Remember when video game manuals were awesome?

[vivalahelvig]

The warcraft 3 manual is HUGE!

and ive read it about 10 times fully, all the history, all the characters, all the everything.
its so fucking awesome!

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

GTA IV has a hilarious manual. I wish more companies were so dedicated to bring some extra care in the way they make the manuals.

 

[Technomage333]

Not for a video game, but the rulebook for the Order of the Stick board game was awesome! Not nearly detailed enough but very fun to read. Also the original NWN had a great manual, nice and long for some entertainment while the parentals had to finish errands.

 

[Reg5879]

Doesn't half of the Modern Warfare 2 story section of the manual go on about how it is a sequel to the "GOTY" CoD4?

Also, at least the Pokemon manuals are still always cool to read through.

 

[Chibz]

How about the Zelda games on NES' manuals? Those things were AWESOME!

You could learn to play D&D from the Baldur's Gate manuals. The manual for the second game was 192 pages of pure information and entertaining wit, with two of the settings famous character: Volo and Elminster, often arguing between the lines and offering advice about various things. Flip to any page and you've got a good chance something's been scrawled in the margins somewhere. Shows the developers and the writers actually cared!

I also remember the original Starcraft manual, although not nearly as thick as Baldur's Gate, was like a short novella onto itself with half the booklet telling the origins of the various races. Interesting reading actually!

Just don't get that anymore.

Hey, the Baldur's gate manuals take after the D&D manuals themselves. Take a look at them, they're well illustrated & awesome.

 

[kakaomasse]

i never really paid attention to manuals, only when i was waiting for the game to install,however, if anyone is interested in reading them, check out this site.
http://www.replacementdocs.com

 

[moose_man]

I remember a great one for a Star Wars flight sim from the 90s....

 

[Stammer]

Well, to be fair, games kind of come with instruction manuals in-game now in the form of tutorials. I know it sucks, though. I remember C&C Tiberian Sun, whose instruction manual was the size of a laptop and gave you detailed information and backstories to all the characters, a lot of the units, the lore of the story, etc.

Personally, I love a good instruction manual, even if it's just something to read when I'm bored or waiting for the game to install (especially nowadays, am I right??).

I remember Dark Cloud 2's instruction manual which, intentionally or otherwise, smelled like a wax-sealed papyrus scroll.

 

[Nyquisted]

Oh the best one I had was the manual to Master of Orion 3.
That thing was a tome.

And it had the back story, the jokes...

Although, I think honourable mentions could go to Morrowind, which was quite thick and in-depth and Rome: Total War, which I remember because of a joke about a barbarian drinking from your skull...

 

[Irridium]

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

6 or 7? It was 3 or 4 at best.

Better then the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood manual. It was just a card saying: See the manual in the game!"

OT: I too miss large manuals. Gave a real weight to everything. It seems The Witcher 2 is going to come with a full manual, along with many other extra's, and a lot of it is in the standard edition, you get plenty more with the collectors edition.

But other then that, it seems large manuals are a thing of the past. Because you know, reading is hard and stuff.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Those were great! I got SimCity 2000 too, soon after it was released. 'Twas good fun.

I happened to see Civ III's manual laying around somewhere too. It's more of a book, I'd say.

 

[Trogdor1138]

I have an old boxed/complete copy of Rise of the Dragons (it comes on actually floppy floppy discs too, several of them). It has a comic book, awesome instruction guide and other neat little extras (even an ad for this new fangled thing coming in called the internet).

When I bought it it even had a hint/strategy guide which I think the previous owner put in. It had this transparent card type thing that you have to put over boxes to read the secrets/answers to the solutions you were having trouble with. All these little extras are just such a nice touch.

Games used to have great manuals and occasionally a company will make one that surprises me, but sadly I think it's a thing of the past

 

[Krantos]

Galactic Civilizations II's Manual was pretty good. Not only was it fleshed out, but it also didn't take itself that seriously.

For instance some of the subheadings were:

"I'll have what she's having"
"This land is mine, and so is yours"
"From time to time, they actually do come in peace"

My personal favorite is how Civilization Management is simply introduced with "My god it's full of numbers"

Really, the entire thing was written how you might explain the game to your friend; more dialoguish, than straight tech writing.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Age of Empires.... Man, that game was when I started using PC's...

I didn't have Age of Empires, but I remember when my brother got Age of Empires 2. The manual was at least 50 pages. I can't say the exact number since I don't have it with me, but I remember that it had enough pages that it had a flat rectangular spine and the pages held in it with book glue, not staples like manuals of today.

 

[Walkchalk]

I only tend to read the manuals while my game is installing, so they arent that big a deal for me. The only thing that bothered me of late was the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood one which told me that the manual was IN THE DAMN GAME. That really pissed me off. I might not always read them but my manuals are important to me Ubisoft.

 

[bubba145]

The Sly Cooper games had good ones.

 

[Daniel_Rosamilia]

Defcon has a pretty awesome manual.
Full of 50s style misinformation on how to survive a nuclear attack and the ensuing chaos. Complete with pictures!

If you're looking for it, Introversion have a link to it:
http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/downloads/manual.html

 

[Zannah]

But a lot of it was anti-piracy efforts in the days when the only thing standing between you and unlimited copies were your game manuals. Infocom tended to shy away from schemes that had players entering in the third word from the fifth sentence on the eight page sort of schemes by just coming up with such a cool package that people would want to own it.

Because Drm nowadays is such an efficient way and totally won over piracy. But then, back in the day some studios saw their customers as fellow fans of a dawning medium as opposed to money bags that need to be milked with the smallest possible effort :/

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

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

Not just MW2, every CoD game has done that.

I really liked the Halo manuals, since they gave a description of all the enemies and guns. I like to read old manuals for nostalgia trips.