Printing press?

[troglodyte]

The official manual that came with my game was obviously printed by a printing press with the delerium tremors early on Monday morning. It is totally illegible as the printing seems to have hit each page about five to six times with a bit of an offset.

Is there anywhere where I can download a copy of the official manual (.pdf, .zip anything)? I have looked at several sites but do not seem to be able to find it. Perhaps someone else has already done this and can point me to the right website?

[Enigma_Nova]

... Good god, he's right. Google doesn't even have anything.
Well, since I can't help you, all I can do is assure you that you're not missing out on much by not having access to the manual.

[Diadem]

I think the manual is only available in print.

I think this is done to discourage illigal copying of the game.

But if your manual is badly printed like that, you should return it and ask for a new one.

[snafuc4]

The 1.09 patch for the bought-by-download game also contains a PDF manual, apparently; I saw this here back in October/November (I think)

[sovietwaffle]

That's odd, I could've sworn I downloaded it straight off the Firaxis site...

I'm uploading it now, I'll PM you the link (and mail them about making it permanent)

[troglodyte]

Thanks to all who responded, and especially sovietwaffle who provided a link to the manual.

Unfortunately, being in Africa (even South Africa) means that the post-sales service provided by the vendors leaves something to be desired. I called the games store and asked about swapping manuals - they said NO NO NO!

It's a pity about the manual really, this is one of the few games that comes with a weighty (sizewise) manual and I was really looking forward to reading it (if only to avoid the RTFM comments that often float about on the fansites).

Thanks again, sovietwaffle.

[sovietwaffle]

No problem! Was happy to help

[Enigma_Nova]

South Africa?! Ouch. Hope you're in one of the good parts of South Africa with Education and Police, instead of the tribal areas.

[Diadem]

I feel your pain troglodyte.

But imagine my horror when I opened my game and found a Dutch manual. Aaaaargh! Those stupid idiots translated it! The game is still in English, but they translated the manual. What braindead moron at firaxis made that decision? Probably the same one who translated it, because I've never seen so many spelling errors, and even makeup errors, in one book.

It's maddening, having an English game, trying to look something up, and first having to figure out in what idiotic way they might have translated the word you're looking for.

I can't get an English version anywhere in The Netherlands! I really should have downloaded it. If they maim the game like that for us Dutchies, they really deserve illigal downloads imho.

[edit]
I've been bottling up that frustration for months now. Aaah, feels good getting it out of my system

[Quillan]

I wonder how common this is. I bought the Collector's Edition in the US, and wound up with the tech tree poster in French. I just got the correct one in last week. Trog, you might try contacting Take 2 directly from their site. I sent them an email about the tech tree poster the day the game released. Apparently that was a somewhat common problem; they made a dedicated link for those who had that problem within a couple of days. But you might be able to get a replacement manual directly from them.

[Grenouille]

Originally posted by Diadem
I feel your pain troglodyte.

But imagine my horror when I opened my game and found a Dutch manual. Aaaaargh! Those stupid idiots translated it! The game is still in English, but they translated the manual. What braindead moron at firaxis made that decision? Probably the same one who translated it, because I've never seen so many spelling errors, and even makeup errors, in one book.

Ha, you should see the german language version of the GAME! Be happy they didn`t translate the game into dutch. I`m happy that I re-installed in english.

[Unimatrix11]

Well i am a german living in the USA right now. When i bought the game here i was pleasantly surprised that i could choose german as in-game-language just by clicking it in the options menu... and compared to the translation of civIII it is pretty descent, too. I really have nothing to complain about in this aspect...
And you don't need to reinstall to change the language either... What are you talking about ?!

[psiekier]

Originally posted by Enigma_Nova
South Africa?! Ouch. Hope you're in one of the good parts of South Africa with Education and Police, instead of the tribal areas.

"Education" and "Police"? That's a new combination. I prefer "Caste System" and "Representation" myself.

[Grenouille]

Originally posted by Unimatrix11
Well i am a german living in the USA right now. When i bought the game here i was pleasantly surprised that i could choose german as in-game-language just by clicking it in the options menu... and compared to the translation of civIII it is pretty descent, too. I really have nothing to complain about in this aspect...
And you don't need to reinstall to change the language either... What are you talking about ?!

If you want to have Leonard Nimoy instead of the german guy speaking, you need too.
I found the grammar pretty problematic.. as in every civ before.
In Civ2, it was so bad that I made my own language file to be able to play it. They translated "captured" for conquering a city with the german word for "catch" in the wrong grammatikcal form, and stuff like that. eek.

Axise einfangen Paris!

[Diadem]

Originally posted by Grenouille

Ha, you should see the german language version of the GAME! Be happy they didn`t translate the game into dutch. I`m happy that I re-installed in english.

But the point is that translating a game actually makes sense. That allows people who can not speak english to play it. Of course, for most people it'll just be torture, but at least there is a benefit.

What is the point of translating just the manual? People who can't speak english, can't play the game anyway. And having the manual call things by a different name as the game is extremely confusing.