at the edge with a very thin margin, so that you don't have to bend the book all the way like you would on a regular flatbed. Plus they have a CCD sensor (so no blur at the slightest bump on the page), and with the added benefit of a very uniform illumination and a flat page. That's what I use for my scan that are on "Amstrad CPC Memoire Ecrite" or archive. A3 models exist but then it's getting pretty expensive. It's a slower process than taking pictures with a sensor like the czur does, but the result is a bit more pleasing to the eye, and no jpeg artifacts either. I assume that scanning glue-bound books like that ZX spectrum one on the table in the video is also a pain with that czur scanner. Another option and especially with a very big pile of stuff to scan would maybe be to build a cradle like the ones they use at archive, operated with a food pedal. Using a good quality camera and with a good lighting it could probably give much better results, without sacrificing too much on the quality and still being as fast. With the added bonus on the flatbeds that it would accept oversized documents as well. Then a time consuming task is the post-processing afterwards, to clean the pages, levels, straighten, unyellow... Can't avoid it to get a good result :p

I always guessed it was like Caesar (as in C-Zur 🙂!)

You'd be a hero among Mattel Aquarius fans if you used this scanner to digitize the rare Tim Hartnell book you previewed in your Aquarius series (30 Dynamic Games...) It's one of the rare type-in books for the system that has no digital version yet, and Tim passed away in 1991 :(

Nice review of the CZUR ET18. Thanks. But at some stage you should take a look at the VFlat application that turns your Android phone into a first class book/magazine scanner that costs you nothing. A tripod and Bluetooth shutter button are handy additions that will bring your VFlat setup well up to par with the CZUR arrangement.

We are moving into a more and more less tangible society. I don't see that as inherently bad, but it's way different for us who are at this divide where we grew up with physical media and kids nowadays grow up with media mostly delivered digitally. Like you said - tactile, holding it, feeling it was special. Taking a game manual to school with me and getting through the day with my plans for after school. Magazines coming in the mail were always a special treat.

Im a carpet fitter... (installer)... every now and then we find old newspapers under carpets. no work gets done on those days lol,

I've never understood these 'photograph from above' style "scanners", years ago I saw an article on a website (I think it was Hackaday) that had a pyrimid/tolborone shape scanner for magazines that pushed the mag from one end to the other with an opening in it to swap the pages over so that when it pushed it back it was ready to scan the next page. While the automatic page turning system made me nervous for ripped pages when the scanner was not being watched it was generally super cool for not having to worry about dealing with the spine.

There's actually an older and somewhat better low tech system that essentially does the same thing called a copy stand. Back in the pre-digital camera days it was a device that looked like a wire frame, flat top pyramid that you placed a film camera, usually an SLR type, in a holder on the flat top facing it down centered on the middle of the open base where you placed the media i.e. book, newspaper, magazine or pictures/photos face up. There are actually newer versions of this setup for DSLR cameras, video cameras and even smart phones - some of them at a much lower price than the scanning device you demonstrated with the only caveats that you have to provide the recording device i.e. camera etc., lighting, and, in most cases, interface software to manage capture and editing/image correction. There is also a DIY set up using a small tripod, selfie stick and a smart phone.

I imagine light boxes on each side would be optimal for this. Or perhaps build one around the entire scanner, with lamps shining diagonally down on the light box from left and right. Nice, even light with minimal glare.

CZUR could be phonetic for "cesure", the juncture where one word ends and the following word begins. It is often used in prepress.

I've repeatedly been surprised by how seeing the cover of a specific issue of a specific magazine I read decades ago brings back vague good memories even though I can't actually remember the details of what was inside. The Amiga Shopper issue in the thumbnail was a good example for me!

I imagine it will be useful for your research on the history of old consoles/pc’s/hardware etc. if you stored each magazine/pdf in a database you can use the ocr to find just the information you want for your research saving time.

Very useful bit of kit for your use case. As for sharing - perhaps there are copyright issues when it comes to a widely accessible archive, but certainly for use in the Cave itself where you have physical copies of the same content I fail to see an issue. Perhaps set up a reading station in an arcade cab with the scans formatted as digital magazines with something like Flippingbook?

We have this scanner. The best results we had was to turn off all lights in the room and just use the anti glare lights.

Loved the fast show reference !

Very interesting, I can definitely see the advantages of that way of scanning and the OCR seems very usable. It would be good to get a Cave archive that was accessible to researchers/writers.

Excellent review. Belly laugh at the mini-screen cover coming loose. Say no more indeed.

Nice review. I’d love to read magazines that were published before I was born. ❤❤❤❤

all that retro stuff in one place. I very much hope you have a good fire suppression system. and insurance. amazing collection

You didn't wanna call it seizure xD

I've been eyeing those CZURs for a while now. It's good to know they have that rubberized feel. I really hate pulling out older items with that and finding out they're gummy and sticky. Good review!

Ahh, nostalgia...going back to my childhood (80's). I do go to some sites who have those archives and read those magazines. especially number one of the first magazines that introduced me to computers. Before that I never heard of them. Now I am part of it. There should be some law that either allows people to put old copies of those magazines online guilt free or that publishers have to put them online. Because, they are really TIME-MACHINES, we can travel through time, at least in past. And I need that from time to time.

Nice selection of cheese at the end there Neil! It was almost like the single frame of a jumping frog that appeared in The Young Ones, if anyone else has that burned into their memory...

I still have a few old Spectrum type-in books on my shelf, and one of the Usborne ones. Usborne have already made all of the old books available as PDF on their site, easily searched for, and already scanned :)

Interestingly Curious Mark did a review of the same scanner a year ago.

Tech Tangents here on YT reviewed the same scanner some months ago. I'm currently working on scans of a book that was scanned with a flatbed and it does take some extra effort.

I so wish I knew that happened to all my Your Sinclair and Your Spectrum magazines. I had Issues 1-4 of your Spectrum given to me by a family friend who worked in the 'media' and then discovered Your Sinclair around 86 / 87. I purchased them religiously, and didn't have many missing issues. Anyhow, seeing you hold the Italia '90 issue got me all nostalgic!

Seeing the Evesham micros magazine, takes me back I was one of those that sold those 2 grand pc, in the birmingham branch

Isn’t it? Wasn’t it? Jumpers for goalposts. Marvellous. Nice Fast Show reference sir.

Another channel I follow (and mostly watch live streams of on Twitch) has an older one of these. We were discussing whether building something like a lightbox/studio box around the unit would work better for lighting. Good white fabric with lights behind it would produce a soft light above, to the sides, and behind (have to work around the pillar a bit) - should reduce glare, because there's no point sources.

After watching this I'm really looking forward to the RMC Curious Marc colab...

Cool. So quick!

Shelby over at Tech Tangents took a look at one of these a few months ago.

It seems like a decent enough product for the kind of things you would use it for.

I use the anti glare light all the time and it does the best job on glossy magazines. I turn other bright lights in the room off.

To the lighting conundrum, you could use a mid size light tent and some neutral colour temperature lights to even out the lighting. You don’t need expensive kit, light tents aren’t that expensive, you can use carefully chosen LED bulbs and inexpensive lamps for a setup that will be acceptable.

Tech Tangents was also sent one of these things and between your two reviews I desperately want to buy one now even though I have absolutely no need for it. That's some powerful marketing! :D

Interesting piece of kit, seems like you could make a diffused light box around the back/sides for better lighting quality its basically a camera (rather than a scanner) so camera-style soft lighting techniques should give good results; perhaps just using a sheet-diffuser spaced away from the "anti-glare" lights might work well enough & could be attached to the end of the base and top.

That is a really cool scanner

I was thinking of the OCR function on all of the program listings that used to seem to take hours to type out. A quick copy and paste into an emulator and the job is done. 😎

I'd really like to scan my rather dog-eared copy of "What to Do After You Hit Return or P.C.C.'s First Book of Computer Games" from 1975, in case anything happens to it. Oh and there's a chapter called "Welcome to the caves" 😀 It seems to be pretty rare judging by a quick search online, but is available to view at Internet Archive. That scanner would be ideal, but is a lot of cash for someone preserving a low number of items. Very thorough video, thanks.

I still have my copies of Page 6, Atari User, and Computing Today. However I did get rid of my Amiga Magazines: CU Amiga, Amiga Format, AUI, Amiga Computing, and Amiga Shopper - but I still have the coverdisks.

This is why copyright laws need to be drastically overhauled in favour of the consumer.

Good geeky stuff!

For the light issue, what about using a light difuser sheet directly on the crane lamp?

Was the uneven exposure more noticeable when the software had to flaten the image more? Could it be more even when holding the pages flat?

you can already download all the amiga magazines i nearly have them on on my drive i like scanning through them brings back memory's when i was in the shop buying them and using the cover discs such fun computing is so rubbish now hence why i just made a sexy pentium 2 for some dos games lol.

That's an impressive scanner! I think sharing should be encouraged instead of being copyright material, especially when applying the principle of preserving old abandonware software.

Isn't it? Wasn't it? Marvellous.

I have a terrible memory, I barely remember much of my childhood, but put a zzap 64 in my hand that I used to own and I will remember the cover vividly.

Very interesting video I have been thinking about scanning my collection for a while. My flatbed scanner does a great job of scanning a hires copy but takes way too long. Even though this scanner is expensive, as you said it comes down to time vs money. for me I can make more money but only have so much time. On a side note can you give us some information about the jackets you have the magazines in on the shelf? I have a bunch of magazines with different sizes US/UK etc. Some of the UK magazines are large format Amiga Format vs my US Amiga World collection for instance. If you haven't already made one it may be a good topic of a video.

Great episode Neil! Keep up your good work! Maybe an expert can answer these questions, which are interesting.

I had black and white Trust hand held scanner for the amiga it was pretty cool

Seeing that thicc copy of Amiga Format made me double take at first, but yeah, I guess they originally were that thick, and I'm just remembering the pamphlet-like ones from 1997 where the vast majority of the content was on the CD.

I own an older CZUR Shine scanner and have found much the same issues: Too much glare from lights, curvature data not savable etc. The colour reproduction is also quite poor. The addition of the projected lines is a BIG improvement: The older scanners have to try and recognise the contours of the document from the image alone and usually get it wrong on any document with colour images that go to the very edge of the page, necessitating the manual adjustment of the contours every... single... page! This quickly negates the speed advantage. I've recently been scanning my old AmigActive magazines, and these take almost an hour each in a flatbed scanner (they are 68 pages long, about the same as the "Your Sinclair" scanned in the video), but the quality is amazing compared to my CZUR scanner.

The osbourne computer books are available on there site for free download as pdfs. If there no longer there I have them in pdf format if you need a copy.

Are the book and magazine scanner makers having a general push? Tech Tangents recently did a review of a similar book scanner.

12:08 I'm not sure if it is a problem with color combination. My bet is on the glossy paper, or both?

Future Publishing and others should set a virtual library to host these magazines.

This is within my area of interest..! :)

Perhaps doing it outdoor on a sunny day would be ideal?

Doing God's work, Neil. One day I will make it to the Cave to peruse that literature in person.

what if you use the lights on the rig in a low lit room? also if you had a 3d printer you could probably print a similar type stand and just use an old phone for scanning for an el cheapo diy job

I've always wondered if the original dtp files that went to the printers still exist somewhere. Love the episode as usual.

There's a PC Format around 1996 1997 where I was featured on the gallery section with some 3d art would love to find it.

Could be worth running through every digital page to touch up the Glared out graphics/Text using A I and or a professional drawing program, if you're concerned about the odd color fading.

i love reading old computer books and mags

Wow, I'd love some scans of 80s Maplin catalogues!

how this channel doesnt have a million subs is baffling to me.

I have a bunch of old Amiga magazines from the 1980's that I'd love to find a good home for. But I hate to throw them away because it's not clear if they're available online or not.

Would it work well with photos you think?

The yellow 'finger cots' are a good idea but as an amateur watch-maker, they were not what I was expecting to see! (Finger cots are usually tiny little 'condoms' for your fingertips 😅)

Is there a way to turn off the top lights and just run the ones that are magnetically mounted. I have a feeling that they will work best as an angled light, also using a diffused light could help also.

is the mystery company name pronounced seizure perhaps? Not as in an epileptic fit, but as in capturing / seizing the page contents?

CamScanner is still good IMO, can export it in lots of file types and to different places with lots of user friendly options.

I miss getting computer magazines... C&VG, Sinclair User, Amstrad Action, various Amiga magazines and Computer Shopper, amongst MANY others. I blame the internet and KZfaq 🙂

I read that as 'seizure' as in 'If an epileptic looks at this thing in operation...'

Tech Tangents has done a video of the same (I think) scanner for similar purposes. I believe his conclusion was to eliminate environmental light and just use the in-built ones. Might be worth a skim through for you.

Oh the mention of Maplins near the end, I had completely forgotten about 'em No idea on magazines, but I can't imagine promotional material can't be shared, however the law on such things is always counter intuitive and I am probably wrong :)

The cheese at the end!

Could you just shut off all the lights in the room and only rely on the lights on the scanner? Might be impossible in the cave, but for me it sounds like the best way to capture these.

I'd really like to try one of these before I buy one, I have stacks of magazines I want to archive before storing and they're all glossy. It would be such a gamble otherwise and looking at the reviews I see so many people were disappointed. I don't suppose anyone knows of any companies renting them out or suchlike?

Lmao 16:07 "SOFTWARE FOR HARD MEN!" Hard lads only

Look at it as a digital library. In a library you can read a magazine. It is legal in that sense i think.

I usually just go out in the garden when I'm scanning documents on my phone. It's just faster than dealing with shadows and glare.

As Next Publishing in Australia were being eaten up by a larger publisher, and again when a bigger fish ate that fish, I begged them to release digital archives of their old magazines to no response. I would literally pay a couple of bucks an issue for old copies of their official and later unofficial Playstation magazines, or for Hyper, or Nintendo Gamer. As it is, there _is_ no legal source for these long out of print magazines. They were never intended to be long-standing periodicals. A gaming magazine in the 90s and 2000s had a shelf life of exactly until the next issue came out, and that was all the care given to their preservation by the publishing companies. If people who religiously collected them and had the stability in their lives over the past twenty to thirty years to actually keep them in good condition want to scan and upload the magazines, I see no problem with that. While this wouldn't stand up in court, because the courts don't care about the intended function of a law, only the letter of it, the framing of copyright infringement as theft is predicated on a pirate downloading an illegal copy of something they would otherwise have bought. Downloading a 1998 issue of the Unofficial Australian Playstation Magazine isn't going to prevent me from buying a current issue (the fact that nobody buys gaming magazines anymore might, because they no longer come with demo discs and the news is old before the ink dries on the pages). The 1998 issue isn't sold anywhere for me to deprive them of a sale, and if it is, I honestly welcome them to show me where I can buy it, because I will. Next's mags are particularly nostalgic to me because they didn't really drink the Kool Aid from the console companies or software publishers. They published the news with all the hype you'd expect, but also a healthy dose of "wait and see" skepticism and some good editorial content. Even their multi-page reviews of bigger games had input from multiple reviewers, differing viewpoints. I remember reading UAPSM's review of Final Fantasy VIII, and while the reviewer (Kevin Cheung, I think?) was waxing rhapsodic about how beautiful it was, and how innovative the combat was, another reviewer's textbox chimed in with a negative opinion both on the game, and on Kevin's objectivity because he loves Final Fantasy so much. At the risk of romanticising a collection of magazines designed to be sold and make money, there was a kind of rebel outlaw spirit to them next to the big giants of Electronic Gaming Monthly and other magazines. As a kid, I also collected both the UK and US PC Gamer magazines (Australia never could decide which was appropriate here), and the difference between Next and the others reminded me of how irreverent the UK PC Gamer was compared to the more professional US one.

got this scanner on the kickstarter and it is very good, but.... for the kickstarter i used an very uniq email address there was create only for that kickstarter and now that account gets spam mails every day, so watch out for what email address that you give to czur. Good scanner but dispointed about now getting spam mail.