Video Game Manuals - Do We Still Need Them?

Very useful in complex strategy games. Other games, not so much.

I don't ever use them. Waste of paper.

suzzopher wrote:

Floex wrote:That was not in the manuals, surely?

Drove home at lunch to get the instructions and here it is:

Once upon a time, the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the Koopa, a
tribe of turtles famous for their dark magic. These terrible terrapins
transformed the peace-loving Mushroom People into stones, bricks, and
ironically, mushrooms, then set their own evil king on the throne. In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat, the beautiful Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin and
disrepair.

With Mario using mushrooms too that makes it even darker

You drove home for lunch just for that?

Winckle wrote:Very useful in complex strategy games. Other games, not so much.

Do you remember the Civ II one? It's massive o_o

Manuals became gooseberry fool when they started supplying everything in DVD cases. Those huge PC boxes of yesteryear had so much space for tremendous amounts of paper.

I always liked the ones that were a little bit different. The MegaDrive Earthworm Jim games had some good ones because they didn't take themselves seriously.

Similarly the ones written as if a character in a game had written it.

Wedgie wrote:

suzzopher wrote:

Floex wrote:That was not in the manuals, surely?

Drove home at lunch to get the instructions and here it is:

Once upon a time, the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the Koopa, a
tribe of turtles famous for their dark magic. These terrible terrapins
transformed the peace-loving Mushroom People into stones, bricks, and
ironically, mushrooms, then set their own evil king on the throne. In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat, the beautiful Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin and
disrepair.

With Mario using mushrooms too that makes it even darker

You drove home for lunch just for that?

Tha's why Suzz is awesome

I'm actually shocked that was written in a game manual about Mario of all things. My favourite - 'In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat', wasn't this game meant for children?

Still, it has taken to my adulthood to discover how the Mushroom Kingdom was transformed and will now look at the Koopas in a completely different light

Bowser is actually an evil strawberry floating genius

"Hey Mario, I captured this Princess, if you want her come get her, but I left some things that might help you hidden in blocks, check them all though as you might miss something"

Floex wrote:

Wedgie wrote:

suzzopher wrote:

Floex wrote:That was not in the manuals, surely?

Drove home at lunch to get the instructions and here it is:

Once upon a time, the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the Koopa, a
tribe of turtles famous for their dark magic. These terrible terrapins
transformed the peace-loving Mushroom People into stones, bricks, and
ironically, mushrooms, then set their own evil king on the throne. In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat, the beautiful Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin and
disrepair.

With Mario using mushrooms too that makes it even darker

You drove home for lunch just for that?

Tha's why Suzz is awesome

I'm actually shocked that was written in a game manual about Mario of all things. My favourite - 'In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat', wasn't this game meant for children?

Still, it has taken to my adulthood to discover how the Mushroom Kingdom was transformed and will now look at the Koopas in a completely different light

Nintendo: Making dark, gritty stories since 1985.

Somebody Else's Problem wrote:

Floex wrote:

Wedgie wrote:

suzzopher wrote:

Floex wrote:That was not in the manuals, surely?

Drove home at lunch to get the instructions and here it is:

Once upon a time, the peaceful Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the Koopa, a
tribe of turtles famous for their dark magic. These terrible terrapins
transformed the peace-loving Mushroom People into stones, bricks, and
ironically, mushrooms, then set their own evil king on the throne. In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat, the beautiful Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin and
disrepair.

With Mario using mushrooms too that makes it even darker

You drove home for lunch just for that?

Tha's why Suzz is awesome

I'm actually shocked that was written in a game manual about Mario of all things. My favourite - 'In the wake
of the ghastly coup d'etat', wasn't this game meant for children?

Still, it has taken to my adulthood to discover how the Mushroom Kingdom was transformed and will now look at the Koopas in a completely different light

Nintendo: Making dark, gritty stories since 1985.

Bet Reggie feels like a plumb for suggesting they can't do mature content. They have been doing it for 25 years.

Can't remember the last time I looked through one

I remember the Dungeon Keeper manual being particularly good; loads of really funny creature descriptions that weren't in the actual game at all.

Another line from the manual:

When kicking a turtle shell out of the screen, the other enemies will jump over the oncoming shell

suzzopher wrote:Another line from the manual:

When kicking a turtle shell out of the screen, the other enemies will jump over the oncoming shell

That answers a question that has bugged me for 20 years.

Cal wrote:

pyxl-8 wrote:Final Fantasy XIII's manual is sublime. Flies in the face of the 8 pages of black and white games ship with nowadays.

Hardly comprehensive is it, though? Not really of too much use for those willing to dive into the game's complex levelling mechanics. If charts and lists are your thing as a JRPG player wishing to understand the minutiae of every possible weapon, spell, etc...it's pretty much compulsory for true FF fanatics to buy the tome-like player's guides.

Well, that's the thing. As a manual, it's perfect. It explains how every part of the game works in great detail.

As a strategy guide, it's not so great, but then again, if you're going to provide every customer with a detailed guide to the most efficient way to complete the tasks in the game, why even give the illusion of choice in the first place? Just make every creature in the game weak against the only weapon in the game, and save everybody a lot of hassle.

For the amount we pay we should be getting mini colour strategy guides with every game, these black and white pamphlets are a disgrace imo. I used to love having a read of the manuals, but now don't even bother as I know they are crap.

consolegaming wrote:For the amount we pay we should be getting mini colour strategy guides with every game, these black and white pamphlets are a disgrace imo. I used to love having a read of the manuals, but now don't even bother as I know they are crap.

With the storage media for video games getting larger, you now get what used to be in the manual in the game itself. So you're hardly losing content here.

THY PATH IS LONG SO TREAD WITH CARE
BEWARE THE WULF AND PASS HIS LAIR
DANGER THREATENS ALL AROUND
SO TAKE YE FROM THIS HIDDEN MOUND
TO FREE THEE FROM THIS SUNKEN GATE
BY WAY OF CAVE OR MEET THY FATE
AN AMULET TO SEEK THY WILL
'TWAS SPLIT BY QUAD AND HIDDEN STILL
PASS THE KEEPER WROUGHT WITH HATE
TO GAIN AN ENTRANCE TO THE GATE
THE PIECES LOST MUST THEE AMAS
FOR IF NO CHARM THEN NON SHALL PASS

My favourite manual was for Timeshock which came with two manuals, one for the usual 90s pc gaming stuff and the other was a guide on how to play pinball, written by the person who had the highscore for the previous game in the series. Learnt all the tricks I know from that manual.

Wait 'til you guys see the manual for HeartGold on the DS. It's made out of what seems to be Chinese scroll.

or maybe just really good quality paper.