Best game manuals?

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:22 pm

First things first:

First.

Now, here I'm looking at the manual for Kohan II: Kings of War. It's nice and pretty, even explanatory by today's standards. But it doesn't say enough to tell me what I need to know about winning the game. No strategy, no tips, not even an EA 900 number to call.

Underneath it is the manual for Victoria, which has got to be the most miserable manual I've ever seen. Vast game, as complex as anything Derek Smart ever programmed with the added bonus of being interesting and fun. And you have to go to the web to learn how to play the game at all, much less master it.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: there was a manual. Explained the game, the units, the strategy, the editor, told a good story, had a lesson in chromatography, and a recommended reading list that included Greg Bear.

Passed the lift test. Best manual of all time.

I claim this hill in the name of Sid.

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:26 pm

SMAC's manual wasn't spiralbound. That's the end of my negatives for that selection.

Folks will bring up the humor of the Fallout manuals, but I still think SMAC trumped them. Of course, I have an internet guy named Velocyrix to thank for my own appreciation for Brian Reynold's little baby...

~Neal

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:28 pm

Don't you guys have a Y chromosome? That implies no instructions neccessary.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:31 pm

Best instructions ever - Red Baron.

Or perhaps the Aces over... Series - spiral bound, lots of back ground information. Hell, I remember reading them after I mastered the game, just for the history.

CSL · Post by **CSL** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:35 pm

Fallout

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:44 pm

No, I agree, SMAC trumped the Fallouts. But the Fallouts were good, and the best use of atmosphere I've ever seen in a manual.

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:46 pm

I'm going to have to go with a non-traditional choice. True SMAC had an incredible manual and would be chosen by many as the best. But I have to go with ProPinball Timeshock. That manual actually had a section just like a manual for a real pinball game. Too damn cool. Shorter than your choices and easier to produce yes, but just aces.

CSL · Post by **CSL** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:47 pm

I only got the EA Classics version of SMAC so I never saw the manual.

Post by **ImLawBoy** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:48 pm

I'm what the kids call "impatient." That means the shorter the better, and if the game's so simple I don't even need to read the manual, I'm in heaven!

rrmorton · Post by **rrmorton** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:26 am

I remember Homeworld had a pretty handsome manual, as did Apache.

What about Stunt Island?

knob · Post by **knob** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:34 am

I rarely actually read the manuals to learn the game, but rather I read them just to see what's in them. Or something.

The best written, in terms of teaching you how to play, would be Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord (I never read the manuals of the other two, since the Anthology didn't come with them).

The most memorable manual for me, by far, was the WarCraft 2 manual. That thing sat above my toilet for years. And I never even read 3/4ths of it. It was the artwork. Blizzard's artists (Chris Metzen was the biggest contributer in that one, but Samwise was also there) are amazing.

There are some other honorable mentions:

Homeworld
Fallout 1 and 2
Baldur's Gate series
And Civilization 3 (The only one I ever bought) seemed to be a pretty decent manual. Being as it WAS almost 300 pages long.

I also never read it, but it seems Falcon 4 has a great manual.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:11 am

I always thought the Harpoon manual was well done.

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:15 am

I just remembered how much I have liked the two most recent AOW manuals, good stuff! Although I do long for the days of bigger pages and larger fonts.

warning · Post by **warning** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:28 am

SMAC was great.
Homeworld was better.

Itsatrap · Post by **Itsatrap** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:12 am

What, are we limited to listing only one?

- Alan

Dave Allen · Post by **Dave Allen** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:55 am

I have a great fondness for well-written, "in character" manuals like those of the Ultima series. I think the best and most recent manual of this kind was the Arcanum manual - but the Vault-Tec Lab Journal will always be the champ.

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:12 am

SMAC
Falcon 4.0
Fallout/Fallout 2
Zeus
Homeworld
Baldur's Gate / Baldur's Gate 2 / etc.
Jane's F/A-18

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:28 am

jpinard · Post by **jpinard** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:34 am

The old Jane's manuals were fricking awesome.

RookieCAF · Post by **RookieCAF** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 7:07 am

Secret Weapons Of The Luftwaffe or Their Finest Hour.

The Mad Hatter · Post by **The Mad Hatter** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 7:15 am

Valael wrote:And Civilization 3 (The only one I ever bought) seemed to be a pretty decent manual. Being as it WAS almost 300 pages long.

The funny thing about that manual is that even with its length it barely touches on critical parts of the game.

I remember the old Ultima manuals fondly, short but very well done. Microprose used to do a nice job with games like F19.

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 7:26 am

Nade wrote:Star Fleet: Krellen Commander

Great, well-written manual. Had me drooling all the way home, only to find out that the game itself was too buggy to play for more than 30 seconds at a time on my computer.

Bait and switch.

Ronin · Post by **Ronin** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:18 am

-Battlehawks, Their Finest Hour, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
-Baldurs Gate series
-Homeworld
-Falcon 4.0

Recently Combat Flight Sim 2 came close to the Lucasarts flight sims. But those are easily the top.

Grievous Angel · Post by **Grievous Angel** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:20 am

Zeus. The entire thing was written in Greek epic form.

(Heh. My first post on Gone Gold was about praising the Zeus manual. Deja vu.)

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:11 am

Falcon 4.0
Jane's Flight Sims (specifically the earlier titles)
Flanker 2.0

They just don't write 'em like they used to...

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:12 am

First, I should state that I enjoy complicated strategy games, and expect to need some instructions. If I can just jump in without any learning curve, that means I'm playing a clone. Bleah.

Second, I just finished writing a game manual. I had written one previously, a 200+ page tome for Caesar III. That one was merely adequate for reasons that I won't bore you with, but that were beyond my control.

The golden age of printed game manuals is pretty much over, thanks to packaging. If you're going to do one manual for worldwide release, it has to fit in a DVD box. I had 48 pages for the Children of the Nile manual. Two of those were covers. Another 6 went to legal notices, credits, and other required stuff. That leaves 40 small pages (trim size 4.25" x 7") to explain a complex new strategy game. Obviously, the manual cannot do that in any detail.

I chose to use the manual as a supplement to in-game help. The first half of the book is an orientation and game overview, and the second half is lookup tables. As a gamer, I would rather have good contextual info (like the Civilopedia) than a fat book to consult. Given my space limitation, I designed a manual that I felt was useful and informative. I had very little opportunity for flavor text -- pretty much every word has to work.

Our manual, tutorials and help system work together. If you read the manual and play the tutorials, you're in good shape. The 135 pages of in-game help should address questions as they arise. This approach was honed by Beta test feedback, so I'm pretty confident that it works. The only casualty is the amusement factor.

Question: Do you like or hate PDF manuals? Would you appreciate and print out a big honking PDF, or would it just piss you off that a print version wasn't included with your game? My own feeling is that people really hate PDF doco. I do, anyway.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:19 am

Enough wrote:I just remembered how much I have liked the two most recent AOW manuals, good stuff!

W00t; thanks!

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:20 am

Ironrod wrote:Question: Do you like or hate PDF manuals? Would you appreciate and print out a big honking PDF, or would it just piss you off that a print version wasn't included with your game? My own feeling is that people really hate PDF doco. I do, anyway.

I despise PDF docs. It makes me think you're too cheap to print docs out for me. I don't like it when game companies start externalizing their costs to me.

It's one thing if it's a bargain bin version. I bought such a version of "Myth II: Soulblighter" and "Gunship!". But I paid $5 and $3, respectively for those titles so who am I to complain that they didn't come in a box, with manuals.

But a new title that they are hopping me for $50? It had better have a manual.

And it had DAMN WELL better have a demo released before I will buy the game. I'm tired of buying crap, and not being able to know that I think it's crap before I buy it (not that it will stop me from buying it, but I like to have proper expectations).

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:24 am

Hate PDF, but LOVE strong in-game help systems.

~Neal

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:27 am

Ironrod wrote:Question: Do you like or hate PDF manuals? Would you appreciate and print out a big honking PDF, or would it just piss you off that a print version wasn't included with your game? My own feeling is that people really hate PDF doco. I do, anyway.

I think the manual you describe is the perfect solution - a supplement to in-game help. As long as you include a list of key-commands in there, it sounds pefect.

I HATE PDF manuals. I'd rather have a small manual and an ingame-help system like in Civ3 than a thorough PDF manual that I have to print.

Gromit · Post by **Gromit** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:57 am

Do you like or hate PDF manuals? Would you appreciate and print out a big honking PDF, or would it just piss you off that a print version wasn't included with your game?

PDF blows for game manuals. I would like to echo The Meal's sentiment about in-game help systems...good stuff in lieu of a printed manual.

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:01 pm

Stars! has the best in-game manual/help system I've come across. it came with a hefty paper manual but I never opened it.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:02 pm

Ironrod, I still have you Caesar III manual.

Extensive in game help rules.

Snow · Post by **Snow** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:43 pm

*Falcon 4. The manual was a hard-bound, three ring metal binder with hundreds of pages.
* Jane's Apache Longbow
* Combat Mission
* Wizardry

geezer · Post by **geezer** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:49 pm

Gromit wrote:Falcon 4.0
Jane's Flight Sims (specifically the earlier titles)
Flanker 2.0

They just don't write 'em like they used to...

yes yes yes!

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 2:56 pm

Falcon 4's manual was brilliant. As I recall, it was written by a Falcon pilot. It was a bloody good read, taught you everything you could ever want to know about flying a Falcon, and was huge.

Jane's F/A-18 Super Hornet had a pretty good manual too. It was like Falcon 4's, but focused on the technical side. It read like an actual flight manual (or how I would imagine one to be, for all you smartarses out there).

Daveman · Post by **Daveman** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:14 pm

SMAC was nice, but as Meal mentioned it wasn't spiral bound. That, plus it's relatively small size meant the binding took a real beating.

Homeworld was nice, but as I recall it was a little light on actually useful info. Also, while I liked the additional background info, they never really followed through with any of it in the game itself.

My vote goes to the original Starfleet Command. Nice briefings on the various races and ships, charts with all the weapons and equipment, gameplay info, etc. But the real key here is spiral binding. You could open it up to those charts and leave it there. Not only was the manual nice, but they even had an additional reference pamphlet in the jewel case that focused on the various control panels and displays. An all around great package. IIRC there was a ton of grief when the sequel was released... it was the same level of content, but lacked spiral binding.

RookieCAF · Post by **RookieCAF** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:14 pm

PDF is OK, Not a big fan but I understand the need for them, but they should supplement the documentation in the box, not replace them.

In a Bargain Title or a Classics Version I can deal with it, but at lease send me a hard copy of a reference card for gods sake.

In a free game like AAO, Its a great PDF, and they really can't provide a manual in a download

Meghan · Post by **Meghan** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:00 pm

I loathe PDF in all its incarnations. It's just about useless for game manuals.

That said, I've been pleasantly surprised by some recent mini-manuals. I thought TOEE was terrific. Warcraft 3 packed a lot of info in there. Even the Sims manual has good stuff.

I think the mini-manuals can bring out the brevity of a writer which is not necessarily a bad thing.

sidenote - oooh! I didn't realize Children of the Nile had been released yet ...

Itsatrap · Post by **Itsatrap** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:04 pm

Meghan wrote:sidenote - oooh! I didn't realize Children of the Nile had been released yet ...

Er, it hasn't actually been released yet. Ironrod works for Tilted Mill...

- Alan