Vectrex manual² project

[hcmffm]

The Vectrex manual²s project progresses steadily. 26 out of 30 Vectrex manual²s are completed:

   

       

       

       

       

   


Next manual² will be: Clean Sweep

COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
Usage of the Vectrex manual²s in private is free. Please do not use in part or whole for any commercial purposes or host on any other site without expressed agreement and permission of 50tbrd and me.

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Initial post back in 2014:

In the internet, the Vectrex manuals can be found and downloaded as ASCII text files or PDF files. A good source for the Vectrex manuals is DigitalPress, for example. Typically, the PDF files contain black&white scans of the original Vectrex manuals. I.e. the PDFs are just collections of scanned images.

= Vectrex manuals as real PDFs
I'm thinking about creating a Vectrex manual as a real PDF consisiting of text and real vector graphics, which should be as close to the original as possible. As a start, I would try one of the GCE manuals, e.g. Pole Position, Star Castle, or Polar Rescue. Some of the results and experiences (font, layout, ...) of this first Vectrex manual might be used for other manuals, e.g. a real Mail Plane manual. And the Mail Plane manual might make its way to a print shop and be released as a part of a fully featured release with cartridge, manual, and box.

= Graphic tool for creating booklet (=Vectrex manual)
Now, I wonder what the right software for such a booklet with text and graphics would be. Word? Open Office? Corel Draw? Currently, I tend to use Corel Draw 10 which has been used in the past for Vectrex Overlays and is available by some people, here. Corel Draw would allow for printing to a PDF printer and creating a master for professional printing.
Before starting with Corel Draw 10 I would like to hear other voices.

= Other questions

• Are such "real" PDF manuals available somewhere in the net or someone's harddisk, already?
  
  
• Does someone have experience in creating such manuals, already?
  

• Does anyone know which font has been used in the manuals?
  
• I tend to start with one of the rarer ones (e.g. Star Castle, Polar Rescue, Pole Position, 3D Minestorm, ...). Probably it will be StarCastle. But I don't care much which Vectrex manual I start with as long as I possess the physical manual myself or a high quality scan (single images) is available for download, alternatively. High quality scans of Bedlam, AnimAction, ArtMaster, and Berzerk are available at AtariAge, for example.  Other opinions / wishes other than Star Castle?

Please note that this is a medium term project, don't expect a first finished Vectrex manual too soon.

[50tbrd]

I spend 1-3 hours just replicating each logo in a vector program. I think your talking about quite an endeavor.

[hcmffm]

Jan 6, 2014 15:49:40 GMT -5 50tbrd said:

I spend 1-3 hours just replicating each logo in a vector program. I think your talking about quite an endeavor.

You're probably right, 50tbrd. Perhaps it would be a good idea if several people where involved. E. g. some people might help with the graphics (b/w logo, rastered cover, ...). *wink*

Later, in the Mail Plane project one or several texters will be needed who are native speaker and can adopt the grammar and wordings used in other original manuals. But that's a different affair and I want to focus on an existing manual, first.

[50tbrd]

I don't want to discourage you from a noble vision, however, I see it as just a labor of love. The demand for a high quality reproduction of the original manuals is probably very low. Original Manuals fetch just 5-10, with rarer/more desirable ones like Minestorm or Star Castle maybe 20 bucks, so very little money for the work if someone were inclined to sell them. Collectors would want originals and gamers really wouldn't care if they're scans or high quality reproductions, so there's little impact in the community as well. It's kind of a catch 22.

I think that scanning all the manuals for PDF download is a great idea. Little time investment and just as big of a impact on the community.

I am however all for using my time and skills for the community such as reproducing overlay designs or completing a VHS cover project for the Vectrex library.

[Luitoine]

In my job I sometime have to do some diagrams in vector graphics (so that people will not see pixels when they overzoom for no reason) and I usually use "Inkscape".
The software is free and simple. You can open images (bmp, jpg, tiff, etc.) and pdf files and there is an option to automatically vectorize raster graphics : inkscape.org/doc/tracing/tutorial-tracing.html

It might not be the best to do a booklet (because I guess that you'll have to do each page one by one), but for drawings I recommend it (you can also add text following any path you draw, which might be FUNKY ).

[TrekMD]

This seems like a good idea but it will certainly be a time and labor-intensive project.

[hcmffm]

Thank you for your feedbacks, 50tbrd, Luitoine, and TrekMD.

Purpose of the project
You're right, 50tbrd and TrekMD: Having a full set of all Vectrex manuals as real PDFs is a nice vision but a lot of work and the contribution/benefit/advantage to the Vectrex community is comparatively small.

I guess this project makes (more) sense with the vision of a fully featured Mail Plane release including a Mail Plane manual. I didn't want to start with the Mail Plane manual since this would not just be an effort of reproducing an existing manual but require the creation of the contents (text and images) for the manual. The first manual project will be more or less a first training to be prepared for the Mail Plane manual.

Graphic Tool: Incscape
Thanks for pointing me to Inkscape, Luitoine, I'll have a look at it. I think what I need is what was called "Desktop Publishing Tool" in the older days. Not sure quite whether this genre of software is called today.

Graphic Tool: Text wrapping within arbitrary shape
I think one feature that will be needed is clever text wrapping: It should be possible that the user defines an arbitrary (non-rectangular) shape for text and the graphic tool wraps the text automatically within this borders of this shape. Is this possible with Inkscape? Is this possible with Corel Draw?

[50tbrd]

I use Inkscape for my designs. It should be sufficient for your needs. Text to path is what you guys are looking for however there is nothing irregular about the text in the manuals.

Faithful making a Mail Plane manual in the style, length and purpose of the manual is doable without the additional work of reproducing other manuals though it would be a beautiful thing.

[hcmffm]

Thanks for your reply, 50tbrd. I've tried inkscape for some minutes but could'nt find a way to add additional pages. As Luitoine already pointed out, Inkscape seems not to support pages.

Then, I've started a Star Castle manual in Corel Draw. Here's a very early draft what a PDF could look like: Star Castle Manual. Please note that it's just page 3-5 and even these pages are incomplete (all graphics are missing).

Next steps:
1 - Add all pages and text
2 - Find and apply right fonts
3 - Add all graphcis
4 - Fine tune layout

EDIT 1: I've just uploaded a new draft version with all text and some graphics included, see above link.

EDIT 2: Added some more graphics. Two graphics (page 4 and 6) are still missing.

EDIT 3: After browsing many, many fonts I've found the right font and applied it throughout the manual.

[hcmffm]

A first complete draft version of the Star Castle manual is available, now.

Next steps:
1 - Fine tune all graphics (logo, ...)
2 - Fine tune layout
3 - Create additional document for printing (2 pages on each side)

[TrekMD]

Very nice!

[50tbrd]

Great job of an almost exact copy of the manual. Unless you compare and are very discerning, you cannot tell the minute difference. I'm very impressed the likeness of the graphics.

[hcmffm]

Thanks for your positive feedback, TrekMD and 50tbrd. :-) The Star Castle manual requires still various fine-tuning, but most work is done.

Finding out about the layout, spacing, and font and the best technique to create the various graphics took many hours and some trial and error. But I've learnt quite a bit and I'm happy with the result. The experience gathered can be used for coming Vectrex manuals. 50tbrd and I agreed that Dark Tower will be the next manual; 50tbrd has a nice logo of Dark Tower ready.

BTW: I've named the project "Vectrex manual²" because it's mainly manual work to recreate the Vectrex manuals in this way.

[TrekMD]

Learning is good. You can use what you've learned to improve the process moving forward.

[hcmffm]

The Star Castle manual² is close to completion, now.

Final step:
- Finalize fine tuning of layout.