Anyone else miss huge manuals and "feelies"?

I remember the manuals that used to come with games were awesome, and I'd actually read them for fun because there was so much flavour text and artwork put into them, like Warcraft 1 having an entire illustrated history of Azeroth. Hell, there was one flight sim I had that came with a 200+ page tome of the history of aviation, and I think I actually read that book more than I played the game. They also used to come with other neat stuff too, like Deus Ex including an issue of the Red Sun Times, an in-game newspaper, or Dream Web including a large diary written by the main character as he slowly loses his sanity, and it was actually more chilling, more compelling, and better written than the game itself. Now all you get is a 4 page Xerox'd black and white manual telling you to see the website for further details.

Je Suis "Aware"

I'm not sure if this counts, but I miss the tech specs and random planetary info and statistics in the Star Fox 64 player's guide.

I was such a HUGE Star Wars nerd as a kid, so this was right up my alley.

Because that stuff is almost always in the game itself and they didn't feel like printing it twice.

They moved the special features from the print to the game. So many games come with special material - in game databases, monster rosters, what have you. Whats there to complain about?

Many classic RP Gs come with lots of stuff. The Ultima games came with cloth maps and other goodies, like the ankh that came with Ultima IV.

Posters are fun. I have a dozen or so posters covering my wall which came with games.

At a minimum, all games should come with a full printed manual. Putting it on the disk is lame, I need to be able to refer to it without alt-tabbing away, possibly causing the game to freeze or crash.

Just having a bunch of PDF files for maps, lore books, etc. isn't the same as having something physical you can put on your shelf or hang on your wall.

edited 15th Feb '11 3:44:22 AM by Talby

More to the point: Is there any way to market games with huge feelies without charging extra for them?

Yes. I really miss having a manual with lots of information on tech trees, weapons, items, and spells =(

It's so good to have an index of important things.

Requiem ~ September 2010 - October 2011 [Banned 4 Life]

I never even got to see that stuff...I miss the StarCraft manual...

What's the frequency Kenneth?|In case of war.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Very much so.

Now posting as Enzeru, this serves as an emergency avatar backup account

I miss the Diablo II manual. My friend had a copy, I borrowsed it, and the manual. A long really good manual.
And that was under the stagnationp period, before that there was even better manuals. Heck, I even remember manual for a game called Lego Rock Raider :P

A guy called dvorak is tired. Tired of humanity not wanting to change to improve itself. Quite the sad tale.

Yeah, I miss huge ass manuals. Now we got these little 9-page fucks that don't do anything, I remember reading the big thick ones for old games my brother had for fun.

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

Anyone ever play the first Wario Ware game? I remembered how the manual for that was so awesome, it had sections for each character that was written in first person perspective and was quite funny. I think there were also some stickers and puzzles that you put the stickers in.

I wish more manuals were like that. Nowadays most manuals (at least for Wii, don't know about others) are made so that they encompass 3 different languages so they can sell the game in many regions.

I still have my Lucia's Pendant replica that I got as a bonus for buying Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete. It's still in pretty good condition, but it doesn't fit very well around my head anymore.

I hope you get tiny bits of eggshell in all your omelettes for the rest of your life!

Yeah, big manuals...just remembered when I tried studying one for playing Neverwinter Nights...good times...and that one's pretty short compared to the likes of Falcon 4.0 and others...first Homeworld manual is awesome too...not that long, but awesome backstory (which is mostly not necessary to the plot, but still a fun read)...

Still, short manual is still better than stupid strip of paper I got with Half-Life 2, Orange Box, Left 4 Dead 2, Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and the likes...

Give me cute or give me...something?

I take it you never ripped open the game case on the way home from Wal-Mart just to read the manual and get yourself pumped for the impending fun?

edited 15th Feb '11 6:10:16 AM by KitsuneInferno

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt." - Some guy with a snazzy hat.

I finally can agree with Kitsune on something. I would always open games in the back of my dad's car to see the manual and get ready for the game when I went home.

"Who wants to hear about good stuff when the bottom of the abyss of human failure that you know doesn't exist is so much greater?"-Wraith

• Page 1: Seizure liability warning
• Page 2: Installation instructions. e.g. Put disk in drive. Do what it tells you
• Page 3: URL of website, and credits
• Page 4 - whatever: The same in different languages

edited 15th Feb '11 6:22:17 AM by storyyeller

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play

I do indeed miss the big manuals. The "promo copy" of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica that came with Return to Zork, etc. The annoying part is trying to play an older game, only to find they put the copyright protection in the feelies (like the last will and testament in 9: The Last Resort). This has actually kept me from trying to LP that game.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.

I don't care that much about feelies. . . but I like actual *manuals*, not little leaflets with install instructions and key mapping and nothing else.

Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com

Lucas Arts had it great, as most manuals were either in-universe documents (hello, Star Wars, most especially Dark Forces!) or simply things of epic coolness, like codewheel protection!

I still have a huge stack of those old wonders lying around =)

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

I was really sad when I opened my PS3 copy of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood only to find that the "booklet" in there was only two pages explaining how to put the game in the console and that the instruction manual was in the game.

The blind man walking off the cliff is not making a leap of faith.

I'm too young for feelies to have been around unfortunately but I do miss bigger manuals ;-; I would read good manuals just for fun, like the one that came with Civilization III, Warioware, Warcraft III, Neverwinter Nights...Raidou Kuzunoha's were pretty fun and was written as though it was written in the time period of the game...but yeah, I'm always really disappointed when I crack open a new game and find that its manual is just a two page thing that explains how to put the game in the system or something =\

I vote for Diablo II on the "best manual ever" voting. It gave every character's every spell and ability a little in-universe description or history. And let us not forget what it said about Hardcore Characters...

Note: Blizzard Entertainment is in no way responsible for your hardcore character. If you choose to create and play a hardcore character, you do so at your own risk. Blizzard is not responsible for the death and loss of your hardcore characters for any reason including Internet lag, bugs, Acts of God, your little sister, or any other reason whatsoever. Consult the End User License Agreement for more details. Blizzard will not, and does not have the capability to restore any deceased Hardcore characters. Don't even ask. La-la-la-la-la, we can't hear you.

edited 15th Feb '11 7:23:02 AM by Kerrah

More disappointing are "quickstarts" that barely explain half the functions or controls.

Well, ok, that happens when you get an actual manual in english and "quickstart in x langauge." Good thing I'm damn fluent in english.

But yeah, I don't remember much having huge feelie packs, ever. But nowdays, feelies are pretty much reserved for collectors editions, since just a game by itself is anywhere from 20€ to 70€, and adding feelie charges on the 70€ is a bit stretching it.

Really? All I got is a 12 page pamphlet as a manual that just explains basic game functions.

But I guess it's cos it's a re-print of the game, with the "Best Seller Series" tag.

I never installed it as I got it from a friend who just gave it to me and when I try to install it, it fucks up, something wrong with one of the discs, I think.

edited 15th Feb '11 7:30:08 AM by KuroFox

Sonic hates SOPA

I certainly do! Too bad it's not common enough to warrant paying collector's edition prices to warrant dirt cheap Steam sales, and the feelies themselves generally weren't as tightly integrated with the game, I suppose.

But part of it is that today's game industry is not one that favors gigantic manuals. Most manuals today are nothing more than reference cards at best. That, and we don't get too many simulations these days. Hell, the few flight sims we do get generally just give you a PDF manual and let you decide if you want to pay an extra $30 or so (often more than the sim itself costs!) if you want their Doorstopper manuals in dead tree form. (No, I am not making these prices up.)

For example, the original Falcon 4.0 came with either a spiral-bound manual (box version), or a binder (yes, an actual binder) that doubled as the game's packaging. By comparison, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, released around seven years later, gives you a smaller, but still apparently substantial manual in the box...until you realize it's not the REAL manual, which clocks in at somewhere over 700 pages.

Yes, nowadays manuals are rarely even worth the paper they're printed on.

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.