I need some help with this one. It is 49 pages long, and is printed out on computer paper, 49 contiguous sheets. I have a scan if anyone is interested, I do not know how to post pics in threads.

johnhuck wrote:

Deadlord36 wrote:I do not know how to post pics in threads.

I can't comment on the rest. But as far as images go, you need to get your image hosted somewhere

e.g. http://www.maskedshiller.com/R4.jpg

Then you link to this in your message as:

"[ Image ]"

But without the quotes

Give it a go

If you don't have http://www.maskedshiller.com you can always upload to a free image hosting site such as ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

That's good advice. Give the guy a sticker.

Have you e-mailed Frank Mentzer?  ([email protected])  I'd think he'd know one way or the other.  The popular theory was that a pre-pub was never released; I'd always assumed that the actual tournament version was labelled "R3 Part 2".  I know that a pre-pub R4 was never advertised, at least.

If you e-mail Mentzer, just make sure you don't mention you're inquiring for The Acaeum.  He doesn't care much for us.

Foul

FoulFoot wrote:If you e-mail Mentzer, just make sure you don't mention you're inquiring for The Acaeum. He doesn't care much for us.
Foul

How come? Something happen in the past? I'm intrigued.

And how on earth did you get hold of a copy Frank? (checks bidding history for dot matrix printer bids!  :wink: )

Hmm.  I think nearly all computer printers in that time frame were dot-matrix.  Certainly most home computers used them.  The other two types would have been laser (very expensive in the mid-80's), and thermal.  Laser type of that era (non-TrueType) would have jagged edges to everything, but it wouldn't be dots (laser uses toner, like a copy machine, and it's a plastic powder).  Thermal would be printed on thermal paper, which is easy to distinguish (glossy, very flimsy, tends not to stay flat).

It's probably impossible to tell whether it came off of TSR's dot-matrix, or a dot-matrix at Frank's home.  Though maybe he meant that his original was typed on a typewriter?

If you e-mail Mentzer, just make sure you don't mention you're inquiring for The Acaeum. He doesn't care much for us.

Eh, a long story, and I won't go into it, since Mentzer isn't here to defend himself.  Suffice to say that he does not approve of The Acaeum, specifically the price estimations herein (nor does he think highly of the print sequences on certain items).

Foul

Wow, this has turned into "Everything you wanted to know about 80's printers and more".  :D

deimos3428 wrote:

Deadlord36 wrote:Got the reply. It is indeed a tourney R4. He says it is insanely rare. They were not published. If it is dot-matrix, it came from TSR's HP printer. If not, it came from his personal printer. I feel ashamed, being a network engineer for 11 years, but I cannot tell the difference. Of course, I specialize in security, not printers. It APPEARS dot-matrix.
Well, I don't collect prepubs, so this one will end up going, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who it goes to).

If I remember correctly, there were two basic types of dox-matrix printers back then...

Higher quality, more expensive 24-pin models with overlapping dots were called (near) "letter quality" and were mostly found in business environments in the early 80s. Cheaper 9-pin models without overlapping dots were for home use at that time.

If you break out a magnifying glass you should be able to determine if the dots overlap, and if they do, it was probably on TSR's HP. That's a bit of an assumption there, but it might help.

One further possibility struck me.  Assuming by "computer paper", that Frank meant fan-fold tractor-feed paper (you remember, the kind with the perforated strips), if there is no evidence of printed dots, it could be a daisy-wheel printer.  These were prized in the early 80s because of their superior text; they died out in the desktop publishing revolution because they couldn't print graphics at all.  Hope this helps.

He actually said it came from either the dot-matrix printer at TSR, or from his personal character printer in his office.