State of preservation of 8000 Plus / PCW Plus magazine

NC100, NC200, PCW, PDA600 etc
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This magazine ran for 124 issues; from issue 64 it was renamed from 8000 Plus to PCW Plus.

Am I right to think that scans of the PCW Plus era are not currently online anywhere? I haven’t found them. I know the full run has been scanned and was online at some point.

The electronic copies I know about are:

  • Associated with the “Amstrad PCW Megapack” (2011), which I don’t think is online anywhere. (I saw them served via “eDonkey2000”, in Feb 2012 maybe? I assume that’s long gone.)
    • Amstrad_PCW_Megapack_2011.rar contains the full run as compressed DJvu files (in Magazines/8000_Plus_and_PCW_Plus/). These have compression artifacts, but are perfectly legible. Each issue ranges from 3Mbyte to 7.5Mbyte. (I have a copy of the Megapack.)
    • Associated with that, there were individual RAR files with names like 8000_Plus_n002_300dpi.rar, each containing a collection of .jpg files, one per page. Each RAR file was like 200-300Mbyte. A spot comparison of wrinkles (on issue #2) suggests these are from the same scans as above. (I grabbed a few of these at the time, including from the PCW Plus era; but only a few.)
      • I’ve got a file nearby which suggests provenance: RetroScans_20070827_Amstrad_CPC_PCW_PC_SINCLAIR_SPECTRUM.txt which starts “RetroScans / 27-08-2007 / 59.708.428.145” (and then has a load of ed2k: URLs). I don’t know if “RetroScans” is the name of a project / team anyone knows about?
  • The Internet Archive has a collection online, but it only covers issues #1-#63 (the 8000 Plus era). There seem to be two sets: one for all of #1-#63 (e.g.), and another incomplete set #1-#40 (e.g.). Both sets uploaded by “Sketch the Cow” (who I think is Jason Scott?). A spot comparison indicates both sets come from the same scans as the Megapack ones.
    • Obvious search terms don’t find a “PCW Plus” collection on the same site.
  • PCWwiki also has a collection. On a spot check they don’t have the same wrinkles; I’d guess they are independent scans, but I suppose they could just have been the same ones cleaned up. As usual, they are being thorough, and I think have only published issues #1-#9 as yet.

(For the record, I have an almost complete run on paper, although some of the issues are a bit battered.)

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I had a quick look on ACME’s PCW section (https://acpc.me/#ACME/AMSTRAD_PRO/AMSTRAD_PCW) I don’t think they have any of the scans of it, though it is quite limited what they have outright in terms of PCW scans.

I don’t know any other places that might have them, besides Internet Archive, and you’ve had a good look there already.

If you can get said scans up and somewhere that isn’t JUST the Archive, that’d be good too.

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Oh, but they are indeed in ACPC.ME : https://acpc.me/?language=eng#ACME/AMSTRAD_PRO/AMSTRAD_PCW/LITTERATURE/REVUES/[ENG]ENGLISH_UK/[ENG][AMSTRAD]8000_PLUS_PCW_PLUS

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Oh, excellent, yes.

These appear to be from the same scans as the Megapack, archive.org, etc.

Quality details
  • Looking at #2, this appears to be a (slightly cropped) version of the more-or-less-unmolested 300dpi scans. Yay.
  • Looking at #123, however, that one appears to be derived from the heavily-compressed version used for the Megapack DjVu files. (As in, it has the same compression artifacts, but the ACME PDF is 61Mbyte where the DjVu was 3.2Mbyte. So I guess all those artifacts have been lovingly preserved in a high-res PDF.)

So, there’s probably still scope for someone to unearth the 300dpi originals for some of these.
(I only happen to have the 300dpi originals for #2-#6, #15, #20, #24, #40, #80, #122, and #123.)

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