Database of FAMICOM Manuals

[Milky B]

I had an idea that I thought I'd share with you all.  I think you could try to incorporate it into Famicom World.

Well I was just thinking how a lot of companies that make electronic audio, video and music equipment often have manuals for all the equipment they've ever made, going back like at least 25 years, available on their website for download.  I was thinking it would be great if software companies had this, because, as we all know the manuals always get lost and it would be great to look at the old manuals.  also it would be really sweet to look at the japanese famicom manuals.  so, I don't think that any software companies are going to actually do this so I think this is an area where fan sites really have to take over.

Creating a famicom manual database would be a huge task but the value of such a service would be huge.  Scanning each manual would and putting the pages in a .pdf would be the best and most professional method but even a plain text database would be extrememely useful.

well... what'd'ya think?

[manuel]

If there weren't copyright issues this would be a great idea, but I don't think it's possible. FW would possibly get sued by several companies.

[Slushie]

If there weren't copyright issues this would be a great idea

Yeah, that always seems to be a problem with having Manuals Online, certain copyright issues, and some companies are fine with it, while others get upset for some reason and take action.

It really bugs me, because if a company isn't willing to do so, why not let their fans spend there time, energy, and money doing so if they want, it won't cost them anything, if anything it would help them out, buy giving free support to their customers.

[JC]

As far as I understand there are no copyright problems with doing this. FW is nonprofit, and as such could use US Code that allows distribution of information (i.e., manuals) for educational purposes. Plus, the companies aren't making money from the manuals anymore, so there would be no loss of profit to the company. The reason I hesitate to do this is because it takes a lot of time and most of us wouldn't be able to read the manuals anyway.

[manuel]

I could read them. 

But even if you can't read them, many manuals have very nice and interesting illustrations.

[UglyJoe]

It would be nice, but it could incur a large bandwidth bill. 

[manuel]

I don't know anything about bandwidth... Is it very expensive? Is "unlimited bandwidth" affordable?
I'm just curious,  how much traffic does FW (with forums) generate per month? Does anybody know that? (question goes mainly towards JC and FamicomJL)

If you had manuals on the site, lots of people from other places would of course download them. From time to time there would be leechers who download the whole manuals folder just for the sake of having it all on the HDD. 

[JewWario]

Well, I don't see any reason why we couldn't do this. The NES Files (LINKY HERE) carries manuals on their site... it'd be the same, just in Japanese. (I can read 'em too) 

We would, however, have to agree on a size format. Their files are fairly small and with decent quality. I, for one, have quite a few manuals for the Famicom and Famicom Disk that I can scan and contribute. It won't take THAT long. I've done scanlations in the past, and I'd bet that it wouldn't take even a fraction of THAT (man, those were some long days).

It would be a great help to those of us who purchase loose games and would like the manual in some form or other. I vote yes.

[Slushie]

I don't know anything about bandwidth... Is it very expensive? Is "unlimited bandwidth" affordable?

It really varies from place to place, but it's pretty much always a bad decision to go with a company that offers "unlimited bandwidth" as there is no such thing, and they'll always cut you off if you start to use too much, always best to go with a company that says what they give. And it really varies from company to company on price, one may give 20gigs bandwidth for $5 a month, and another 100gigs bandwidth for $5. Although the 20gig company would most likely be more reliable.

Anyway, if there wouldn't be any legal problems, I think it would be a great idea. There are sites to get manuals for other systems, but not really any place to get a large selection of Famicom Manuals, and if some get translated, even better. Would also get more people to FW.

If JC and JL want to do this I'll be fine with upping their bandwidth/space limit. And if they start to need a very large amount, I could always rent a VPS or a shared server somewhere that could be used to just store the manuals.

[JewWario]

If JC and JL want to do this I'll be fine with upping their bandwidth/space limit. And if they start to need a very large amount, I could always rent a VPS or a shared server somewhere that could be used to just store the manuals.

You're awesome.

Let me look around at what NES manuals have for their average size and I'll see if I can get one or two scanned in by the weekend for demo purposes.

[JC]

I wouldn't mind seeing this happen, only I don't have any time to do anything more than upload stuff to the site. Someone else would have to scan (or collect scans) and convert (or whatever) the manuals.

[MaxXimus]

I just had a really great idea. I don't know who would want to do it though as it can ruin your box, but my idea was to unfold the entire box (including where it is glued) and take a scan of the box like that, so others can go to staples and make a printout on cardboard paper to make their own boxes.

[133MHz]

And somebody with mad Photoshop skillz could fix all the blemishes and restore the like-new look digitally.

[manuel]

Basically that's a nice idea, but as you said, I wouldn't want to do it, because I'd fear ruining the precious box.
But isn't it possible to just scan all 6 sides of the box and add them together in photoshop?

[UglyJoe]

If you unfold the top and bottom, you can flatten the box.  Scan both sides, and you've got it all.