It's no secret, or surprise really, that as gaming evolves the instruction manual is becoming extinct. Gone are the days of 20+ pages of background, maps, items, character bios, and artwork. Remember that solid black Final Fantasy manual? A thing of beauty! Now if we're lucky we get 4 pages. I used to love buying a game as a young spud and building the suspense of the first-time play by laying down and reading over and over the manual. I remember an old Gemini game I had came with a comic book that actually had little tips and secrets embedded. Personally, I miss it. How do you guys feel about it? Should there be a renaissance of the instruction booklet?
I rarely saw any manuals like that. Going back as far as my NES and SMS games, the manual was a usually only a few pages of basic instructions, repeated in a bunch of other languages over and over.
It's no secret, or surprise really, that as gaming evolves the instruction manual is becoming extinct. Gone are the days of 20+ pages of background, maps, items, character bios, and artwork. Remember that solid black Final Fantasy manual? A thing of beauty! Now if we're lucky we get 4 pages. I used to love buying a game as a young spud and building the suspense of the first-time play by laying down and reading over and over the manual. I remember an old Gemini game I had came with a comic book that actually had little tips and secrets embedded. Personally, I miss it. How do you guys feel about it? Should there be a renaissance of the instruction booklet?ydnarrewop
Barely anyone read them before in the early 80's outward, instruction manuals were only relevant if there was a hint, a demo to another game, or if it had background information or story not in the original game. or Rayman. I mean there's only 1 freaking button the 30 page Atari manual was not necessary for this one puzzlegame. I was like WTF?hy the hell is this 30 pages?
I haven't read an instructional manual in probably 10 years. I did notice some publishers putting ads for their other games in game cases which annoyed me
That is one thing I hated about Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D it was just one long piece of paper with writing on the front and back and it was folded five times.
I haven't read an instructional manual in probably 10 years. I did notice some publishers putting ads for their other games in game cases which annoyed me
BPoole96
They have been doing that forever. Were you gaming a lot a few gens ago, if not then that statement makes sense.
[QUOTE="ydnarrewop"]It's no secret, or surprise really, that as gaming evolves the instruction manual is becoming extinct. Gone are the days of 20+ pages of background, maps, items, character bios, and artwork. Remember that solid black Final Fantasy manual? A thing of beauty! Now if we're lucky we get 4 pages. I used to love buying a game as a young spud and building the suspense of the first-time play by laying down and reading over and over the manual. I remember an old Gemini game I had came with a comic book that actually had little tips and secrets embedded. Personally, I miss it. How do you guys feel about it? Should there be a renaissance of the instruction booklet?dr-professional
Barely anyone read them before in the early 80's outward, instruction manuals were only relevant if there was a hint, a demo to another game, or if it had background information or story not in the original game. or Rayman. I mean there's only 1 freaking button the 30 page Atari manual was not necessary for this one puzzlegame. I was like WTF?hy the hell is this 30 pages? I enjoy the artistry of a good manual. To be honest I feel that a good manual adds to the overall experience.
I haven't read an instructional manual in probably 10 years. I did notice some publishers putting ads for their other games in game cases which annoyed me
dr-professional
They have been doing that forever. Were you gaming a lot a few gens ago, if not then that statement makes sense.
I must have never noticed. I've been playing games since the NES era though
I miss manuals for games. When I was a kid, I would always read the manual of my newest NES game a couple times before starting to play the game. I would study the maps and read the back story over and over.
Yeah those where the days. I love the box, book, clothe map, ect. that came with my Lunar Silver Star Story Complete. I intend to POP that harbour in my PS3 and replay it here soon.AmazonTreeBoa
LOL my phone and it's auto correct. Bad boy, not harbour.
Instruction booklets were something I drooled over as a young kid when I was punished from watching T.V or playing video games. Now with in-game tutorials and the internet this pattern you've noticed only makes sense.
Though with games Like Zelda:SS if they could put some of that in the instruction booklet and not have to waste so much time on the intro explaining so much crap that anyone who's ever played a single other Zelda game already knows, that would be nice.
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