The manual for Diablo was awesome. Wing Commander III had two in that gorgeous box, a technical manual and a game manual.
Probably my most-memorable manual of all time. This era was next-level with the manuals. With Police Quest 2 (pictured), you couldn’t access the game without the manual, as it’d show you a mugshot and you had to match the picture to the name in the manual:
Back when DRM was fun
I dunno, it could be annoying. I played an indy 500 game that asked history questions from the manual and was a pain to find the page with the answer.
And I remember a Mickey game where you needed to find a specific pose in black ink on a dark brown paper. Poor contrast was meant to defeat photocopiers but also made it a pain for human eyes.
And some nice props. The original Sid Meier’s Pirates had an amazing map of the Caribbean
Fucking loved that game!
Remember when games had a cool box, with a manual and full color booklet with the story and basics of the game, etc. Now they bring nothing, just a disc. Same with movies, a dvd used to have all these features, documentaries, Easter eggs, interactive menus and commentaries. Now you pay for a Blu ray and it brings nothing but the movie
Nowadays you don’t usually even get to own the game after purchase.
I still have the guide that came with Earthbound. I read that thing through so many times as a kid. I think my parents bought it new on clearance because it didn’t sell and I was having a rough year.
Still remember the night I got it. It was a nice summer night, there was a block party on our street. My parents wanted to stay later than usual but let me go home to play. The adults were only one house over, but it felt like growing up getting to be home alone.
That opening sequence felt like it could have been my life in a different reality. It took a few years for me to finally beat it , but it felt like growing up with the characters in a way.
I feel the guidebook had a lot to do with my memories. It was so cool how it was presented as newspapers from towns along the way and it being a tangible object added to the immersion. Seriously a great gaming experience I can’t ever replicate.
I miss when games were physical and I actually owned them.
I miss being able to hold them in my hands, to examine the cover, to read the back.
I miss being able to crack it open and smell that plasti-ink-chemical smell that had been sealed inside from the factory with the shrinkwrap.
and yes, I absolutely miss having manuals to read.
All of these comments and not a single shout-out to the original StarCraft manual. Back stories and histories of the three races that culminated in their eventual discovery of each other.
Old blizzard games had full sized books as manuals that had story & art! Starcraft, warcraft 2 & 3 (never owned a legit copy of 1 so I assume), Diablo 1, 2, & 3! Glory days.
Yesterday I came across my old Icewind Dale box. The manual is 130 pages with tiny print.
I had also put the Forgotten Realms Archive manual in there, which is 368 pages - but to be fair that’s for all 12 games.
Back in the day we’d buy games based on the vaguest idea of what they actually are. My parents would take me to the store and we’d get anything that looks cool enough. Best we can do is read a little bit about it in a magazine.
The box:
The game:
So immersive! Look at that spaceship!
At least this one had screenshots on the back!
For a different platform entirely, but as a Spectrum owner I was used to that.
Looking at videos of other versions, it looks suspiciously like they outsourced the Spectrum version to somebody else, and only vaguely described it.
Mom made me pick a game from the bargain bin. Deus ex? Weird cover. Eh I’ll try it
That’s how I got “Rise of the robots”, never got more disappointed by a game ever! 😞
Best memory of this is reading through the Morrowind manual while my mom did her shit.
Came here for the Morrowind crowd. Love that game so much
I read the crazy thick guide at work before the game even came out. All of the different things you could do were amazing to me.
When games had manuals… Now I’m sad :(
As a child with motion sickness brought on by reading in a moving vehicle. I still did this but then got too nauseous and had to lay down.
Also the car filled with cigarette smoke with the windows up didn’t help.
fuck, some of those games had gorgeous manuals.
Skyrim. Not too old though
It released in 2011.
Yep, 11/11/11. I stood in line at GameStop at midnight to get it.
Am I old?
Yes.
basically yesterday
I remember drooling over Might and Magic VI. That is clearly a manual born out of love for the thing you are doing…
ps: it is available online
You should play Tunic if you miss old school game pamphlets. All of the tutorials are given in the form of artwork that looks exactly like what you’d find in an NES game. The entire game is a love letter to that era of gaming.
Such a great game. I’m actually being really indecisive about games to play, and now I want to play that.
I need to finish it some day! It does such a great job of capturing the feeling of starting a new adventure. It’s one of the few games where I don’t feel the need to look up a guide when I get stuck, because the game makes me want to learn how to progress through each area. An absolute masterclass in game design, IMO.
Read the Guild Wars Factions manual over and over, because I got it before the official release and couldn’t play. 2 years later I could easily solve a lore puzzle in-game with the knowledge I got from reading the manual. Totally worth it.
It was Guild Wars Eye of the North for me. I got it just before going in family holidays.
I spent two weeks looking at it.