Nintendo Okie

I’m a huge proponent of the digital future.  You know that from reading this site and listening to the podcast, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about today.  What I am going to talk about is one thing that I might miss as a result of the digital future and that’s collecting game manuals.  If you’re as old or older than I am you remember game manuals from the 80’s and how they’ve changed from then until now.  When the NES era was upon us game manuals were filled with full color pictures and stories about the game and very little was devoted to the actual control of the game. 

Take for example the Little Nemo: Dream Master instruction manual.  The manual itself is 15 pages long and about eight of those pages are dedicated to advertisements of other Capcom games like Duck Tales and Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers, both games you should play by the way.  The other seven pages are dedicated to the game itself.  Of those seven pages only one discusses the controls of the game; the other six are all filled with information about the world and a back story concerning the game.

Another great example of a quality game manual is one every retro fan remembers; The Legend of Zelda.  That instruction booklet is 44 pages in length and the first eight are dedicated to the story of the Legend of Zelda.  One page gives you a picture of an NES controller and basic controls descriptions where it tells you that the D-pad controls Link’s movement and the A and B buttons are used for attacks.  After that is page after page of detailed pictures with simple descriptions of how to use some of the items mixed into stories about these items and descriptions of the map and inventory screens.  There are numerous pages dedicated to telling you about the enemies and allies that inhabit the land of Hyrule and you never once feel like you’re reading an instruction manual.  It’s a brilliant way to immerse a player into a game while telling them how to control everything without hammering it into their heads. 

Contrast those with something like the Call of Duty 3 instruction manual.  This is talking about the Wii version specifically, but I can imagine that the manuals for the different versions are very similar.  This instruction manual is 23 pages of black and white text with little pictures or illustrations to speak of.  The first four pages of the manual tell you how to synchronize the remote to the Wii, the proper way to wear the wrist strap and the many different ways you can hold the Wii Remote, most of which are not relevant to the game in any way.  Those should not even be included in a game manual because they are outlined in the Wii system manual to begin with.  After that you have nine pages, mostly boxed charts outlining the controls for the game following by eight pages of credits for the game, warranty information and customer support information. 

Now let me first say that having all that information is important, but in a game like Call of Duty why not take a few pages to give outlines on the battles that you are taking part in.  They are all real battles and events in history, even if you’re playing a fictional part in those fights.  It’s a great opportunity to bring some realism to that game and give people information that they might find interesting, if not useful.  Games today spend so much on the game itself and forget that there are a large number of people out there that enjoy reading game manuals because they remember how full of fun and interesting information they were in the 80’s and early 90’s.  The cost of the manual should not be skimped on.  I realize that some people would argue that 90% of people who buy a game will never look at a manual, but if you give them a reason to that would very quickly change.  EA and Activision are probably the worst offenders in this respect.  The MySims games are targeted towards kids and they love to read stories about the characters they’re interested in.  My kids have created stories and relationships between the various denizens of their town in MySims.  Those are the perfect games to create a small comic series in the manuals or a funny story about Buddy the Bellhop.  Instead you get a drab 10 page manual that just shows you how to move the character around the screen and build items in your workshop. 

Nintendo has not forgotten that the manuals, while not as important as the game are still relevant.  Even if the manual is mostly information on how to control the game they still put it in full color, glossy paper and make a nice presentation out of it.  They’re manuals are artificially inflated in size now by the necessesity of having it in multiple languages, but they’re still fun to read.  I love collecting game manuals and I know there are a large number of people out there like me.  Luckily if you’re missing manuals or just like to collect them there are resources out there where you can find replacements for your old manuals or just look at some you might have missed. 

If there’s one thing I’ll miss about the digital age it is these brilliant manuals from days past.  They’re just not the same in digital form.  There are still some companies out there that make good manuals, but they’re becoming few and far between.