Do you remember?

I only ever rember needing 3 manuals, metal gear for PC, not solid, the old one. Continum, Alpha Waves for you Britts, and Mech Warrior 2.

The first 2 needed passwords inorder to actualy play the game.

The only manual I remember is the Civilisation II one.

Of course there was also the legendary Microsoft Flight Sim manual.

It seems to me that the lack of printed manuals these days can be explained by an increase in computer literacy, vast improvements in user interface design and the ever present tendency of businesses to cut costs. There are probably a few other reasons that I've missed as well.

The Total Air War, I think it was called, games came with a significant manual, a booklet on background information and a technical manual I think. Certainly three pretty hefty books.

It was frustrating really, you had to look up the keys to do everything.

I LOOVED those giant manuals. When I was younger, half the fun of the game was the manual, especially the ones with little tidbits about in game information in them.

I quite liked the artwork in the manuals that came with the Warcraft games, although those weren't particularly large manuals. In most cases, I refer to manuals infrequently enough to make printing them a waste of resources though, so I'm generally fine with having it in an electronic form (such as HTML) instead, with perhaps a keyboard reference for anything with a lot of controls (very useful the first time playing Mechwarrior for example).

A lot of the old manuals used to have some cool artwork though, I miss that.

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Original post by furby100 The only manual I remember is the Civilisation II one. Of course there was also the legendary Microsoft Flight Sim manual.

The original Civ 2 manual had a short history section at the end, but I lost it. I later got Civ 2 multiplayer edition but they removed the section! To this day I still wonder where that manual went, since I rarely lose things like that.

Final Fantasy Adventure for the original GameBoy had a 40-page manual. I took it with me to show off to people. Odd, because the game wasn't even that complicated.

While I too enjoyed sifting through a game manual on the way home from the store to see what i'd soon be playing the reality is that those manuals kept games from hitting mainstream for a while. How many people want to read when they buy a video game? Sure the art is pretty but the best way to learn is through playing and I think games have gotten better at that over the years with tutorial levels and such. Games have to get to the point where your parents can sit down and learn to play in 5 minutes. Manuals just aren't going to do that.

-mike

I remember those days. Master of Orion 3 had a solid book. If the game is worth playing is debatable, but it did have a big book....and its some what recent.

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Original post by Mike Bossy While I too enjoyed sifting through a game manual on the way home from the store to see what i'd soon be playing the reality is that those manuals kept games from hitting mainstream for a while. How many people want to read when they buy a video game? Sure the art is pretty but the best way to learn is through playing and I think games have gotten better at that over the years with tutorial levels and such. Games have to get to the point where your parents can sit down and learn to play in 5 minutes. Manuals just aren't going to do that. -mike

That's a very good point, well said.

The first manual I remember (for a game) was the manual to F-15 Strike Eagle III. I think I spent more time reading the manual than playing the game, at least until I learned how to survive without needing the invincibility cheats.

Personally, I miss the days of thick books and long learning curves. I loved taking months to perfect the routine of switching radar modes, scanning the skies in stealth mode, pinging my jammer to get past that one pesky radar emplacement... it was great. Every time I get a new game and sit through the obligatory "tutorial level" I think to my self "good God, not more of this shit. Are people honestly so stupid and lazy that they can't at least play their tutorial separate from the actual game? I want to get into the action already!" Tutorials I guess are OK for your clueless newbies who just want to frag for a couple minutes after work, but I've been in this whole gaming thing for a few years and I think I know how to aim my damn gun by now, y'know?


So for no apparent reason, I make this plea to the latent game designer in all of us: make your fricken tutorials optional. They're boring and sometimes borderline insulting. Even the "this is a tutorial! If you're not an inbred monkey, click this button to skip the half hour of patronizing crap that you can probably figure out in thirty seconds of actually playing the game!" approach is weak. People should have to explicitly look for the tutorial... like, say, underneath the New Game option on the main menu. I want to start a New Game, not a New Tutorial.


... well, that was a thoroughly pointless rant. Carry on with whatever topic this was supposed to be about [wink]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who read game manuals like novels...Civ 2 and Simcity 2000 in particular.

I remember the manual for Stunt Island being basically a great glossy book, with not only information about how to play the game, but interviews with stunt coordinators, tidbits of knowledge about the movie/stunt/special effects industry, etcetera. I loved that manual.

I also remember Pirates! coming with an actual map of the Spanish Main. And Shadow of the Comet came with an envelope containing letters, a death certificate, a police report, et cetera. I miss those days.

The Quest for Glory manuals were basically 'magazines' that heroic people read. All information on the game world was disguised in editorials, gossip collumns, interviews, etcetera. The QFG4 one was the best.

Did anyone play C&C: Red Alert? The manual had some Morse code in it that talked about an attack by giant ants. There was also an accompanying piece of paper in Morse code telling you how to access the giant ant missions.

I remember when games came in giant LP-Record envelopes with immense cover art.

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Original post by krikkit I remember when games came in giant LP-Record envelopes with immense cover art.

I liked the ones with little intro comic in them.

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Original post by Promit Please tell me I'm not the only one who read game manuals like novels...Civ 2 and Simcity 2000 in particular.

Without fail, I read game manuals cover to cover (when they exist anymore) before installing the game. I have many fond memories of the SimCity 2000 manual.

Not that I ever really read them, but I did like the idea of games including REAL materail that you could put your hands on.

I'm worried that the idea of a real book will be forgotten. Sure, you can make a 'digital' paper book, like a thin pad that you can 'flip' through, and make notes on the edges and that, and even make notes and everything, but they'll never be the same as reading a true book.

Oh, and I was wrong, it wasn't simant that was 400 pages, thats only like 200, but I know I have a thicker manual that came with a game. Anyway, simant/earth are both like 7x9x1/2 inch. I've seen textbooks smaller than that! (And the university bookstore had them for like $100 something! I paid like $5 for simant)