Remember when video game manuals were awesome?

[LightOfDarkness]

TF2 has a hilarious manual. Too bad it A:is online B:does nothing to explain how the game works in the slightest.

 

[WorldCritic]

Yeah, I remember some old PS1 booklets very fondly.

 

[smeghead25]

This is exactly what I was thinking at work yesterday

I agree, I miss awesome manuals, I loved the GTA3, and Vice City 'Tourist Guide' manual, it was clever and matched the humour great. I miss games having witty descriptions of characters and plotlines too. These days all it has is setting up, controls, Credits and an empty note page. I used to love buying a brand new game, and reading the manual on the way home. Red Alert on PS1 I read multiple times, once after I had got home, and before I'd even started it up!

Long live awesome videogame manuals...

 

[Geekosaurus]

Hitman Bloody Money is maybe the coolest instruction manual (or destruction manual, as I like to call it) I've seen in a while. It's like basic tips and tricks for the amateur assassin.

 

[Neverhoodian]

- Warcraft III

The Warcraft II manual is amazing So much backstory to read

That it does. I remember borrowing Warcraft II from a friend once. The game itself bored me, but I found the story in the manual utterly fascinating.

Sometimes old-school manuals could be genuinely educational. The manual to a WWI flight sim called Knights of the Sky had accurate statistics for every plane in the game. It also had a very well written historical account of air combat during the war.

The Farlander Papers, X-Wing's manual, was a very entertaining read. It was basically a story of how the player character (Keyan Farlander) ended up fighting for the Rebel Alliance. Tie Fighter had its own version, the Steele Chronicles. Like the Farlander Papers, it provided insight into how the player (Maarek Steele) joined the Empire. The stories were surprisingly well written, dealing with complex emotions and character interactions. They also had some awesome illustrations of 3-D rendered ships (granted the quality of the renderings haven't aged well, but bear in mind it was the early 90's). If you bought the player's guides, it expanded the stories to the point that they were practically novel-length.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Dawn of War and it's expansions had really good manuals. Also I really loved the Crash Bandicoot manuals when I was young. Pretty much every single Fallout main Fallout game. Dynasty Tactics 2 is probably the thickest manual I've ever read.

But my favourite game manual of all time would defiantely go to Mercenarues: Playground of Destruction. The overall design of it that actually makes it look like a briefing report, the photos stuck into it with character bios, the backstory, the help section, the weapons and vehicles section and even had a section at the back to write down all the cheats

 

[AWDMANOUT]

Oddly enough, my friends and I have just recently talked about this.

Like, the...

AC:Brotherhood's is worse...its a pamphlet.
The actual "instruction manual" is in-game.

Dammit. Ninja'd.

But hey, check out the Red Dead Redemption ones? They came with handy little maps.
I do wish this wouldn't become a thing of the past in games, though.

 

[demoman_chaos]

I miss good game manuals.

 

[PorkChopXpress]

Metal Gear Solid 4's manual tells you how to play the game by way of a comic.

That was pretty cool, but honestly a manual is something I might read a little bit of in the restroom and ignore otherwise.

I was gonna say Sons of Liberty myself for the exact same reason.

 

[Professor James]

Fallout 3 had a pretty good manual, if I remember correctly. Had a cool layout and some useful tips, I was happy with it.

Worst manual ever goes to Modern Warfare 2, hands down. 6 or 7 pages of black and white that don't explain anything.

you think that's bad, you should see assassin's creed brotherhood. it's basically a 2 page book showing the controller layout of the game.

 

[zombays]

Warcraft III and the game manual for WoW.

That's two years of reading material.
Although, I must admit, the manuals for most Halo games (especially collector's edition for halo wars) were excellent.

 

[Teh Roflchoppa]

I love it when i get a thick, full color manual, i read the whole thing and keep it, its like a collectors item, the worst one I had so for was the one for AC: Brotherhood, its a laminated page or two saying, "its already in the game..." That sucked...

EDIT: Oh balls Ninja'd X2

 

[Antari]

Remember when you got a real, pages-bound-together manual, and not a reference card?

Remember when PC game boxes were the size of cereal boxes?

Remember when manuals were packed with backstory, in-depth strategic analysis, and even some witty jokes?

Remember when you got an accompanying booklet written in an in-universe style to flesh out the backstory and characters?

I don't know whether it's a digital age thing, or a cost cutting thing, or a laziness thing, but these days, for better or worse, you learn to play the game while playing it. Tutorial prologues are common, and they're great because they get you actually playing the game, which is the best way to learn how to play it (you can't learn to drive by reading the road code can you?), but it's also a shame that the actual packaging that you get games in has become more and more neglected. Even today, lots of "collector's editions" are content to just throw together some concept art into a booklet and call it a day.

That type of stuff makes me want to keep games. It makes them more than just a computer program on a disc or a hard drive. It would be easier for me to sell my current-gen PS3 collection of games that I actually play than part with my beloved copies of SimCity 2000, Homeworld, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri which I haven't touched in years. Part of it is for sentimental value, but part of it is that the manuals are just so damn cool.

Some of the best manuals I have:
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert (had a Morse Code secret message along the bottom pages, which transcribed into something about giant ants)
- FreeSpace 2
- Homeworld (which is not only a manual but an incredible "Historical and Technical Briefing", packed with backstory and sci-fi goodness)
- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
- Warcraft III
- Wing Commander III (as well as the playguide, it included the "Your Personalized Guide to the TCS Victory"
- Wing Commander IV
- Wing Commander: Prophecy (which came with the in-universe "TCS Midway Integrated Combat Information System")
- SimCity 2000 (one of the funniest manuals ever)
- Seawolf SSN-21 (everything I know about submarines I learned from this game and its manual)

Oh do I hear you on this one. I can remember the Ultima Compendiums as well. They put alot of work into those. But I'm afraid we're moving even farther away from getting them back with the rise of digital distribution.

 

[Fuselage]

I have the Australian version of AC: Brotherhood and my manual is so pathetic, It is basically 5 pages of stuff detailing controls.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I miss those things. Sigh.

 

[AgentBJ09]

Agreed. Manuals need to start getting big again, and they need more world/creature/character fluff.

I still have the Hexen manuals, which have multiple snippets of fluff writing, but that's part of the charm. Then there's Deus Ex, Morrowind, Oblivion, The Witcher, and quite a few others.

I can somewhat understand the reasoning behind 'going green' with regard to the manuals, but if these companies had any semblance of a clue, they would notice that people still pay good money for the classic manuals online. People want manuals with good stuff, or at the very least, thick ones with plenty to read.

Also, I know these companies have technical and creative writers, so it should not be that hard to create manuals that are thicker than eight pages. Seriously.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Metal Gear Solid 4's manual tells you how to play the game by way of a comic.

That was pretty cool, but honestly a manual is something I might read a little bit of in the restroom and ignore otherwise.

MGS3 also did that, but I gotta say I loved the Sly 2 booklet.

 

[redisforever]

The older C&C games had awesome installers. That ended with C&C Renegade.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I bought an old dos game off ebay, terminator:skynet and was amazed by how the manual focussed so much on back story and concept art and funny comic jokes.

 

[BurnOutBrighter]

The older C&C games had awesome installers. That ended with C&C Renegade.

I remember this! It was funny how the DOS version had the way cooler installation, with animated machine doohickies and everything. Meanwhile on Windows 95 you just got a background pic!