Game Manuals

[MattH]

Originally posted by Dissident
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?

Yes, it sure is. Sim City 4 (small box) included a decent manual. I say decent because it was short and expected people to already know SC concepts.

NWN came with an inch thick spiral-bound manual, listing all the spells, classes, tables, etc.

[Imran Siddiqui]

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

Oh, I've never really played Homeworld.

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.

SWEET!

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...

Me too . Civ 2's was great as well.

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.

I never bought Moo3, so I can't analyize how good the manual was. One game that sucked with a good manual... man, that really proves your point .

And then there's a game like Deus Ex. I mean, did it even have a manual?

Yes it did... it wasn't horrible, but nothing great either.

And I don't know why you brought it up, Deus Ex, while being a good game, had a sub-par tutorial / in game help. A lot of stuff was just trial-and-error if you hadn't read the manual.

NWN came with an inch thick spiral-bound manual, listing all the spells, classes, tables, etc.

--

The best manuals were definetly the Interplay RPGs. Fallout 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment. GREAT manuals. Morrowind could have used a better manual, perhaps with a nice history of the world (in addition to the history in the books).

Man, I miss those great manuals.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Hueij

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...

The fun part of the civ 1 manual was the 'anti-piracy' protection. Prior to buying it I had an *ahem* unauthorized version *ahem* so I had to try to figure out the answers to the questions. I played it so much I eventually knew them all

[Adagio]

You should have *ahem* a better version *ahem*, mine didn't have this problem...

As I later bought the game, I never actually played the original version... why risk that it might get destroyed, if you've got another copy

[Case]

Ah, how the phrase 'anti-piracy protection' brings back happy memories of reading tiny black numbers printed on red cardboard.

[DrSpike]

Though Monkey Island was so funny it managed to even get a laugh from its copy protection. I still smile at the Lame-O-Copy protection system.

[Adagio]

Never played it... how was it?

[DrSpike]

The same style as those 'wheels' where you align stuff and read a code, but they were just taking the mickey.

[Case]

*Pulls old Monkey Island Box off the shelf*

When the game opened you were presented with the picture of a pirate and asked you the year the pirate was hanged in. You then matched up the top and bottom of that pirate's picture on a cardboard wheel that came with the game. When you did so the date the pirate was hanged appeared in a little hole in the wheel.

[Adagio]

nice

[Grumbold]

I love reading manuals that have useful information in them. There's nothing worse than a manual to a detailed game that leaves out the important stuff because they want to flog a strategy guide.

[Dis]

just got done reading most of the BG2 PDF manual. I had never read that manual despite playing that game through a few times. I never had the paper manual, didn't realize I had a pdf file.

While a PDF is better than nothing, I still miss books. I really feel like that person in Vault City in Fallout 2 who misses the day of books before everything went on holodisk . There's just something natural flipping pages back and forth.

BTW does anyone know how you can go to a specific page with acrobat reader? The BG2 manual is 266 pages, it takes a long time going through one page at a time- even with the mousewheel or the arrows down at the bottom.

[Grumbold]

Document - Go To Page or just ctrl-N should do it.

[Traianvs]

Stonekeep, a great game, had a decent manual.
More importantly: in the box was included a book "Thera's Awakening" which gave a background of the game. Very impressive, just like the game btw! I like it when developers do that, but I understand it's rather difficult to write a book along with your game.

[hexagonian]

What I miss is the tech tree posters that often came with the games.

...and yeah, I read the manuals - most of the time before I even load up the game on my system. Just to get a basic feel of what to expect when I do start playing...