Game Manuals

[Dis]

I used to be a manual junkie. But being as there aren't any good manuals anymore, I rarely pay attention anymore. I still read them.

da_hal has reminded me of the old 80's game like Bard's Tale. The manual (and the box even) had the layout of the city. They were more useful back then.

[Imran Siddiqui]

it just shows they're wasteful and perhaps unable to make a comprehensive in-game help system.

Of course not, you snob. Since it is an afterthought more often than not, a large manual shows that they are dedicated to giving you a great game experience. Those companies which have given large manuals have shown themselves to be some of the best ones.

[DrSpike]

Probably some truth in that; I think most agree here.........manuals are usually shoddier nowadays, and some but certainly not all of the slack has been taken up with in-game tutorials.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And, of course, a great manual doesn't mean bad in-game tutorials. One need only look at Baldur's Gate or Fallout for that.

I wish more manuals had more backstories and fun things like that as well. Those are really fun.

[Case]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
I wish more manuals had more backstories and fun things like that as well. Those are really fun.

I take it that you're the only person in the world that read the first part of the Homeworld Manual then


Incidently, my award for the most over the top manual of all time goes to that for Microsoft's Close Combat 1. For no obvious reason, that puppy included a 40 page history of WW2.

[Hueij]

First time I bought a game was Elite for the C64. It came with a comprehensive manual and a short novel playing in the Elite universe. I loved it.

Later a friend of mine owned Civ 1. It looked impressive so I borrowed the manual and read it front to cover in one sitting. Whoa!

Yeah, I really miss those manuals...

[DrSpike]

Well, complex games make up less proportion of the total, and simple with nice eye-candy (and small manuals!) are the watchwords. Alas the golden age of the true gamer is over. We must just take what scraps we are thrown. You all know who to blame.

[Skanky Burns]

Gaming started to go downhill before "Sunday Gamers" were a force.

[DrSpike]

There were always some shallow games, but the proportion has followed the rise of the Sunday gamer almost perfectly.

[Skanky Burns]

Maybe the Sunday gamer came about because shallow games soon became all that was on offer?

[DrSpike]

I think my direction of causality is more believable.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

it just shows they're wasteful and perhaps unable to make a comprehensive in-game help system.

Of course not, you snob. Since it is an afterthought more often than not, a large manual shows that they are dedicated to giving you a great game experience. Those companies which have given large manuals have shown themselves to be some of the best ones.

Snob? I'm not the one taking a pseudo-literary stance here.

Master of Orion 3 had a good manual. Lot's of back story, very readable, ect... It's a good thing that they where so dedicated and cared so much about giving a great gaming experience.

And then there's a game like Deus Ex. I mean, did it even have a manual? Clearly, they didn't care about giving a great gaming experience at all.

[Adagio]

Talking about fun manuals, I just remembered reading the first two pages of the manual to Theme Hospital... great story... didn't teach me anything about the game though, but fun nevertheless

[Dis]

well the point is moot anyways.

With the restricted size of game boxes, is it still possible to include a great game manual now days?

[DrSpike]

That is a factor I'd say. They could put it on the cd of course, but some people here would prefer a chunky manual to a file on their cd I think.