Magazines

[Khayman]

So when i had the psp i always downloaded alot of magazines for it to view on my trips.
It works very well and the batteries last long.
Some of them are more proffesional then some others, but always fun to read.
But i havent seen any for the GP2X...
I have a doughter now, so i wont be able to take the time to start anything like that, but it would be fun to have it on the GP2x.
Anyone hered about a mag for it?

 

[Magnulus]

If there were to be any point to making anything like that, I'd say it would have to be through PDFs. There's a freeware PDF reader called Foxit, but I dunno whether it's open source or not, nor how easy it would be to make a new PDF reader.

It's definitely not a bad idea to have, though.

 

[Khayman]

Well on the psp they put every side of the mag on a jpg picture and then you just read it like you are scrolling through a bunch of pics. (hrmm sorry for my bad spelling and grammar... im from sweden).
Anyway it should be so much more to wright about on the gp2x then it is on the psp... i meen look at the few game for psp, and look at everything you can do with the PG2X.
(If anyone cares for telling me what im spelling wrong and how i should do to get better... please do... im learning all the time

 

[Parkydr]

It would have to be image based for the image viewer or ASCII for the text reader, though I suppose PDF scaled for the screen would be ok.

An audio version (what I believe you young people call a "podcast") is another option.

 

[Wite_Noiz]

podcast

*shudders*

 

[torpor]

It could be SVG-based .. I have an SVG viewer for the GP2X ..

 

[Dzz]

So when i had the psp i always downloaded alot of magazines for it to view on my trips.

Alas, there 100x as many PSPs in the world as GP2X's, which makes it much less likely to find an individual dedicated to doing all the work of making a magazine. I know I would like one though.

What sort of articles would go in such a magazine?

 

[Draken]

I've read these mags too (I don't have a psp, but they're jpg and work just as fine on the zodiac's resolution) and exist out of game reviews (psp or other consoles), articles on life, comics, etc.
Like NYC2123, a full comic noir made especially for the psp, it rocks.

 

[Magnulus]

What sort of articles would go in such a magazine?

Depends on the mag, no doubt.
News in games for the GP2X, interviews with devs, reviews, rumors, tutorials, etc.
or
Film news, reviews, etc.
or
Pictures of toilets.
or
Something entirely else.

I'm feeling that I might actually try to do something like this...

The visual novels... I've not tried these things yet, would there be any point in having the magazine work like those?

 

[Draken]

You mean as having a magazine as a stand alone program instead of pictures to use with the picture-viewer?
Would be handy, but more work I asume.

 

[Khayman]

You mean as having a magazine as a stand alone program instead of pictures to use with the picture-viewer?
Would be handy, but more work I asume.

Well no... just put a map with the pics on the gp2x and then read it... no program.
check it out http://pspcrazy.com/index.php?page=Files&a...file&id=119
try download it and look at it.

 

[Shikaku]

The visual novels... I've not tried these things yet, would there be any point in having the magazine work like those?

Visual novels can have menus, effects, speech and such: they look very nice if they are made right.

 

[Draken]

You mean as having a magazine as a stand alone program instead of pictures to use with the picture-viewer?
Would be handy, but more work I asume.

Well no... just put a map with the pics on the gp2x and then read it... no program.
check it out http://pspcrazy.com/index.php?page=Files&a...file&id=119
try download it and look at it.

I was talking to Magnulus who said "The visual novels... I've not tried these things yet, would there be any point in having the magazine work like those?".

 

[Khayman]

You mean as having a magazine as a stand alone program instead of pictures to use with the picture-viewer?
Would be handy, but more work I asume.

Well no... just put a map with the pics on the gp2x and then read it... no program.
check it out http://pspcrazy.com/index.php?page=Files&a...file&id=119
try download it and look at it.

I was talking to Magnulus who said "The visual novels... I've not tried these things yet, would there be any point in having the magazine work like those?".

Just interesting reading? and maby a good manual and hints and ideés for a newbee!

 

[Magnulus]

Booyah!
http://www.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,23,1664

 

[Draken]

Just downloaded that, gonna read it later tonight.

 

[Magnulus]

Make sure you read it on the GP2X, because it looks much more hard-core on that neat little LCD screen than on my crappy CRT screen.

Remember, though, that it's only a proof of concept as of right now. We're already planning the next release, though, which will contain a feature article, a review or two, more interviews, more silliness and probably less penis. We're aiming for 10+ pages per issue.

I'll refrain from saying the name of my new "reporter" for now, in case Vynx decides he doesn't want to write anything after all.

 

[Parkydr]

Excellent magazine, I think that settles what the format should be like.

The content was a bit shocking though, especially that picture on page 2

 

[DaveN]

We're already planning the next release, though, which will contain probably less penis.

Sounds good

Oh, and nice thing. A proof of concept, for sure, but somehow I think there will be a lot of these magazines popping up after your release. And like 80% of them will have a crappy layout.

To the whole topic, I think the biggest problem is the small screen. It will be hard to fit more things than one picture and some text on a page.

And maybe this really would be a good idea:
"The visual novels... I've not tried these things yet, would there be any point in having the magazine work like those?".

 

[Magnulus]

I did consider trying to figure out how they work, but I decided I might as well stick with the regular pictures since they work pretty well anyhow.

The small screen isn't really THAT much of a problem, when you think about it. The text size I'm using here is pretty comfortable to read (at least I think so, and I'm a long-sighted (far-sighted? Dunno what it's called in English, really.) guy who doesn't wear the glasses he's supposed to.) on the LCD of the GP2X, and you really shouldn't have much more words on a line than you can fit on 320 pixels at that font size, considering ease of reading, etc. There are also many ways to expand upon a page without making the picture huge and unwieldly.

For example, if an article requires more room, I could easily just make the picture really tall and you could scroll downward like you would on a normal computer. I could also make it sideways scrollable, adding a vertical divider at every 320 pixels, so you could always fit one page within the width of the screen, but that would really just be annoying as it would then be more practical to simply switch to another page.

Personally, though, I like the single-page layout. You can span an article across several pages, of course, no problem. It could turn unwieldy if you have a REALLY big magazine with 20+ articles that are several screens long, but for the size I'm planning, it's workable. If it gets really big and long (mu-haha.) I'll consider the scrolling techniques or the vis-novel approach.

And like 80% of them will have a crappy layout.

Hope mine isn't one of those 80%. :unsure: