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Post by Kyle on Jan 16, 2015 19:31:20 GMT -5
Remember when the manuals that came with video games were awesome, and not a black & white scrap of paper with legal information and controls? Yeaaah, me too. I don't know what even happened! Ever since the previous console generation started taking root, most companies have really skimped on originality for their manuals. Heck, even the quality of the stuff sucks eggs! It's all this squeaky thin plastic-y material now. This thread is dedicated to the good ol' days of colour and elaborate designs. Here, I'll kick things off - Metal Gear Solid style! My blatant fanboyism aside, the manual for MGS1 really was terrific. It had description text for all the weapons and items you find, an overhead map of the first two areas with hints on how to proceed into the base, Codec frequencies, a glossary of key information from all three present games, and even some sweet illustrations of the characters. Some of whom you only get to see a head-shot of in-game. That's only about 1/3 of its contents, but I've gotten my point across. It's a full package and something we direly miss nowadays.
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Post by Dashe on Jan 16, 2015 23:24:45 GMT -5
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos was pretty much a CD case containing a really amazing manual for a really crappy game. The game itself didn't do the writing a lick of justice, and according to the link which I just posted, the game's lead developer wasn't happy with the way the story was portrayed in the manual. I bet the devs were just jealous that they didn't think of any of this stuff and only managed to make a bland platformer with an awkward control scheme. I think what's even worse than skimping on the manuals is shoving what looks like a really thick manual into the game case, and then you go to read it and find out it's just the same six or eight pages in a bunch of different languages. Having the different languages for the US version is pretty dumb when you're playing it on a console that will only allow you to play in English (as a lot of Nintendo's US games do). Strategy guides made for really great reading, too. Riven had a really good one. Hell, the writing was so good that even though I don't have the game anymore, I held onto the strategy guide because the fifth section was so well-written.
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Post by Mikéy on Jan 17, 2015 1:34:32 GMT -5
Sly 2: Band of Thieves definitely had an awesome manual. It featured not only controls and backbone to support the story, but also comments primarily from Bentley, since he's an "explainer" of sorts, with occasional comments from Sly and Murray. The entire thing was colorful too. I think Sly 3 had a similar manual, but I think the overall presentation was toned down. I looked in the case for my copy of Sly 2; the manual wasn't there, but the receipt for the game was... I can't believe I spent $42 on it so long ago. x.x Still, definitely a good game.
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Post by Blues on May 12, 2015 20:42:39 GMT -5
Apart from video games, reading was one of my big hobbies as a kid. Video game manuals were like the best midpoint between the two for me- not only could I play games, but I could read about them too? Gotta say, it was a great stepping stone towards letting me think only about my favorite games at all times. But let's see...growing up the only home console I had was the PS1. As a general rule of thumb all the manuals there, while typically very information-packed, were always without color- the only exception being the latter Crash Bandicoot games, which were both nicely designed and also very informative too. After getting a GBA and a few Nintendo games, I was very surprised to find that full-color manuals were the norm! Nintendo's manuals were very high-quality and I liked all of them, from the lore-packed F-Zero manuals to the art-filled Super Mario ones and all in between. The one that most sticks out in my mind however is the manual for Warioware, Inc: Mega Microgame$!, which was much more akin to an activity book but done right. Instantly its very colorful 60s-influcenced page designs and layout made it a standout, and then you'd open the thing to find that it had two whole sticker sheets inside it! That alone blew my mind. Going further you'd find that there were mazes and word puzzles and fill-in games mixed in alongside the usual character information and instructions and hints at how to get the unlockable minigames. I honestly carried that manual around with me just as much as I did the actual game, and still have my worn and totally filled out copy to this day. Nintendo continued to make great manuals for a long time after that (Gamecube manuals are far above PS2 ones, and even Wii manuals, while a little trimmed down, are still fairly packed and fun), but around the beginning of the 2010s they started to fall in line with the rest of the industry- where you got either color or a hefty manual, provided you even got a physical manual at all. The last games I own that have comprehensive manuals are Nostalgia and the DS port/remake of Chrono Trigger- basically RPGs that kinda need it. All my modern games though? Exactly as Kyle describes them. (...Well not quite: the Wii U Super Smash Bros actually has a fairly nice manual, full-color, with comprehensive instructions and thorough descriptions for each playable character, coupled with clean and informative design. But that's the exception rather than the rule- though I'm thankful all the same. )
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Post by Rockman Striker on May 16, 2015 12:04:59 GMT -5
Two of the manuals I like the most are from ps2 games, one is from Xenosaga ep. III Also Sprach Zarathustra, it's actually quite simple, text and little screenshots of the game and a background with a picture of the characters, different on each page, and the character's bios on the last pages. Next one is Gran Turismo 3's manual, its last 6 or 8 pages had driving tips from an actual professional driving school! That really surprised me when I first read it, my driving skills improved significantly by applying those tips, not just in GT but on any driving game I've played, Probably on real life too but I haven't had the chance to drive again since we had to sell our Chrysler Shadow...
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Post by Buster Cannon on May 25, 2015 10:57:39 GMT -5
In my opinion, solid game design involves a good manual. The cool thing about a lot of older games is that they didn't force the player to sit/read through lots of tutorial text, you picked up the game and started playing. If you didn't know how to perform certain actions, they were in the manual. This meant that more experienced gamers could jump right into a new game, and newer players could do a little reading if they felt stuck. In regards to specific manuals, the ones from the Megaman/Sonic series stand out to me. Megaman games gave you a little overview about the characters, both heroes and villains. You'd get a brief bio on each of the Robot Masters/Mavericks, or in the Legends games, the Bonnes/Glyde/Pirates. It was cool seeing characters for the first time in-game after you'd already read about them in the manual. The fact that Klaymoor's name was "Bancoscus" in the manual for MML2 threw me off a little bit though. Most manuals aren't really worth looking through nowadays, but I do second Blues in that Nintendo manuals seem to have stood the test of time. GBA/DS manuals, in particular, are really fun to look through since they're usually full-color and stuffed to the brim with information. As a kid, it was always a fun experience to look through a game's manual on the car ride home, which heightened the anticipation of playing it.
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Post by Loken on May 26, 2015 20:30:49 GMT -5
I really miss manuals. I used to be so excited to read the manuals on the way from the store. We had to drive 30 minutes to buy videogames so on that ride home I would set there and tell my mom all about the game and then get the manual out and read it. Mostly looking at the pictures and bio's of characters and asking mom what some of the words were. Some fighting games would have concept art of each character and a cool little bio with background and height/weight/age and so forth.
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