Best game manual?

[OndrejSc]

Not a manual, but my favorite media cover of them all:

 

[Melan]

Those are from the original tabletop RPG products. Ravenloft had incredible production values for its day - I used to own the boxed set, and it came with several manuals, maps and handouts, all profusely illustrated.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

As mentioned in another thread the manuals for "Their Finest Hour: The Battle for Britain" and "Secret Weapons of the Lüftwaffe" are solid gold.

In the "worst manuals" department...either a reference card/manual for "Might & Magic 3: The Isles of Terra" got lost somewhere in the digitization of the game, or this is the worst game manual since Eye of the Beholder. It's bursting with lore, yes, but it only lightly touches upon gameplay mechanics/UI layout and such. No wonder I had so much trouble with this game back in the day.

 

[Keshik]

Caesar III and Star Wars Rebellion, the latter may have been a meh game but the manual was great at explaining units, tech and genreral concepts. Likewise with Caesar's, after reading that it was easy to jump in the game and understand what was going on.

F-19/F-117A's manuals were also great, taught me more about Soviet AA and weapons systems than any 8 year old should know

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Sid Meier's Pirates! not only explained how to play the game but also had a vast amount of information about the Caribbean of the period, data on ships and sailing, accounts of historical expeditions, and other fun stuff, including the occasional interlude The Memoirs of Capt'n Sydney.

Port Royale: 21'N, 77'W. In a natural harbor on southeast Jamaica lies a curving spit and sandbar. By 1660, just five years after the English conquest of Jamaica, the spit is covered by Port Royale, a booming, rollicking, buccaneer town. Its reputation was so evil that when an earthquake destroyed it at the end of the Century, colonials and Europeans alike considered it an act of divine justice.

 

[Space Insect]

Did anyone here try the recipie in the back of the Arcanum manual? Is it worth it to make it?

 

[Leechmonger]

Zeus: Master of Olympus. Taught you the game via a 180-page novel.

Total Annihilation. I read through the unit descriptions countless times as a kid.

 

[J_C]

Not the best, but Jane's USAF had a pretty good, spiral bound, thick manual. Despite being a more arcadey flight sim, the manual had lots of details about the systems of the planes, and also some detailed parts about the wars which made up the campaign (Vietnam, Desert Storm, etc).

 

[Boleskine]

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-lost-art-of-the-pc-game-manual/

The lost art of the PC game manual
By Andy Kelly 2 hours ago

They don’t make ‘em like they used to. Or at all.

Once upon a time, when PC games were packaged in cardboard boxes the size of a copy of War and Peace, they also came with manuals. These arcane tomes, printed on what the old ones called ‘paper’ (like the internet, but flammable), were filled with forbidden knowledge, illustrations, in-jokes, and other fun stuff. And leafing through them before playing a game, or while taking a toilet break, was a joy that is now lost in time, like tears in rain. But there are those of us who still remember the delight of a good old-fashioned manual.

Baldur’s Gate

Developer Black Isle/BioWare
Year 1998

As well as an in-depth guide to the game itself, the hefty Baldur’s Gate manual also boasts a well-written guide to its setting, Faerûn. This significant lore dump, detailing everything from the legend of Drizzt Do’Urden to how to kill an Ogre, also features hand-written notes by legendary D&D storyteller Volothamp ‘Volo’ Geddarm. But if you prefer stats, this manual has you covered too. The last quarter of the tome is dedicated to vast tables detailing, among other things, spell progression and schools of magic.

Grand Theft Auto III

Developer Rockstar North
Year 2001

Rockstar North’s game-changing foray into three dimensions also came with a pretty cool manual. Designed to look like a tourist guide to Liberty City, it’s packed with daft jokes and genuinely useful tips, like how to import your own character skin: a feature exclusive to the PC version. The guides to the game’s gangs, characters, and radio stations are an added bonus, and the classifieds section (pictured above) is a nice touch.

Diablo

Developer Blizzard North
Year 1996

For a game about clicking on demons in increasingly bleak hellscapes, Diablo sure does have a lot of lore: much of which is outlined in the back of the game’s manual. There’s background information on every enemy, the history of the great conflict between Heaven and Hell, and some really awesome illustrations to boot. You can get all this stuff on a wiki now, of course, but there’s something nice about having a guide to a game’s mythology bundled alongside it, lovingly printed and bound in a physical book.

Civilization II

Developer MicroProse
Year 1996

The weighty manuals of the Civ series are legendary. Thick like novels, the pages of these books are fat with information about every possible system, unit, and strategy the game has to offer. But Civ games also came bundled with reference cards, including the one pictured above from the second game. This card, which some of you will have stuck on your big, beige CRT monitors, gives you a quick look at what lies ahead in your tech tree, how much units cost, and what abilities they have. Now that’s handy.

Grim Fandango

Developer LucasArts
Year 1998

The manuals for LucasArts adventures are always really fun, and are usually written with the same tongue-in-cheek irreverence of the dialogue in the games themselves. Grim’s art deco-flavoured manual is styled like a brochure hopeless undead salesman Manny would give to a client looking to travel across the Land of the Dead, with guides to locations and characters. I also like the brief walkthrough at the back, which holds your hand through just enough of the game to get you used to its particular brand of puzzling.

Deus Ex

Developer Ion Storm
Year 2000

Ion Storm’s manual for the mighty Deus Ex isn’t as feature-packed as some, instead giving a fairly straightforward, light-touch breakdown of the immersive sim’s systems. But if you were lucky enough to get an early print of the Game of the Year Edition, you’d get a page from The Midnight Sun included with it—a fictional in-universe tabloid newspaper (pictured above) with wild stories from the game’s bleak dystopian future. These little extras you’d sometimes find hidden in big-box PC games were always a delight to discover.

Fallout

Developer Interplay Productions
Year 1997

One of the most fondly-remembered PC game manuals. This one is presented like a vault dweller’s survival guide, containing both information about the game’s post-apocalyptic world and a wealth of information about traits, skills, combat, and literally every other system in the game. And throughout the manual there are hand-scribbled notes from the Overseer, illustrations of Vault Boy, and other fun details. There are even recipes for survival food at the end. Game manuals don’t get much better than this.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

"The lost art of the PC game manual" featuring not a single manual from before 1996!

A shining example of video game "journalism".

 

[Cael]

Crescent Hawk's Revenge. It was basically a cut down TRO of 3025 plus other fluff and game play sections.

Hero's Quest (Quest for Glory 1). Deadpan, snarky humour throughout.

 

[wyes gull]

The Ancient Art of War series (war, war at sea & war in the skies) had terrific manuals, as did Sword of the Samurai. Can't speak for all but the idea that Microprose games had great manuals can certainly be at least partially confirmed.
Take this example from Ancient War at Sea. Books I & II pretty much explain how the game works. "So now what?" "You know all that crap we had to research to make the game? Why not put it in the manual and teach these kids something?" "Ok."

CIV 1 (at least the CD edition) and the Fallouts are the other standouts. Can't believe I still haven't tried to make me some Carrion Kabobs.

 

[Melan]

"The lost art of the PC game manual" featuring not a single manual from before 1996!

A shining example of video game "journalism".

Any article on the subject which neglects to mention Origin's stunning Ultima boxed sets is pretty much worthless.

 

[newtmonkey]

I only own physical copies of "8" DOS games, all because I wanted the physical documentation, etc. Getting these ended up being stupid expensive, because I had to get them on Ebay and have them shipped all the way here. I would LOVE to get complete boxed copies of Ultima 3-7, but those games are hundreds of dollars on Ebay.

1) Realms of Arkania Trilogy
Awesome manual, and it "corrects" a problem I recall the original manuals for the first 1-2 games, which didn't have spell descriptions (I might be wrong).

2) Ultimate RPG Archives (Interplay)
My god. There is so much in here. The impact is somewhat ruined since it is just a bunch of manuals printed in a single book on cheap paper, but still.

3 & 4) Forgotten Realms & Dragonlance Gold Box "Limited Collection Sets"
This is where it's at. Instead of reprinting everything in single books, these boxes are jam packed with all the original documentation from all the games included.

5) Wizardry Archives
Same as Ultimate RPG Archives, this just reprints all the manuals in a single book. Kinda underwhelming, but nice to have.

6) Falcon 3.0
My god, when the mailman handed me the package with this in it, I could see countless beads of sweat on his brow. This thing is massive.

7) Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
Good all around, lots of information, only overshadowed by...

8) Red Baron
The king of documentation. I was actually looking forward to reading the manual every night before bed. I learned not just about the game, but about WWI, aviation, history, and more. The manual would be enough, but you get more. Beautiful maps to consult as you play. I dunno how I would have reacted if I brought his home as a kid. I probably would have had an orgasm and stroke at the same time.

 

[Master]

Alpha Centaury had a good one...

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Thinking back on manuals it sure seems like they are now considered a relic that costs too much. I haven't bought a NEW MODERN game in a long time. I buy older games from ages past. This video showed me some insight just on consoles:


Now I wonder about PC/MAC games as well. It doesn't surprise me and actually, I'm surprised there is any physical media at all.

 

[NecroLord]

Doom manual. Simple. Efficient. It's an FPS game,so what can you expect.

On a more serious note,the Arcanum manual is also great,containing information about all the major races of Arcanum,a detailed explanation of the divide between Magick and Technology,and also a banana bread recipe!

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Thank god many genesis manuals were pretty decent. I'll give EA a nod on this as the Starflight & Faerietale manuals were pretty decent. Even the jap games like Phantasy Star II were good. Shit, it came with a completion guide even; unlike Vogel shilling another $10 for wallpaper and a guide.

 

[CHEMS]

Doom manual. Simple. Efficient. It's an FPS game,so what can you expect.

On a more serious note,the Arcanum manual is also great,containing information about all the major races of Arcanum,a detailed explanation of the divide between Magick and Technology,and also a banana bread recipe!

 

[Glop_dweller]

The only manual that I would buy second-hand is the spiral bound booklet from Fallout 1.

Mine was destroyed by hurricane.

*But I won't be buying this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/183393697409

Spoiler

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I miss my M1 Tank Platoon manual.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Microprose has a lot of really nice manuals. I remember the Red Storm Rising having a lot of technical information on submarines, including theoretical future equipment. I really remember Command HQ, which had short histories on WWII battles. Really shaped my opinion of Italian military prowess as at one point, it describes an Italian division advancing at one speed, then the second they encountered battle, retreated at twice the speed.
Infocom was mentioned, but Return to Zork, from their post-text years, had a really nice manual.

 

[WaterDrinker]

I killed too many brain cells to remember most game manuals but I think I remember Metal Gear Solid having a cool one. I remember there being neat character bios and artwork and stuff like that.

 

[Narushima]

I used to own a copy of Dominions 3, with its 300-page manual containing descriptions of the nations, spells and artefacts, explaining absolutely everything that's in the game.
I threw it away years ago to make some room. I regret it now.

 

[Rincewind]

Just reading this thread fills me with joy. I *love* reading great game manuals! Two recent standouts I've come across were the Wizardry I and Rogue manuals.