Scene Logos Collection January 2010 Update
Scene Logos Collection January 2010 Update
Posted on: 1/23/2010 04:41:00 AM
I posted the last update of my scene logos collection in August 2009.
I thought that is time to actually release another one. There are several reasons for it. First, the last update included many logos that were not sorted away properly and simply dumped into the sub folder by first letter instead of the logo with the title of the group or production. I also de-duped several hundred logos using a modified version of my own De-Dupe script. The biggest change of all is the addition of some archive support scripts. More about those in a moment.
![LogoColCollage[1]](http://www.roysac.com/blog/blogimages/SceneLogosCollectionJanuary2010Update_391F/LogoColCollage1.jpg "LogoColCollage[1]")
I also stopped the assignment of version numbers or volumes to this collection. The last update was called volume 2, which would make this one volume 3. But this sucks and does not tell you anything about the release really, so I started using the Month+Year to indicate its age and last release update date.
Your Contributions / Help is Wanted
Also new is the addition of 20+ folders for groups where you can only find a text file, but no logos. Those are groups where I know about the group and are pretty sure that there exist logos for them out there somewhere, but wasn’t able to manage to get my hands on those. The text file includes a short note and a link to my contact page with the request to send me logos for those groups, if you happen to have any of them. The same invitation can be extended to all other groups too, including groups where I already have many logos or groups where I did not create a folder already and do not have any logos at all yet. You can send images to my email or drop them off at my file-drop box at Mediafire.com. Detailed information to all those options are available at my contact page.
The new release of my collection contains over 10,000 Images for over 2,00 Groups, BBS, Demos and more from the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari and PC Demo- and Warez Scenes.
About the Collection
The collection contains thousands of logos for groups, demos, bulletin board systems, web sites and individuals from all the major scene platforms, including Windows PC (Super VGA, Hi-Res), old MS DOS standard VGA PCs (320x200 256 Colors), Commodore Amiga’s (32 Colors), Commodore 64s (8Bit), Apple IIs (8Bit), CPCs (8Bit), Atari 8Bit Home Computers, Atari STs and Atari Falcons.
Why is De-Duping So Hard?
Despite my de-duping via my own tools, there are still a lot of duplicates, which I am working on constantly eliminating (or at least reducing). Here is an explanation for why it is so difficult.
It is not that easy, because it is not always clear, which is the best or authentic original to keep and which version to delete (once you detected a duplicate visually, which by itself takes already a lot of time).
If I have a PNG or GIF version and another JPG version of an image,then it is clear which one I should keep, but if I have a PNG and a GIF or 2x GIF or 2x PNG or only 2x JPG etc. then it is not that easy anymore. The last thing I want to do is deleting an authentic logo and keep the one that was altered by image compression or by hand (resized etc.). My credo is: "Better 5 Dupes than not at all!". I hope you agree with me on that one.
The Archive System
The logos are sorted alphabetically. There are the following root folders: Folders for the letters A-Z (such as "Logos A"), "Logos 0-9", "Cannot_Read" (for logos that I cannot de-cipher and thus not sort away yet), "ArchiveTools" (see notes below). For each name/title exists a sub directory below the appropriate root folder, such as "2000 AD" below "Logos 0-9".
Archive Scripts
The folder "ArchiveTools" contains a bunch of BAT, MS DOS batch scripts and VBS - VBScript scripts. Typically you only need to run the script(s) once, after you extracted the collection to the final location on your hard disk or network share.
One script removes the system files "thumbs.db" and "desktop.ini" that might have been created in folders by your Windows OS automatically. It also removes short cuts (*.lnk files), which should not be there yet, if you just unpacked the collection. It then goes ahead to remove any empty sub folders below the logos collection main root.
Short Cuts Creation Script
Another script creates short cuts. There are two kinds of short cuts being created. Manually defined ones and auto-generated ones.
Manual Short Cuts
The manually defined ones are specified in the file "CrossLinkList.txt". There are only a few ones, because the reasons for those scenarios were typically rare exceptions. In those cases the script also creates a new sub folder to place the short cut in, what it is not doing for the auto-generated ones. Let me explain this via a specific example.
The Amiga group with it's official name "The Silents", which is abbreviated "TSL", is also known simply as "Silents". People might look for logos under "Logos S" instead of "Logos T", where they actually reside. In this case the script creates a folder "Silents" under "Logos S" and adds a short cut there the actual folder location, where the images can be found, which is "Logos T\The Silents (TSL)\".
Auto-Generated Short Cuts
Automatic shortcuts are generated for the abbreviations of titles and group names. No extra folder is created, the short cuts are simply created directly beneath the "Logos *" folders where the actual folder with the full name of the group also exists.
For example the folder "Tristar & Red Sector Inc. (TRSI)", located under "Logos T". The script creates a short cut "TRSI - Tristar & Red Sector Inc." in the folder "Logos T", which points to the actual file folder. This makes it easy to find the right group/title folder, if you only know the abbreviation, but not the full title of something.
I hope this makes sense and that you find this addition of mine useful.
The Release Files
The collection is close to 300 MB in size and was split up into 4 archives for download and distribution via other web sites, torrents, ftp servers, Usenet or direct copies made by one friend for another. The files can be found at my Collections Folder at Mediafire.com.
- ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN1.ZIP (96 MB)
- ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN2.ZIP (96 MB)
- ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN3.ZIP (96 MB)
- ROY-ScnLogoCol2010JAN4.ZIP (3 MB)
I did not add direct download links to the files, because I want you to browse my Collections Folder share at Mediafire.com to make sure that download the latest version of my collection. There might be another update available by the time you read this blog post of mine one day in the distant future.
Other Downloads Added
Next to the various collections that I put out and made available for public download, other sceners and preservationists of the scene legacy are doing the same. I added to the download page on my site a list of links to downloads of collections by some of those folks. The collections vary in type and size. I included tracker mod collections, C64 SID music archives, Cracktros, BBS ads, NFO files collections and much more great stuff.
Check out this new Collection Downloads Section at RoySAC.com.
Enjoy and Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC
posted by Carsten a.k.a. Roy/SAC at 1/23/2010 04:41:00 AM
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