RetroGaming
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If anyone loves old game manuals, I'd recommend the game Tunic. It's such a charming little game and, without spoiling too much, the manual is a core part of it.
I can also recommend the game Vermis, which is just the manual, with no game attached
If you can snag the physical edition of untitled goose game, it comes with some absolutely killer swag
Vimm's Lair has scans if as many old manuals as they could find, if anyone likes looking through old manuals.
Like those occasional illustrations in Alice in Wonderland or Narnia, game manuals provided a window into a world you couldn't fully see (in the case of old consoles, due to low res or low poly graphics) and served as a jumping off point for so many children's imaginations to fill in the rest of the details.
Is there a widely accepted reason why they stopped adding manuals to games?
I was allways reading them before playing the game, and it got very excited for game play.
Cost cutting, the advent of digital distribution, as well as technological and game design improvements that allowed for such information to be conveyed in game, all contributed to game manuals becoming less and less valuable. Due to these factors, they kept getting smaller and smaller until one day the just stopped being commonly made.
Though my nostalgia still misses them (and strategy guides).
I remember going to Toys R Us with Dad, picking a game out, and then eagerly reading the game manual on the long drive home. It got me SO hyped!! Definitely wish they still made manuals!
The manual to A Link to the Past contains basically the franchise's design document. Go read the little lore section at the beginning of that manual and tell me they haven't been just pulling nouns out of it to make games out of for the last 20 years.
And for all you manual lovers that wish new games came with them, there is a very talented artist who goes by the name "mbpuk" that makes some really awesome mini manuals that fit in the Switch game case!
This is an awesome post. Thank you for sharing it. I really appreciated reading your comments, and I hope you're doing well
Thanks! Just hoped that it would make someone out there smile!