Quote from: KenHR;557367Both sound plausible.

Evil hoards of Hasbro lawyers? That sounds plausible to you?

Hasbro does not give one god damn about this. It's a single product being released by one of their smallest divisions. The internets have a lot of wacky ideas about how large corporations operate.

Just goin' to my happy place, hoping the text isn't too deep in the crease of the spine.  Otherwise, so far so good.

(I still think it's 20th Cent Modern daaaam yooou! )

Quote from: Fifth Element;557368Read the article - they mention that the pages are fairly thin and when they copied the art images text from the opposite side bled through, necessitating cleanup. Presumably this would be an issue for photocopied text as well. That would be a hell of a lot of cleanup.

As I said, I worked for a major publisher circa 1990 that regularly shot cut up hardcovers and have seen it done with all sorts of books, including ones with pages that were not entirely opaque. That's what high-contrast photography is for and one can use similar techniques digitally.  I've even done it myself with a fairly cheap scanner for some personal scan's I've done of gaming material with thin pages. And do they seriously not have the negatives or proofs from the 1970s to work with?

Quote from: Fifth Element;557368Which is another way of saying, your experience 22 years ago versus people who currently publish books for a living. Guess who wins, unless we have some real serious evidence to the contrary.

You'll notice that I also gave an example of a publisher (Twenty First Century Games) doing exactly what you believe is impossible, which was print clean legible copies of several of the AD&D books without re-typesetting them, in miniature even.  I consider that "real serious evidence to the contrary".  They were able to produce entirely legible miniature versions of the following books (and more, including boxed sets):

Monster Manual
Players Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Fiend Folio
Legends & Lore
Monster Manual 2
Dungeoneers Survival Guide
Wilderness Survival Guide
Dragonlance Adventures
Manual of the Planes
Greyhawk Adventures

Why was this possible in 2000 but not today?  Did the pages get thinner over time?

Quote from: Fifth Element;557369Evil hoards of Hasbro lawyers? That sounds plausible to you?

Hasbro does not give one god damn about this. It's a single product being released by one of their smallest divisions. The internets have a lot of wacky ideas about how large corporations operate.

After the OGL gave away the D&D jewels, yeah, I'm willing to believe that the one thing that Hasbro lawyers are going to demand is that they copyright on these puppies is clear, owned by Hasbro, and defendable in court.

Quote from: danbuter;557365I'm betting a lot of the old hands have retired by now, and all the new guys can't do anything if they don't have a computer to play with.

That's entirely possible, and sad.  It was amazing what those people could do with X-Acto knives, drafting pens, and waxing machines.

Quote from: Fifth Element;557369Evil hoards of Hasbro lawyers? That sounds plausible to you?

Hasbro does not give one god damn about this. It's a single product being released by one of their smallest divisions. The internets have a lot of wacky ideas about how large corporations operate.

I assumed "evil hoards" to be an exaggeration for effect.  That there might be some legal reason due to copyright behind it was what I found plausible.  But I posted that very late and I'm wont to dash down a thought without taking the time to refine the expression at times like that because, as I've told you before, I'm stupid.  Or something.

But I do like your avatar.  So there's that.

I should edit this and just say I hope you read the sarcasm.  But then I'd be lying.

Ugh...guys...guys, it's hordes.

Unless you're implying Hasbro has a bunch of gold-plated attorneys they're keeping in a huge pile perhaps under a sleeping dragon, or in a vault.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;557484Ugh...guys...guys, it's hordes.

Thus the quotes in my post, jerkass.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;557484Ugh...guys...guys, it's hordes.

I'll keep that in mind in the future. It was clearly an exaggeration and the meaning of my point should not depend on the spelling of that word.

So how do you get these things anyway, just in FLGS?

Quote from: CRKrueger;557665So how do you get these things anyway, just in FLGS?

Connery as a cowboy.  That is truly FTW.

Anyway.

You can order them from Nobleknight.com, you can probably still get a pre-order in at an FLGS...let's see...oh, these guys:

//www.coolstuffinc.com will (they're local to me and are pre-ordering my set) ship them to you.

Quote from: John Morrow;557387And do they seriously not have the negatives or proofs from the 1970s to work with?

They almost certainly don't. TSR was a company that would throw away original art. If they ever had possession of the printing negatives (and they may not have depending on the printers they were using), it wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that they got thrown out years and years ago.

Quote from: KenHR;557316I can't wait to see the shit-fits when someone finds a typo like "teh" and use it as evidence that WotC just doesn't get it and if Gary were still alive & c.

What I'm waiting for are the shit-fits that will emerge from pretty much the exact OPPOSITE of what you're talking about: some fucking idiot who'll be complaining that they CORRECTED a typo in the original, claiming that "WoTC is sucking the charm/life/memory of gygax/whatever out of the original" by daring to actually not moronically slavishly copy everything word for word including even what was glaringly obvious as an unintentional mistake.

RPGPundit

I suspect what caused the delay is that after copying the books and cleaning it up, one or two people had to read EVERY word and check that the copy was correct. If those people are also having to do other jobs (which is usual in most businesses) or simply had to manage their fatigue from the process, it would simply take a lot of time. In fact, I viewed the delay as a good sign that the books might actually be produced correctly. The alternative would be a typical Mongoose sausage factory job, and we all know what the proofing quality of their books are.

I'm just glad they are doing them. They won't be perfect, or 'just like you remember' so for that there is always ebay for a copy that looks like it's been tossed down the stairs of the Eiffel tower (cheap) or more for a pristine copy. There are quite a few pristine copies knocking about (at least as far as I can tell from pictures). When was the last year they printed these things? 88? Even so, I'm impressed that they turn up in almost as new condition.

Mine 'from back in the day' looks like it was repeatedly tossed down stairs. That comes from using my school backpack (with DMG, MM, FF, PHB and L&L) as a weapon. My school books weren't in danger, being protected by inches thick of D&D manuals. Thankfully BECMI came along to reduce the daily punishment to my spine.

Any clues as to what paper they are going on or is it in that article?