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Homeworld was my favorite manual, but as bad a game as it was, Force Commander had an amusing manual with Imperial regulations and embedded microchips or somesuch to make sure you read the manual.

Graeme Dice wrote:

InnocentBystander wrote:I've always disliked Derek Smart, cudos to his programming and 3dgfx abilities, but I've felt, from reading his forums, he's not a nice guy.

He's also a lying SOB, who claims to have a PhD when it's nothing more than a piece of paper from a degree mill.

*shrug* I don't really care about that, he is just a big ass as far as I can tell. The concept of his games are fantastic, but unless you really devote a lot of time to learning the game, or are derek smart, it's just a pain in the ass to learn, plus the bugs and crap... I never did figure out how to transport people back up the the surface, or find a place where I could always find enemy warships to fight

Command and Conqeur games.

For some reason like in Red Alert 2 in the manual you were told about combining certain units to make special units. Yet in game it never told you what units made what.

I always thought the manual for the gold version of the SNES' SimCity was a work of art. It wasn't often a non-RPG 'kid's' game came with a 100+ page, full color, smart-assed manual back then. Plus, it had tons of good info.

MKSheppard wrote:The Eurofighter 2000 Version 2.0 manual; it's 300~ pages long, and it's
a very fun read; very fun, because it describes the Eurofighter itself
as well as the game mechanics...

Not to mention Total Air War manual, with all those interesting campaign stories (Eritrea, anyone?) and the article on F-22 itself worth an aviation magazine headline.

And of course, the original Sid Meier's Pirates! with interesting histories on the privateering era, and bios of some famous historical pirates.

Silent Storm (has anyone outside Finland and Russia even heard of that game?) had superb manual. Some background, but most importantly it covered absolutely everything in an easily readable form.

Jagged Alliance 2 had a good manual too. Informative and quite fun to read.

Ninja Gaiden (Xbox game, not those truly legendary NES games). As is typical for console action games, the manual isn't particularly good or even necessary, but a few lines in it truly make up for it. "If you can't take advantage of walls, you are not a true ninja." "Running over water isn't difficult for a ninja." And of course, the legendary words on the back of the cover: "Let your inner ninja loose."

I love the SimAnt manual... I was such an ant nut as a kid, and almost two thirds of that fat book is just info on ants. Nothing about the game, just fun facts...

I love the One Must Fall: 2097 manual. Full of jokes from the people at Epic, and very helpful besides. I don't even have the game anymore, but I have the manual.

I don't know if it was 'cool' but Sub Command, you had to read the manual (online PDF IIRC). Falcon 4.0 as well.

Jane's Fighters Anthology. Holy crap that was a RTFM game. When you add in that the entire second disk was devoted to tech specs, you could literally spend days just reading information before getting to the game.

I'll always fondly remember the old Maxis manuals. Simcity 2000 had one of the greatest appendixes I've seen.

Origin games are also good for free supplemental stuff, and the Crimson Skies manual had plenty of entertaining ads.

Karza wrote:Silent Storm (has anyone outside Finland and Russia even heard of that game?) had superb manual. Some background, but most importantly it covered absolutely everything in an easily readable form.

Silent Storm was so, so cool. Until the PanzerKleins. And then it wasn't fun anymore...

weemadando wrote:Silent Storm was so, so cool. Until the PanzerKleins. And then it wasn't fun anymore...

Although Sentinels improved that part a bit. At least PK:s aren't invulnerable to bazookas anymore (which was the biggest WTF?! for me in that game).

But yeah, PK:s kinda killed the fun. Then again, You could always play the pre-PK missions over and over again, because there's always something new to try. Like, say, accidentally blowing up an entire 3-storey building, and watching the ragdolls (both friend and foe) fly out of the windows . Aw, sometimes booby traps just don't work the way you intended...

The Dark wrote:Jane's Fighters Anthology. Holy crap that was a RTFM game. When you add in that the entire second disk was devoted to tech specs, you could literally spend days just reading information before getting to the game.

Ummm... not really. Fighter's Anthology, like ATF and US Navy Fighters, is pretty much a game where you can just jump into instant action only accompanied by the Keyboard Reference Chart.

But still, Fighter's Anthology has a helluva good manual. Too bad Jane's manuals always come with crappy covers.

If you're really into an RTFM game, I would suggest Jane's F-15 or X-Com: UFO Defense. Not for the faint-hearted, though. Muahahaha!

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:If you're really into an RTFM game, I would suggest Jane's F-15 or X-Com: UFO Defense. Not for the faint-hearted, though. Muahahaha!

IMO, X-Com: UFO Defense doesn't really fit into that category. It's pretty simple to play despite it's complexity. The UI is quite intuitive both in the strategic map and in battle.

Yeah. X-COM, while one of the best games ever made, WAS fairly easy to pick up. And good grief, talk about massive manuals, anyone ever play SimEarth?

Hi. Terraform a world and lead a species from said world to sentience and high technology.

Karza wrote:IMO, X-Com: UFO Defense doesn't really fit into that category. It's pretty simple to play despite it's complexity. The UI is quite intuitive both in the strategic map and in battle.

I found learning the game mechanic was pretty intimidating. Figuring out the turn-based squad combat is one thing, but base building is more intimidating to me.

It's just me, or X-Com is not really an RTFM type of game?

Probably it's just my old habit of RTFM first before jumping in?

Mechcommander / Mechcommander 2
ATF Gold
Definitely cool manuals

MechCommander, no questions asked. Especially the comments by Cmdr Harrison.
BG & BG2 for the same reason, among others.
FO1 & 2. If this needs explaining you need to be shot.
Wizardry 8. It had a shitload of useful information (at least for someone new to the Wizardryverse), a lot of the background was an interesting read, and some of the commentary was simply hilarious. Plus, there was not a single blank page in this manual, including the insides of the covers.
Planet's Edge. The 'We basically have no clue but here's a theory' approach went brilliantly with the atmosphere of the game. Not that I expect anybody but The Bear to remember it in the first place.
WC 1&2. 'Nuff said.
Aces Of The Pacific.

weemadando wrote:

Karza wrote:Silent Storm (has anyone outside Finland and Russia even heard of that game?) had superb manual. Some background, but most importantly it covered absolutely everything in an easily readable form.

Silent Storm was so, so cool. Until the PanzerKleins. And then it wasn't fun anymore...

That's just the HAB talking

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Karza wrote:IMO, X-Com: UFO Defense doesn't really fit into that category. It's pretty simple to play despite it's complexity. The UI is quite intuitive both in the strategic map and in battle.

I found learning the game mechanic was pretty intimidating. Figuring out the turn-based squad combat is one thing, but base building is more intimidating to me.

It's just me, or X-Com is not really an RTFM type of game?

Probably it's just my old habit of RTFM first before jumping in?

I'd say it's that habit . I figured it out in 15 minutes, and so did most of my friends. After all, most stuff in it is pretty self-explanatory (figuring out how to shoot took the longest if I remember correctly).

I wish X-com would develop night vision goggles....

Now, figuring out how to play WELL took longer...

I loved the Warcraft and WC2 manuals, and I firmly believe that I wouldn't have enjoyed the games as much if I hadn't read them.

White Haven wrote:Now, figuring out how to play WELL took longer...

Well, I never claimed I was any good at it at first . Figuring that out indeed took longer.