mbd39 | 2,024 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 (edited) Some great nostalgia for those who grew up with this book. https://archive.org/details/howtowinatnintenrovi00rovi/mode/2up EDIT: Oh noes, it's just a limited preview. I didn't know that before posting. I guess it figures. But you can borrow for free. Edited March 25 by mbd39 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj_robot | 542 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Cool. I had volume 2 and 4 (I think) as a kid. Invaluable for beating Castlevania II back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estil | 1,265 Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Whatever became of Jeff Rovin and what does he look like? Quite the man of mystery for us retro gamers, no? And IIRC isn't the graphics in Rad Racer the only time he awarded an A+ (calling 'Frisco and LA at night "miracles")? I don't know if he ever gave any category in a game a full F and I don't think he gave out very many D's either. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,024 Posted March 27 Author Share Posted March 27 1 hour ago, Estil said: Whatever became of Jeff Rovin and what does he look like? Quite the man of mystery for us retro gamers, no? And IIRC isn't the graphics in Rad Racer the only time he awarded an A+ (calling 'Frisco and LA at night "miracles")? I don't know if he ever gave any category in a game a full F and I don't think he gave out very many D's either. Rad Racer does look great and has a nice sensation of speed for an 8-bit racer. He also loved the graphics in Life Force. I'm surprised that didn't also get an A+. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,934 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 Just put in 'how to win at' in the search, they're all up there NOT on his account fully viewable. Seems like a dumb move on his part unless he's hoping to catch those too lazy or dim to see the magnifying glass in the corner with the word search in the box. I've picked up a few of these locally in recent years, but the Gameboy and SNES ones are the most fun since they're less obviously found than the small stack of NES books. All are fairly useless as help but make an amusing read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,024 Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 42 minutes ago, Tanooki said: Just put in 'how to win at' in the search, they're all up there NOT on his account fully viewable. Seems like a dumb move on his part unless he's hoping to catch those too lazy or dim to see the magnifying glass in the corner with the word search in the box. I've picked up a few of these locally in recent years, but the Gameboy and SNES ones are the most fun since they're less obviously found than the small stack of NES books. All are fairly useless as help but make an amusing read. Nice. Thanks. There might be some good strats, but they would've been more useful back before the internet and there were fewer options. Now I'm skimming through them primarily for nostalgia reasons. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 47 minutes ago, Tanooki said: Just put in 'how to win at' in the search, they're all up there NOT on his account fully viewable. Seems like a dumb move on his part unless he's hoping to catch those too lazy or dim to see the magnifying glass in the corner with the word search in the box. What do you mean "his account"? The Internet Archive doesn't have accounts, it's all in one database. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 (edited) On 3/26/2024 at 4:38 PM, Estil said: Whatever became of Jeff Rovin and what does he look like? Quite the man of mystery for us retro gamers, no? No, his info is out there. He's still writing, fiction and nontiction. Hasn't done anything video game related in awhile, though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Rovin This is what he looks like. Edited March 30 by Tulpa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,024 Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 Looks like The Best of How To Win At Nintendo, How To Win At Nintendo Games #2 and How To Win At Nintendo Sports Games are fully available while the others require that you borrow or purchase to view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 A lot of it is tied up in stuff between Internet Archive and various copyright holders. IA has been sued several times over the content, so some stuff is more restricted than others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,934 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 23 minutes ago, Tulpa said: What do you mean "his account"? The Internet Archive doesn't have accounts, it's all in one database. It's under Rovin, Jeff which you can search by whether he did it for making accounts or someone else. The search i said isn't under his name at all, but it is under the title of the books and they're not locked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,024 Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 Maybe old books that aren't even in print anymore should be free. It's not like the original author will get paid when someone buys it used. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 Just now, Tanooki said: It's under Rovin, Jeff which you can search by whether he did it for making accounts or someone else. The search i said isn't under his name at all, but it is under the title of the books and they're not locked. Jeff Rovin didn't upload it. The staff of Internet Archive did. They scan and upload physical books themselves, not the authors. Some of the listings are more complete than others, hence the discrepancy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 Just now, mbd39 said: Maybe old books that aren't even in print anymore should be free. It's not like the original author will get paid when someone buys it used. Well, copyright law protects the book whether it's in print or not. So unless Title 17 of the US code changes, it is what it is. Internet Archive's stance is that they want to use the doctrine of first sale as a way of uploading books to the internet. They'll buy one copy, scan it, and then allow one user at a time to view it. And there is merit to that argument. Unfortunately, they've been losing the court cases regarding this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,024 Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 (edited) The original point of copyright is to compensate the creators. When a book is out of print and isn't even available digitally it can only be purchased used and the creator (or their estate) isn't being compensated either way. The law makes no sense in this case. Edited March 30 by mbd39 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 (edited) 34 minutes ago, mbd39 said: The original point of copyright is to compensate the creators. When a book is out of print it can only be purchased used and the creator (or their estate) isn't being compensated either way. The law makes no sense in this case. Right, that's the doctrine of first sale, which means that the author doesn't get further compensation when a book is sold used. However, copyright law allows the author and/or publisher to determine when a book goes in and out of print, and no further copies of the book may be made by anyone else whether it's in print or not (unless you want to get sued in federal court) until the book goes into the public domain. Then it can be copied without restriction. I mean, you can disagree with it, but that's what the law is now. edit: Plus, I don't think it would work to require it be in print for authors/publishers to keep their copyright. They'd just resort to things like how comic books do ashcan prints and stay within the letter of the law. Edited March 30 by Tulpa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estil | 1,265 Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 11 hours ago, Tulpa said: Well, copyright law protects the book whether it's in print or not. So unless Title 17 of the US code changes, it is what it is. Internet Archive's stance is that they want to use the doctrine of first sale as a way of uploading books to the internet. They'll buy one copy, scan it, and then allow one user at a time to view it. And there is merit to that argument. Unfortunately, they've been losing the court cases regarding this. I hope not...I mean what they're doing is no different than what a regular library would do and I hope they don't lose to the Copyright Nazis. Their archive is far too valuable for historical preservation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estil | 1,265 Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 11 hours ago, mbd39 said: The original point of copyright is to compensate the creators. When a book is out of print and isn't even available digitally it can only be purchased used and the creator (or their estate) isn't being compensated either way. The law makes no sense in this case. Indeed it needs some common sense reform/updates so we can more freely preserve things like these for historical purposes. If the Copyright Nazis had their way we'd have lost many works forever...just like how we lost 90%ish of silent films and 50%ish of pre-1950 sound films because people back then didn't think nearly as hard about historical preservation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) 14 hours ago, Estil said: I hope not...I mean what they're doing is no different than what a regular library would do and I hope they don't lose to the Copyright Nazis. Their archive is far too valuable for historical preservation. Unfortunately they aren't very good at making legal arguments (part of my job has me monitor and sit in on the court cases, virtually.) Internet Archive shoots themselves in the foot a lot. Which is why their arguments are often losers. The other issue is that they just don't have the resources to fight a copyright fight long term, which they need to do but are not able to do so. If you're even using someone else's copyrighted material without permission, you have to be able to survive multiple lawsuits. I would not count on them sticking around long term. Edited March 31 by Tulpa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estil | 1,265 Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 3 hours ago, Tulpa said: Unfortunately they aren't very good at making legal arguments (part of my job has me monitor and sit in on the court cases, virtually.) Internet Archive shoots themselves in the foot a lot. Which is why their arguments are often losers. The other issue is that they just don't have the resources to fight a copyright fight long term, which they need to do but are not able to do so. If you're even using someone else's copyrighted material without permission, you have to be able to survive multiple lawsuits. I would not count on them sticking around long term. I sure hope you're wrong on that one. Maybe they need to set up shop at a neutral country like Switzerland or Sweden (?) where the US Copyright Nazis can't get them. Hey, that's what the Wikileaks guy did, right? As Jimbo from South Park would say, all of this (and video game (rom) preservation) is about history! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,510 Posted March 31 Share Posted March 31 (edited) 50 minutes ago, Estil said: I sure hope you're wrong on that one. I'm pretty good at knowing things about copyright, so... 50 minutes ago, Estil said: Maybe they need to set up shop at a neutral country like Switzerland or Sweden (?) where the US Copyright Nazis can't get them. Switzerland and Sweden are both signatories to the Berne Convention, as is the US (and most other countries), so they respect our copyright laws. Julian Assange wasn't doing copyright violations. The handful of countries that aren't Berne signatories are places like Western Sahara and Iraq. Not exactly great places to set up a server. Even Iran signed the Berne Convention. Edited March 31 by Tulpa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AirVillain | 490 Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 Neat. Signed up for an account just to read it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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