Hi everyone. I was digging through some computer files and found my Axis & Allies folder that I used to build my original custom map. I had entirely forgotten about this project and, I hate to say it, but I hardly got to play the game due to busy lifestyle. I popped back here and was humbled to learn how much of a positive effect my work had for a far wider audience than I anticipated. I’m glad to see the customization projects have progressed beyond what I had made, but at the time I don’t think I did a very good job at enabling users to take my resources and expand on them. I don’t know if I ever provided anything more than a flat image due to internet speed and online storage constraints at the time.

In any case, I still have all the .psb files and fonts and whatnot that I used. I don’t know if I’d have time or interest in continuing to develop custom maps, but if those resources would be useful for anyone else I’d be glad to find a way to make them available.

I’d love to re-learn the game some day and play it. I actually have the space to set up a board now, and my kids are getting older and I’m sure I can manipulate them to play A&A with me before too much longer (them coming around was part of the reason I didn’t have as much expendable time for epic board games anymore).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kReJ8ryGdWk_NBBwnBxAPAydJx3Po5jX?usp=sharing

I’m not sure if Google Drive will eventually block access from too much activity or something… but I’m uploading it there in any case. It may take an hour or so from this post before everything is online. Still takes time to move 10GB of data.

I would also point out that my efforts were entirely amateur, although enthusiastically so. I tried to produce a project with layers as made sense to me at the time in order to protect resolution and quality, but I’m sure I’m airing out my dirty laundry when you inspect how this is assembled.

I was reviewing the multi-page thread that spanned several years and it seems there were some questions regarding the quality, resolution, dpi, format, etc., as it pertained to the production of the original file.

I would have scanned the original tiles directly into photoshop at no less than 300 dpi. The tiles themselves probably weren’t 300 dpi (or whatever the equivalent is for that style of print). I don’t know what it’s called where the printing process produces those faint, round “pixels” that I remember seeing in color comics in the newspaper when I was young, but my understanding is that was the limit that I could scan those tiles in.

When I made this I didn’t know anything about vector art, so all the custom icons for convoys, bases, etc., I would have made an effort to keep those high resolution as well, but they’re certainly not vector.

Text should all be vectorized in the original document. If you install the included font you can modify it to your heart’s content.

I don’t remember why I added a number to the Caspian Sea. I never did get to play the game much at the time so I probably thought that it was an oversight that there was no number there, and it didn’t occur to me that you couldn’t go there.

If you have any other questions I’ll be glad to provide information as I recall it. This was 8 years ago after all!

@cmmiles hopefully this doesn’t blow up my google drive allowances:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kReJ8ryGdWk_NBBwnBxAPAydJx3Po5jX

@cmmiles hopefully this doesn’t blow up my google drive allowances:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kReJ8ryGdWk_NBBwnBxAPAydJx3Po5jX

I was reviewing the multi-page thread that spanned several years and it seems there were some questions regarding the quality, resolution, dpi, format, etc., as it pertained to the production of the original file.

I would have scanned the original tiles directly into photoshop at no less than 300 dpi. The tiles themselves probably weren’t 300 dpi (or whatever the equivalent is for that style of print). I don’t know what it’s called where the printing process produces those faint, round “pixels” that I remember seeing in color comics in the newspaper when I was young, but my understanding is that was the limit that I could scan those tiles in.

When I made this I didn’t know anything about vector art, so all the custom icons for convoys, bases, etc., I would have made an effort to keep those high resolution as well, but they’re certainly not vector.

Text should all be vectorized in the original document. If you install the included font you can modify it to your heart’s content.

I don’t remember why I added a number to the Caspian Sea. I never did get to play the game much at the time so I probably thought that it was an oversight that there was no number there, and it didn’t occur to me that you couldn’t go there.

If you have any other questions I’ll be glad to provide information as I recall it. This was 8 years ago after all!

Hi everyone. I was digging through some computer files and found my Axis & Allies folder that I used to build my original custom map. I had entirely forgotten about this project and, I hate to say it, but I hardly got to play the game due to busy lifestyle. I popped back here and was humbled to learn how much of a positive effect my work had for a far wider audience than I anticipated. I’m glad to see the customization projects have progressed beyond what I had made, but at the time I don’t think I did a very good job at enabling users to take my resources and expand on them. I don’t know if I ever provided anything more than a flat image due to internet speed and online storage constraints at the time.

In any case, I still have all the .psb files and fonts and whatnot that I used. I don’t know if I’d have time or interest in continuing to develop custom maps, but if those resources would be useful for anyone else I’d be glad to find a way to make them available.

I’d love to re-learn the game some day and play it. I actually have the space to set up a board now, and my kids are getting older and I’m sure I can manipulate them to play A&A with me before too much longer (them coming around was part of the reason I didn’t have as much expendable time for epic board games anymore).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kReJ8ryGdWk_NBBwnBxAPAydJx3Po5jX?usp=sharing

I’m not sure if Google Drive will eventually block access from too much activity or something… but I’m uploading it there in any case. It may take an hour or so from this post before everything is online. Still takes time to move 10GB of data.

I would also point out that my efforts were entirely amateur, although enthusiastically so. I tried to produce a project with layers as made sense to me at the time in order to protect resolution and quality, but I’m sure I’m airing out my dirty laundry when you inspect how this is assembled.

Hey there folks,

Here’s as vanilla as I’ve got these days:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14003625/axisandallies.pdf

It’s the base map scanned in, creases and stuff removed, map corrections added, and a few minor aesthetic improvements such as more visible convoy/kamikaze icons

It’s about 100 MB and hosted on my dropbox (so be warned it may not stay there forever, if someone wants to re-host it, feel free!)

The file is a pdf about 20,000 pixels wide by about 9,000 pixels high.

I have a PSD file with layers for modifying, but it’s rather large and I don’t really have access to a decent host that would publicly make available a 1+ GB file.
If you would prefer not to have the “adjacent to” text on the far left and right borders, let me know and I think I can make that change.

also, A&A.org isn’t exactly on my ‘frequent visit’ websites I’m afraid, so your best bet of getting ahold of me is a PM.

I’m sending the updated version to him now, I converted it into RGB for .png format compatibility. Maybe some of the difficulty some users have had were due to the fact that it was in CMYK before. CMYK is generally better for printing, so I would recommend the original .tif, if possible, if you intend on printing it out.

Hey folks! It’s a flat .tif file created in photoshop, just a high resolution file. Any reasonably functional photo viewing / editing program should be able to successfully work with it.

The file was created on a Apple system, but that shouldn’t affect anything. I know it’ll open with the default image viewing software on a Mac. It appears to open fine in Windows Photo Viewer on my Windows 7 system as well.

I can definitely create a .png version. I honestly don’t know why I chose .tif. Maybe out of habit. I’ll see about doing that and sending that version to YG to add to the post for those having trouble with the .tif

I have posted a link to it, but I’ve made some adjustments to it since then due to some of the feedback I’ve gotten.

I’m pretty happy with it now and it’s pretty safe to assume these will be the “final” versions.

I have two to choose from.

One with an IPC strip along the bottom:
mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=f4lauqeajg8c784&thumb=4

One without the IPC strip:
mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=t7xvb28jfn7rbfa&thumb=4

Sure, but what if I want to print it out at 150" by 70" some day?

:-P

@gsh34:

@ambilzi:

I was also able to explicitly identify the font used. It’s “Barbedor” as far as I can tell.

Oh how I wish I had known this when I was doing my map.  I literally spent hours trying to figure out the font and I never did.  I ended up having to copy and paste sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many individual letters in order to correct the wording in the creases.  Well, I’m glad that you did find the correct font as I’m sure it saved you a lot of time compared to what I had to do.

I used this:

new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

@Noll:

Ambilzi, thanks, your job is awesome, and I wanted highly to do the magnetized board project myself, but I lack any photoshop skill.
Thank you a lot really, I wish I could do something to compensate you!

Also I have a question: Is the file large 7,05 meters X 3,22 meters? Wow!

The full version is over 40,000 pixels wide. It’s a 600dpi scan of the game board. Probably larger than it really needed to be but I figured why do it twice if I changed my mind later?

The uncompressed photoshop document is almost 5GB in size. The one I made available is 20,000 pixels wide. As it is the jpg I provided should print out considerably larger than the original at 150dpi.