Really cool video game manuals

[Barbas]

What are some of your favourites from the days before companies used to just give you a link to an online version to save themselves some cash? I used to love the little Command and Conquer ones that listed all the units and gave descriptions for them. IIRC, one of the Roller Coaster Tycoon ones had some neat history about the different rides. Sid Meier's Railroads! had a great one with lots of pictures of all the little train engines you could build, with the history of each, as well as some background on all the ambitious rail barons you could be.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Mechwarrior 3 had one that wasn't bad. It's didn't have too many pictures, but it was filled with a lot of information that wasn't strictly relevant to gameplay. Pretty much read like an introduction into the Battletech universe, putting the game into the proper context, and describing how all those neat weapons and giant robots worked.

Minds drawing a blank beyond that at the moment. Shit...

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Every PC game ever.

Starting with the Ultima games.

 

[MysticSlayer]

A lot of games with Sid Meier's name attached to them were really good. They were pretty detailed and often filled with little pieces of historical background. I remember in Pirates! they had something called "Captain Sidney's Journal". I always wondered if those brief snippets were from an actual pirate's journal or were made up for the game's protagonist. Then there was Civilization IV, which went ridiculously in-depth and had a nice recounting of the game's development from Soren Johnson.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Simcity was probably the most detailed SNES manual ever. I especially liked how there were sections called 'the Wright Files', after mascot Dr. Wright, that covered the histories of failed cities where the player/mayor made a mistake that eventually permanently halted the city's growth. The mayor of Gearhead refused to make any railways as their city grew, Hoocares had no Fire Stations or other disaster coverage, and there was one which kept every single zone separate so they couldn't boost each other's development. Obvious in hindsight, but don't forget this was the first game of its type.

Other than that, Blizzard's Warcraft II and Starcraft manuals probably had the most detailed backstory in them, the latter containing a 10-page illustrated summary of each race's background within.

 

[Rabish Bini]

The Mechwarrior games had nice manuals full of information and pages dedicated to each Mech, that was always nice.

My favourite was Dark Reign: The Future Of War though. I haven't had the game for a probably a decade now, but I remember the manual was very thick, in a nice, sleek and textured black cover full of information about pretty much everything.

 

[Khymerion]

One of the best ever is the original Homeworld manual.

You learn so very much about the world, history, and culture of the exiles. It made the game so very much more of a punch to know so much about the place when the events played out.

 

[Worgen]

The manual for Red Baron. It had a whole history of the ww1 air war and dog fighting tactics. It was great.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Warcraft 3 had a pretty boss manual. Lots of lore and backstory in there.

 

[American Fox]

I miss the smell of opening a new one. Even the old sour plastic scent of some of the old NES ones.

Some of the Genesis cases smelled kind of burnt.

 

[FPLOON]

The manual to Odama for the GameCube came with a fold-out map of the game with all it's levels/stages and descriptions about the "potential" threats/strategies that might transpire within the game itself... Also, I have a soft spot for the manual to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the GameBoy Advance not just because it does a poor job of hiding the fact that you will get to play as Riku (in his own story) after beating Sora's story for the first time...

Other than that, Star Fox: Assault's manual had a couple of pages dedicated to laying out the story so far within the series at the time... Plus, I have a soft spot for the manual for 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog for the PS360 for leaving out how to activate the gems you buy at the shop using the rings you collect...

 

[Saelune]

Ones with pictures in them that I could then cut out and play with...I had a bad scissors phase...

Also really liked Neverwinter Nights', mostly cause I bought it on a road trip and my laptop couldn't run it, so I spent a lot of time what was basically a mini DnD Player's Guide. Ive since upgraded to actual DnD books, which are still fun to read, the rule books that is.

 

[WolfThomas]

Arcanum's was pretty awesome. Histories of the races. Basic explanations of scientific theory. Discussions on magic. A banana bread recipe...this isn't a joke.

 

[aozgolo]

The Lunar Silver Star Story Complete manual... it was an actual book with a strategy guide built in, tons of character bios, developer insights, it was beautiful... I wish I didn't lose it.

Aside from that, I really liked the Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Manuals that were nice and beefy.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

The manuals to pretty much any old school pc rpg[footnote]although the practice was by no means limited to that genre[/footnote], I guess. They were usually packed with lore, info on races, factions, locations, maps and tons of other little tidbits. And most of the time it came with nice artwork.

It made opening a new game and perusing the manual an exciting adventure in itself, finding out what neat little extras came packed into that cardboard box, except you didn't have to get the limited/collectors edition at twice the price of the regular game or more.

 

[Kyle Winston]

I remember reading the Donkey Kong Country Manual when I was bored sometimes, if only for Cranky Kong's little quips peppered throughout. One of them was, "You're only reading this because you're bored!"