Yes, not an article by AstroCreep today, but me. We have to mix it up, you know?

I was searching through my stuff today, while doing this I came upon some old game manuals and was hit by a thought: "Damn, back when I was a kid, there were some really awesome game manuals."

Nowadays manuals always seem to be short and uninspired. Often they only have a bare minimum of pages to explain the basic controls and list the usual warning notices. Many are also just black and white with rather low-res pictures that rarely explain much. In this age of high prodcution values the manuals and other "feelies" often get the short end of the stick. In fact, sometimes games do not even come with a printed manual anymore and only have a PDF file on the disk, or worse sometimes there is nothing, just the in-game tutorials.

Some years ago, things were different, more love and care was invested into the manuals. They were more than just a piece of paper for you to check the controls (or disregard from the outset since the in-game tutorial will explain anything you need to know anyway). Manuals were often noticeably thicker than they are today, in full colour and much richer in content.

Let us look at two examples:

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption (PC; 2000)

This one was an extremely positive example I even still cherish today. It clocks in at 100 pages of content in an A5 format, quite a feat for the manual of a very combat-centric RPG. Usually only the most complex of strategy or simulation game manuals reach triple digit page counts. But does the explanation of the control scheme and gameplay take so much space in this one? Not at all. The controls and gameplay are actually only a very small part of the whole piece. It starts with an introductionary short story, explains the setting, antagonists and characters in great detail and leaves few questions unanswered. The style of writing fit the game perfectly aswell. This is perhaps the one and only manual I have ever seen that is genuine and worthwhile entertainment in its own right.

Metal Gear Solid (PSX; 1998)

The manual of MGS is noteworthy in a different way. It is by far not as expansive as the above example, but shines in its own right, nonetheless. What even the most casual reader notices immediatetly is that it is beautiful. No really! It is in full-colour and boy, do they make us of that. Evocative backgrounds and apt colouration are found on every page. The colouration actually helps navigation greatly and makes finding what you search for (or might not have looked for but is interesting nonetheless) very easy. This accompanied by detailed explanations of the controls and gameplay, complete with very helpful illustrations. And when there is a page just with text you can be sure there will be at least an awesome character drawing to keep you interested. In the middle of the manual there is even a fold-out page which various characers on it that could very well be used as a mini-poster, but that would mean cutting the manual to pieces, which would be a serious crime. At the end of it there is even a mini-walkthrough to help beginners through the first areas (!) and a glossary of the history of the franchise.

Contrasting these two examples with today's manuals is a sobering experience. All is not lost, however, some companies still deliver exceptional manuals with their games. The modern games in the Grand Theft Auto franchise for example always disguise their manuals as tourist guides. This means that the actual usefulness as manuals sometimes suffers a bit, but no one can say that it is not a creative and entertaining way to handle this issue. No More Heroes has a manual that is another example of how to explaine the gameplay with style.


So what do you think of this development?


A great loss to man/gamekind? Do not care either way because they never mattered to you anyway? A development that will eventually reverse? Not as dire as I make it out to be?

PS: I know there were alot of other great manuals back in the day, but I could have hardly listed all. I beg for forgiveness for "forgeting" your favourite manual. Feel free to name and praise it here, however, if you wish.