Level magazine will receive a complete digital archive -apkrig
The authors of Level magazine have launched a campaign on Starter, through which they want to implement the idea discussed for many years – to convert all published issues into digital form and create a complete archive from them, as has already been done with videos from Level DVD. The target amount was 150,000 crowns, for which the cooperation with the company EXON, specializing in scanning and conversion of documents into digital form, is calculated, and as you probably guessed, it has already been selected. In the few hours since its launch, the campaign has reached its goal and now, with approximately 290,000 crowns, it is moving towards other prepared points of the campaign. It is already certain that the archive will have an advanced search and will also be connected to the mentioned videos from Level DVD – this goal was conditioned by the amount of 220,000 crowns. And if they manage to choose less than twice, fans can also look forward to a book with selected interviews with legendary developers and personalities of the Czech game scene, which have been published on the Level website in recent years.
“A whole generation of Czech players has grown up on Level magazine, and for the last 7 years it has been published on its own by its former editors-in-chief and editors,” the introductory words of the campaign recall the current situation. “The new numbers are still increasing, but the old ones are rather dusty in cabinets and attics,” adds the editors, trying to explain how it can sometimes be difficult to find something specific in the printed archive, if that’s just the need. “That’s why we decided to translate all the issues, all the reviews, articles, topics and interviews, in short, to the last page, in machine-readable digital form,” said the commitment, which will soon materialize as the campaign succeeds. Those interested can get an image of the resulting quality of the scans now through a sample from Level No. 170, which already partially fulfills the promise of converting the text into digital form. At least for the time being, less legible parts or section titles are excluded, which is a limitation given by the very nature of the source for the final scans of individual pages, and those interested in the archive probably have to reckon with that. In addition, one of the leading authors and long-time editor-in-chief of Level, Martin Bach, confirmed to Vortex that the archive would remain in PDF format and not be converted to text: “The problem would be with info boxes and graphics in general, without which some articles don’t even make sense.”
For a contribution of CZK 300, those interested have access to the archive from 2013 to 2020 for a period of one year, while the complete history of the magazine will be available only to fans who pay double on the Starter.
As for the target amount of CZK 150,000, according to Bach, it should cover the payment to the mentioned company Exon and its payment should be taken care of by the fans in order to make it clear in advance that there will be enough interest in the archive. However, the costs associated with placing the archive on the web, basic search and login will already be covered by the magazine’s editors. We also asked about the method of logging in and the availability of older Level numbers, given that bids on Starter talks about the division of the archive into blocks of several years, resp. on the time limitation of access. For example, for a contribution of CZK 300, those interested have access to the archive from 2013 to 2020 for a period of one year, while the complete history of the magazine will be available – again for one year – only fans who pay double on Starter. “Every year there will be another year. Let’s say that in the middle of 2022 the whole year 2021 will be added, “Martin Bach explains the reasons for the time limitation of access and adds that the editors will have to take care of the archive and edit it on an ongoing basis. The encouraging news, however, is that the amount for access to the archive in the second year of its operation – ie after the possibility of gaining access through the campaign has expired – should not differ too much from the amount of current bids. “We are not clear about the price yet. It may be a few crowns more than now on Starter, but we really don’t know yet, “says Bach.
How’s the Competitive Score?
If you ask how Level’s biggest domestic competition approaches the digital archive – Score magazine, which is published a year longer – then we have good and bad news. All interested parties have access to older Score numbers free of charge, but this is not a complete database that Level is trying to use with the Starter. In PDF format, individual issues can be read directly from the official Score website, up to the number 202. Several other years offer only previews of covers for viewing. At present, it is possible to order back in printed form for the price of 199 crowns plus postage.
Due to the success of the campaign, fans can look forward to another important milestone in the history of the magazine and, as the authors have confirmed to us, also to other rewards that should be added in the near future. Nevertheless, one inconvenience hangs over the whole project, which is probably unavoidable nowadays – after laborious and expensive digitization, the entire archive can escape to the Internet free of charge. “We can’t do anything about it, so there’s no point in worrying about it. We hope that readers who like Level will buy that access to the archive, even if it is somewhere on the Internet. Without their support, our efforts would make no sense, “says Martin Bach in a positive spirit. He mentions one more important thing that could motivate you to buy access, and that is the search and user-friendliness of browsing individual pages and the issue of Level: “When you have 300 large PDFs on disk, it will be as difficult to work with the archive as when you will have magazines in your closet. “
