Harvester on 19/7/2009 at 23:36
Starcraft has a really good manual, the pages with background information about the Terrans, Zerg and Protoss are interesting to read and really flesh out the game world and connect you to the story.
Also System Shock 1 and 2, with the background information and the quotes.
Al_B on 19/7/2009 at 23:54
I was unfortunate enough not to get them first hand (only in collectors editions) but the infocom manuals always seemed to be an enhancement to the game they were describing.
heretic on 20/7/2009 at 00:57
The majority of the manuals that came to mind have already been mentioned. I do still have a map which came with 'Redguard' (Elder Scrolls Adventure) which for effect was purposefully burned on the edges by hand before shipment.
belboz on 20/7/2009 at 04:14
world of warcraft comes with a 208 paged manual
lord of the rings online has a 168 paged manual
while
deadspace is 16 pages long
and tomb raider underworld is about 12 pages long.
I do have a tank based AI game that comes with a really massive manual from about 1990.
The worst manual I've had wasn't for a game but for a motherboard, it came on a cdrom, and if your building a computer from scratch, and you havent got a computer to read the cdrom with how useless is that manual.
Enchantermon on 20/7/2009 at 04:18
I loved King's Quest VI's Guidebook to the Green Isles. The manual was simply a how to install/play/troubleshoot thing, but the Guidebook contained an interesting history of the Land of the Green Isles, and seamlessly integrated the copy protection as well.
Also, The Island of Dr. Brain's companion book, The EncycloAlmanacTionaryOgraphy, contained help for a lot of the puzzles and many other interesting facts and tidbits (such as the birth of the compass and how to make a magic square). Good stuff.
Quote Posted by Aja
Oh, and for the Home Improvement SNES game I rented once, the manual was just one page with giant letters: REAL MEN DON'T NEED INSTRUCTIONS printed over it.
Awesome!
Aja on 20/7/2009 at 04:52
That's the one. It was not very good. I mostly just liked it for the manual.
henke on 20/7/2009 at 08:57
Well I guess the biggest problem with gamemanuals here in Northern Europe is that they're (mostly) written in all 4 Scandianvian languages. Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish. So ofcourse the info is condensed. You only get a fourth of the info you could be getting. Gamers know english anyway so it's kind of a waste methinks.
Not that I ever use manuals anyway, except if there's some important gameplay mechanic I can't figure out how to pull off. But mostly nowadays the in-game tutorials explain everything just fine.
TheOutrider on 20/7/2009 at 12:18
Adventure games in general used to be amazing for stuff like this. The Indy 3 adventure game included Henry Jones' grail diary, in nice (if printed) handwriting with sketches and (again, if printed) wine glass stains and everything. If I remember correctly, this also contains a hint needed late in the game.
The localized versions of the game also have this fully translated, again with handwriting and everything.
Getting in line with Homeworld, too. Such amazing amounts of background detail that are technically entirely irrelevant to the gameplay <3
Cerebration on 20/7/2009 at 12:56
Microprose always used to produce really good manuals for their simulations - the games were pretty expensive so the extra material made the price well worth it.
With FPSs and even simple RPGs you can include a lot of the important info in tutorials, but for simulations and strategies you really do need more comprehensive material. Even the Civs with their online encyclopedias went to the trouble of a printed manual to explain how the different elements worked. The trouble with the pdfs you get with games bought online is that not only are they very basic, but often games hog so much CPU power that trying to return to desktop to look at said pdf often results in a major crash.
More significantly, these days there's a far greater tendency to chop and change major game elements post-release. A thick printed manual explaining all the game mechanics will generally become out of date within a few months as patches are released. Also, by only having a vague manual it's easier to get away with not implementing certain features properly. I speak as someone who bought Empire: Total War soon after it was released and which three patches later still isn't working properly.
Maybe I'm over-nostalgic but there's something admirable about those older developers having the confidence to write and print a 200-page manual for their game, knowing that the software had to deliver.
