Star Wars: The Readalong Adventures...Update

Happy New Years everyone. I hope that your holiday celebrations were fantastic. Months ago I announced that I was working on the Star Wars Read Along book and record set. Happy news, I'm still working on it. I figured it was time for an update on the progress of this ambitious project.

What's the status so far?  It has been a busy five months. Color correcting anything that is approx 30 years old take a tremendous amount of time. It has been a trial and error process to put it lightly. So far I have one book that is in the finishing stages, and two more that are ready for finishing. With five books still to go.

What's it gonna look like?  To retain the feel of an actual book, Poita has created a unique Flash based flip book with turning pages. The audio is embedded within each page and when you here R2-D2 beep you can either turn the page to continue to the story or turn it back to the previous page. You also have the option to quick jump to anypage by highlighting the far left or right corner and choosing the desired page number. There will be a master menu from which to choose any book and/or bonus material.

Any extra goodies or bonus materials?  I have given this some long hard thought and I have decided to include the following bonus materials along with the eight books:

Rebel Mission To Ord Mantell 30 minute radio drama

Marvel Comics issue featuring the story of Droid World 

Marvel Comics issue featuring the story of Planet Of The Hoojibs

What format will this be available in and where can I pick one up?  In keeping with the tradition of a read along book, I have decided to release this as a CD-ROM. This will be a collection of digital books and I think it only fitting to require you to sit down and read them like a book a la turning the pages. I haven't determined where the CD-ROM will be available from, most likely though I will have a link to it on my website for the books. Myspleen might also be an option when it comes time for a release.

Release date?  I'm not a huge fan of putting a timeframe on things so suffice to say it will be available when we are happy with the finished product. 'Nuff said.

As always any questions or comments should be addressed here and PLEASE do try to keep it on topic. It has been a joy working with these books and falling in love all over again with them. I hope you will too.

Cheers,

Adam

Just so you know I have subscribed to this.  I can't wait to see how this turns out.  It sounds like you have done a great deal of great work on this.  My hope is that I will see this on MySpleen sometime in the future.  I hope I can get this to work on my android tablet.

Thank you for your interest EIN502. Yes a lot of blood, sweat and tears have been poured into this project so far, with more to come. The volume of work left to do outweighs the work that is done. This is both fun and daunting at the same time. But I believe that the finished product will be something worthy of a place in every Star Wars fan's collection. I'll keep everyone updated as we make further progress.

"I hope I can get this to work on my android tablet."

Our main goal right now is to get a working version of each book available to view on Windows and Mac computers. I'm not making any promises about compatibility with smart phones or tablets at this point. But then again, never say never right?

Cheers,

Adam

TK421138 said:

Our main goal right now is to get a working version of each book available to view on Windows and Mac computers. I'm not making any promises about compatibility with smart phones or tablets at this point. But then again, never say never right?

I would not expect you to make it work on tablets as well.  Windows and Mac would be more than enough.  I would just want to find a way for myself to make it work.  I just like the idea of the tablet being the all in one book.  Its portable, can run flash, and has speakers.  I can't think of a better device to use this on.  Anyway do no go to extra effort for me.  As I said I will be more than happy with something on PC.

Thank for all your hard work.

Wow, I never really thought of it but a tablet seems to be the all in one portable these days. In regards to a tablet version, my team has decided that for now there will be Mac and PC versions of the Read Along Adventures. Not to say that if one of you wanted to tackle a tablet version in the future that we couldn't work something out though. I entertain ALL ideas and input.

Cheers,

Adam

Just a thought while we are on the subject of Read Along Adventures....I recently purchased a nice lot of the Star Wars Treasury released by Scholastic Books in 1983. I use to have this set as a child a long time ago. This wonderful set contains all three large size storybooks in a handsome hardcover case. You might remember these books as the first time we ever saw a printed image from the "cut scene" of Biggs and Luke. These books are a somewhat forgotten piece of memorabilia from the first wave of Star Wars fever that swept the world. I was sort of entertaining the idea that after I tackled the Read Along books I might just have to tackle these.

Anyone remember these? Please share your thoughts....

I'll have a more in-depth review of them to post this weekend....

Cheers,

Adam

Greetings everyone, thought I'd give another little update roundup.

    Great strides have been made in the realization of this project. Three of the books are finished and in their final form. They are Flash-based and I must say they look great! I am working hard to finish color correction on Return Of The Jedi as we speak.

Each book is 24 pages and features realistic page turns, embedded audio that starts and stops at the end of each page to correspond with R2-D2's beep. Every attempt has been made to keep the colors faithful to the original books so tweaks to the picture have been kept to a minimum, mostly to pull out the rich colors and get rid of the lone dust specks, dirt and grime etc...

We are almost at the half-way point of this project as far as the books themselves go. I am also trying my hand at resizing and color correcting the two comic books that are spin offs from Droid World and Planet Of The Hoojibs. My question for you all is would you rather have these comics apear in a .CBR file (comic book file extension), where they seem to look the best, or would you prefer them in a regular Flash book mimicing the experience of reading a real comic book (i.e. page turning etc)?

After reviewing my very nice copy of The Star Wars Treasury featuring all three adaptations of the Storybook trilogy, I have determined that this will be the next project following the release of the Read Along Adventures.The quality of each book and the overall condition makes them a must for preservation.

Anyone out there know of a good web service for building your own website? I would like to keep a running blog detailing the restoration process and offer downloads but I haven't found anything that allows me to customize the webpage to my liking. Any help is always appreciated.

So until the next update, may the Force be with us.....

Cheers,

Adam