I did a thing

[hiawathamr]

Yep, I did a thing alright. We all know that TRS19 was the end of the era with box copies that can be purchased and I wanted the box copy so I created my very own box versions for both TMR17 and TRS22.
They aren't the best but since its only for personal use I'm not going to bother fixing all of the minor details (after all, it was my first time using Photoshop).
I've attached some picture of what a TMR17 and a TRS22 box version would look like.
Before any asks, I'm going to make this clear, I won't be sharing the .psd /.tga files. I know, I'm mean, but that's how personal use works. I might however create some box covers for my DLCs and those could be shared out in time.

And the system requirements because Trainz and other programs have these

Cheers

 

[hert]

Those are really cool. I loved having boxed versions of all my Trainz games. I still remember reading the manuals that came with them.

 

[davies_mike57]

Gee those box covers look very impressive.

One suggests that the online product manual documentation needs improvement.

Better if they created a PDF manual for the latest Trainz TRS22 product so that one can download and read offline.

davies_mike57

 

[hiawathamr]

@hert - Thanks. I like having my physical copies for much of everything as possible
I didn't read the manuals so I'm guilty there..

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@davies_mike57 - Thanks. For sure even if its just downloading the webpages for offline that'll also do but like many companies and such they prefer everything being on the internet on some server...

Cheers

 

[JCitron]

That looks really great, well done!

Many years ago, my dad used to do packaging design and mockups for various companies long before computers. He did it the old-fashioned way with markers, glue, and photos. Some of the packaging designs became actual art and printed on products and some of these are still around today. Among the many is the Econo-Pac hamburgers. This 30-pack sirloin burger box design done over 30 years ago is still being used today. I ended up doing the typesetting on the old Varityper for the final art that was output, pasted on boards and then photostat-ed for negatives.

 

[hiawathamr]

Thanks John!
Creating packaging designs is like art - you got to be good at it as its the first thing people see when get any kind of product. I did try a Google search for the Econo-Pac hamburgers and couldn't find it. Maybe Google is being dumb like it always is for me :hehe:. If you could send a link to it that'll be appreciated as I'd like to take a look at its art work and I'll say that's amazing that your dad's packaging is still being used to this day as not many stick around after 10-ish years (that's what it seems anyway).

Cheers

 

[DELETED-6YZHbwBrrJjnpcj]

They look great. I also liked having the boxed copies of all my Trainz games.

Leroy

 

[frogpipe]

Those are really cool. I loved having boxed versions of all my Trainz games. I still remember reading the manuals that came with them.

I miss the days when games of all sorts came with a manual - the sort that would take a whole evening to read.

 

[JCitron]

Thanks John!
Creating packaging designs is like art - you got to be good at it as its the first thing people see when get any kind of product. I did try a Google search for the Econo-Pac hamburgers and couldn't find it. Maybe Google is being dumb like it always is for me :hehe:. If you could send a link to it that'll be appreciated as I'd like to take a look at its art work and I'll say that's amazing that your dad's packaging is still being used to this day as not many stick around after 10-ish years (that's what it seems anyway).

Cheers

I can't find the Econo-Pac burgers either. It's most likely a local store brand for Market Basket which is a regional supermarket in my area. They're in a white box with Econo-Pac typeset in Kabel Heavy repeatedly across the box in PMS 305 blue with a red line in the middle in PMS 185.

Anyway, here is an updated version of the Our Best Foods burger box. My dad designed the Our Best Foods logo about 35 years ago and that led to other work later on such as the boxes.

https://www.ourbestfoods.com/img/page3_pic10.jpg

The burger image has been changed quite a bit, but the text is exactly the same.

Indeed, it is amazing that this stuck around so long. I suppose it depends upon the industry. I've come across other packaging that hasn't been changed since the 1980s. The most recent find was a box of staples. The box was the same as I had bought decades ago.

I typeset that text on a Varityper Epics 20/20 typesetting system that output to a resin-coated photographic paper on the 6830-film recorder. This device used a CRT and a high-resolution lens to flash the text on to the photographic paper. Once output, I would take the canister into the darkroom. While standing in complete darkness, pull the paper out and feed it through a large-format Kodak deep-tank processor. This is the same processor used for X-ray film and for photographic films for printing or was used until everything went digital. My dad or my brother would then cut the text apart as needed and paste that down after running the galley through a waxer onto a piece of Strathmore heavy cardstock to create the camera-ready art. This was then photographed and turned into a photostat, then cleaned up to remove any lines. I would then have the honors of taking the final artwork to a local printer to make plates and put on press. This artwork went back to Our Best Foods and the owner took the artwork to the box printer.

Today, all of the prepress work is done digitally and is either sent direct to plate, or the films are output to a high-resolution laser printer and the plates are made from that. There's no cutting and pasting or interim steps except in the PC or Mac. How times have changed in the past 30 years.

 

[griffinjim]

Nice thing.

 

[hiawathamr]

@MarvinMartian - thanks

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@JCitron - ah that would make sense why I can't find it myself as well. Thanks for the link there as it gave me an idea of what to look for when I attempt another Google serach (at least a better understanding anyway).
The machine you mention reminds me of the times when I was a kid, after taking pictures and using the included film that came with the camera we would then taken them to a store that offered processing (usually Walmart). Now with everything digital I haven't seen any store offer film development.
At least with digital some things are more easier to do than what physically doing it is but IMO there are things that are more easier to do physically than digital.

I agree, even for the past 10 years things have changed a lot. Just think 10 years ago 1TB hard disk drives were just coming out and now we can get up to 4TB SSDs. I wonder what the next 10 years in the technology will bring...

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@griffinjim -

Cheers

 

[JCitron]

The processor had multiple tanks. Fixer, developer and water. Th developer had a sulfurous odor to it and the fixer smelled like vinegar because it was strong acetic acid. When I went for X-rays, I would have flashbacks to putting type and films through the processor. I think it was a 42a by Kodak. The processor cost $20K and the Varityper cost $50K in 1987. The photostat camera too was in the $15K to $20K range as well and that had an 8088 CPU on its controller board. I saw that when a tech came in to replace a ROM on it.

Periodically, the paper would get wrapped around the rollers in the developer and the unit had to be taken apart to remove the paper from the rollers. This usually occurred when there was a rush job and all we had left was a small piece of RC paper. That paper was sold by the roll at $169 for 6-in x 150 ft rolls. The 12 in x 150 ft was close to $350 per roll and we only used that for specific jobs. What used to really annoy us was the supplier sending us a roll wrapped in the plastic without a box around it. UPS would have a field day and we'd end up with exposed film!

The fixer and developer were quite caustic and would eat clothing and shoes. One day I spilled the fixer on my expensive leather shoes I used to wear to my MIS job. I made it through the night but the next day the leather turned from brown to white then disintegrated a few days later. So much for those $250 shoes.

Technology has definitely changed. The Varityper utilized multiple 68000 CPUs on various boards along with memory boards with multiple banks of 4164 DIP RAM chips all loaded on cards in a card cage on a big backplane. We occasionally had weird glitches with the system and one day I opened up the unit to find out what was going on. It turned out there was a bent pin on one of the RAM chips. Being socketed, I carefully removed the chip and unbent the leg. When the unit was configured for us, we had a choice between a streamer tape drive or an extra hard drive. I chose the extra hard drive. The unit had an 8-inch Shugart floppy drive and 2x 20 mb hard disks. The disks were designated as Winchester drives WD1, and WD2 even though they weren't Winchester drives. The two drives allowed us to load up the OS on one disk and keep the jobs on another. This was worth it because the system drive crashed, and everything had to be reloaded. Being a tech myself, the Varityper field service guy called me up with the instructions on which order to load the stack of floppies and I then went about the long process of configuring the system. The Varityper ran its own OS similar to UNIX but had a graphics shell for the WYSIWG display.

Anyway, we've gone quite far off topic.

 

[hiawathamr]

Those had to be fun to deal with back in the days and a bit costly if you ask me
I can safely say those machines I don’t recall seeing in the film department, but my guess would they they’re like what you worked on during those days. I can only imagine they had to be fun to work on and of course very expensive! Unlike an All-in-one type of printer where it can do everything that you can get for $300 to start with, back in those days you had to had to buy each separate machine to get one piece of development done. And yes, must be nice to the chemicals as they do bite back and they still do
Hey, the machine is only telling you that you are feeling me too fast
But that sounds annoying when it did happen as it meant ‘time to take it apart to pull it out’ which I can imagine took hours from being able to print. Lol I bet USPS would do more exposing the film than UPS back in those days!
That had to be a hard lesson to learn – ouch!
That’s what I interesting. Everything started out with requiring an entire room for the computer systems and now they can fit in the palm of your hand. Crazy if you ask me. Of course, I wasn’t around since I came in the late 90’s but hearing stories of technology back then and what we have today they did come a long way. Back in 2009 when Windows 7 was released 500GB was the most you could get and now we have….4TB SSDs or a 8TB hard disk drive? Going back, a 10MB hard drive from one had I saw said $6 grand. I don’t recall what company it was but all I knew that was expensive.
I do know for one thing – once you turned the computer on, might as well go and make some coffee or something since they took forever to get loaded up lol.

And yes, we’ve gone off topic but I’ve enjoyed reading on what you worked on and about technology in general

cheers