Guardians Website

[Goldrunner]

Hello fellow ST sceners.

Here you can give the Guardians team some feedback about the project, what are the things you like and don't like, suggestions on how to make it better, or even contribute to the project. On our side we will keep you posted on changes to the website and our future plans, we will also do our best to answer all the questions that are posted.

The success of a preservation project like Guardians will largely depend on how it recieved in the ST community and how much support we get. So please take time to comment and even contribute so we can preserve our beloved computer for generations to come.

The address of the site is: http://www.guardiansofthepast.co.uk

[samf]

Hello fellow ST sceners.

Here you can give the Guardians team some feedback about the project, what are the things you like and don't like, suggestions on how to make it better, or even contribute to the project. On our side we will keep you posted on changes to the website and our future plans, we will also do our best to answer all the questions that are posted.

The success of a preservation project like Guardians will largely depend on how it recieved in the ST community and how much support we get. So please take time to comment and even contribute so we can preserve our beloved computer for generations to come.

The address of the site is: http://www.guardiansofthepast.co.uk

Interested in knowing if, since your site is an Atari Preservation site, will you also be doing application software as well, or will you be doing strictly games.

Thanks and keep up the great work!

[Goldrunner]

Interested in knowing if, since your site is an Atari Preservation site, will you also be doing application software as well, or will you be doing strictly games.

Thanks and keep up the great work!

Yes, we are also covering applications and utility software. In fact the site already contains several application entries like Degas Elite, STOS, Art Director, etc. There is a tendancy or the internet for many computer sites to concentrate on just games, any software catalogue of any computer like the ST is more than just games. To us, applications and utilities are just as important as games and they will get the same amount of attention in the preservation process.

[christos]

The problem with old computers is that they are being used as game consoles by the vast majority of their users. Probably because you can do all stuff more easily and with better results on modern systems. Of course in some areas there is little to no overhead in using the old computer to do other, non gaming, stuff, while providing the added pleasure of doing it there. Unfortunately, the limit is the internet. It's virtually impossible to use an Atari for web stuff. IRC, newsgroups etc are just fine though.
But we are talking about a preservation site here. So all the above do not really apply on this site. I have a feeling however that there are more ST applications than there are games. At least if you count pd and shareware stuff.

[StickHead]

I would certainly like to contribute to this superb website! I have quite a number of ST magazines (lots of ST Format, ST User, Zero but a few others too) and a brand new scanner if you would like some scans of reviews/features etc. Just let me know what size or dpi or whatever and where to send them. Also, would you be interested in preserving whole magazines (a la HOL's Amiga Magazine Rack)? I would be more than happy to contribute to such a section.

[Desty]

I would certainly like to contribute to this superb website! I have quite a number of ST magazines (lots of ST Format, ST User, Zero but a few others too) and a brand new scanner if you would like some scans of reviews/features etc. Just let me know what size or dpi or whatever and where to send them. Also, would you be interested in preserving whole magazines (a la HOL's Amiga Magazine Rack)? I would be more than happy to contribute to such a section.

I've got a (very) small number of ST Format mags as well - I'm happy to chip in and scan mine, since it's probably much smaller than half the size of your collection.
Though I don't have any real experience scanning magazines/books/etc.

[Greyfox™]

the site is highly polished..and very well layed out...thanx for the share...

[Goldrunner]

I would certainly like to contribute to this superb website! I have quite a number of ST magazines (lots of ST Format, ST User, Zero but a few others too) and a brand new scanner if you would like some scans of reviews/features etc. Just let me know what size or dpi or whatever and where to send them.

Hi StickHead

We would welcome any contributions to the project. I think the best way for you to start is to check out the Guardians entries for software you want to scan, if we don't already have it then please feel free to scan it and then send it us. We will accept scans in any lossless format, but preferabbly PNG format since this is what we use for preservation. But if you can't save using PNG then use something like TIF and we will covert is ourselves. Also, please scan at 200 DPI and no less or more. We will also require the magazines name, the date published, and issue number if it has one. Finally we will need your name so we can credit you on the Guardians site.

We accept from magazines, adverts, previews, and reviews. We would also like any news stories for upgrades to software and any other interesting or relavent pieces of information that we don't have on the site. Once recieved we will create a separate copy of you scan and archive yours away for preservation. The copy will then be converted to Jpeg and then put on the website. We have to do this since original lossless PNG scans are just to big for the site.

We are currently looking at ways for people to get submissions to us. We do have an F.T.P. so we may be able to use that, I will make a seperate thread about this very soon. For now, please feel free to post submissions on this forum if you wish.

Also, would you be interested in preserving whole magazines (a la HOL's Amiga Magazine Rack)? I would be more than happy to contribute to such a section.

This is something I would love to do in the future, maybe when we get a bit further with preserving the software and the site is more stable. Lets just keep this on the back burner for now.

[Goldrunner]

I've got a (very) small number of ST Format mags as well - I'm happy to chip in and scan mine, since it's probably much smaller than half the size of your collection.
Though I don't have any real experience scanning magazines/books/etc.

Hi Desty

We would welcome any contribution to the project, please see the post to StickHead above for more information and guidelines on submissions!

[X3peri_MENTaL]

We would welcome any contributions to the project. I think the best way for you to start is to check out the Guardians entries for software you want to scan, if we don't already have it then please feel free to scan it and then send it us. We will accept scans in any lossless format, but preferabbly PNG format since this is what we use for preservation. But if you can't save using PNG then use something like TIF and we will covert is ourselves. Also, please scan at 200 DPI and no less or more. We will also require the magazines name, the date published, and issue number if it has one. Finally we will need your name so we can credit you on the Guardians site.

All contributions welcome, however, there are a couple of things Paul forgot about.

(1) Don't watermark your scans, as if you do this being a preservation project we cannot use them. (please note, that the Guardians team NEVER watermark any scans we make either!)

(2) If possible, always use the 'descreen' setting on your scanner when scanning images in printed matter (most typically pictures from magazines or some boxes, inlays etc) to avoid 'moire' patterning on scans.



(BTW, There are actually detailed scanning guidelines drawn up, however, the link to them on the website is broken unfortunately. )

[StickHead]

OK, I happened to have ST Format issue one lying next to my scanner so I scanned the review of King of Chicago. 200dpi, .PNG format, de-screen applied. De-screen seems to blur things a little, is this desirable? (Everything is still visible though, you can even make out individual pixels in the screenshots!)

There is a problem, however: Atari Forum only allows attachments up to 300kb, and the file is over 4mb! Will the FTP be up soon, or would you like me to email it to you?

[Goldrunner]

OK, I happened to have ST Format issue one lying next to my scanner so I scanned the review of King of Chicago. 200dpi, .PNG format, de-screen applied. De-screen seems to blur things a little, is this desirable? (Everything is still visible though, you can even make out individual pixels in the screenshots!)

There is a problem, however: Atari Forum only allows attachments up to 300kb, and the file is over 4mb! Will the FTP be up soon, or would you like me to email it to you?

Many thanks in advance for the submission. You can use the email address guardian_submissions@yahoo.co.uk to get the scan to us if you wish. We will be setting up an F.T.P. very soon to make life easier. Any additional scans you wish to submit would be very welcome

[Xerus]

Congratulations for this new site
I like the "ST" design
I like too to the sections "Related Items", "Software Notes" and the original heading "Software that wasn't"
It will be a long-journey so courage

[ppera]

Adding comments works not.

[Shredder]

Why do you not consider PD games or other stuffs ? I think preservation should concern all kind of games... I also think it could be great if your site would also be available in french and german...

[Goldrunner]

Why do you not consider PD games or other stuffs ? I think preservation should concern all kind of games... I also think it could be great if your site would also be available in french and german...

We have enough to do without adding PD software at the moment. In any case there is not much to preserve with PD since it exsists soley on floppy disk that is all, most of the time in its original form since there is little point cracking it.

We do not currently have no French or German members so we couldn't have the site avialble in these languages even if we wanted to Recruiting people for a project like this is hard going since few wish to contribute thier free time. I once wondered why the ST lagged so far behind the Amiga with dedicated sites, the answer is simple, they have a much larger community to pool from. In fact we are a fraction of the size so little wonder we are playing catch up with virtually every dedicated site to 1980's computers. Just look at the what the Amiga has with dedicated sites:

HOL
AmigaMemo
LemonAmiga
Exotica
Recorded Amiga Games

We at Guardians are trying to address this balance but we are a small team and it takes time.

[Shredder]

Lack of time is a real problem for everybody unfortunatelly. So I will try to help you sometime by adding some titles with extras from the originals I have...
Cheers

[simonsunnyboy]

Looks cool sofar , I esp. like the voting feature and the site design

Do you plan to add comments?

[Goldrunner]

Looks cool sofar , I esp. like the voting feature and the site design

Do you plan to add comments?

Hi Simon

Really glad you like the site The comments are broken at the moment but we get it fixed eventually

[carmel_andrews]

Any reason why the guardians w/s has missed off 'Devpac' (any version), I was lead to understand it was widely used in the ST world, isn't it then worth preserving

[Jake/Depression]

Nice to see this project is alive and there is new update!

[RetroGamerUK]

Oh yeah looks like Goldy updated the site 2 days ago!

[cyberish]

Where can I find the Guardians website?

[Marakatti]

https://web.archive.org/web/20120112030 ... .co.uk:80/

[cyberish]

yeah, I did see this. But as so the site doesn't exist anymore I guess.