Best Game Manuals

[TMA_1]

hmm I think that this is one area where games have gone down hill over the years. It used to be that many games would have awesome manuals, but it seems less and less these days. Like Knights of Xeen, or Warcraft. Manuals for these games for example were awesome, told stories and had cool pictures and so on. what are your favorite Game Manuals?

[Apollyon]

K240, Dark Reign & UFO: Enemy Unknown/XCOM: UFO Defense/ Xcom:apocalypse.

[Terror]

Age of Wonders 1 and 2 had great manuals

Warcraft 2

Starcraft

Diablo 2 (dunno about 1)

Age of Empires 2

TA Kingdoms

[Khan]

Warcraft 3 collectors edition was a good manual with a short history of the Warcraft universe. Civ games had good manuals, but they were more like reference books than manuals.

[Super-ness]

I liked COndition Zeros one

Which truth be told, is the only one ive ever read  :O

[Andrew]

Age of Empires Gold edition (came with rise of rome expansion)

Large book, came with several quick reference book things also.

Lords of Magic Special Edition (I think it was that manual)

Gave info on each race and unit. (but have not seen it in a long time, so could be wrong)

[thomas]

TA:K

Starcraft

[rigel6669]

K240, Dark Reign & UFO: Enemy Unknown/XCOM: UFO Defense/ Xcom:apocalypse.

Apollyon's post made me look for a manual for XCOM terror for the deep as i could never finish it

[Apollyon]

Wouldn't know about Terror from the Deep.

(It sucks) ;)

(in comparison)

[NHJ BV]

C&C and Red Alert had decent manuals. The first pages dealt with the economic and political strengts of both sides, which was nice. The Civilization manuals were always very detailed, but indeed more like reference books. Civ2's manual came with a complete tech tree at A1 or something format, which was very nice :)

[Jack Leaf]

Fallout 2's manual had some great jokes.

Master of Orion 3's manual told nicely the whole story of the MOO stories, but expect that, the manual was poorly done (it was more like a strategy guide).

Never even opened Warcraft 3's manual... :P

I don't remember any other good manuals....  :-

[bryorama]

The Neverwinter Nights: Gold manuel. It's a big gold-ring book-let.

[Vanguard3000]

I've always liked the manuals that include stories or very detailed histories of the world in which the game takes place.  Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo are good examples of this.  Some of my overall favourites are:

-Dreamweb - This includes a section called "Diary of a Madman" which looks like a real handwritten diary by the main character as he tried to find out, more or less, if he's insane or not, in the days leading up to the beginning of the game.  The handwriting itself is even used to depict this fact.  Very artistically done.  You can download it, and the game, here.

-Clive Barker's Undying - Includes diary entries from a man who, with his four siblings, made a covenant with a horrible uneartly force.  The diary entries deacribe his siblings and himself.

-American McGee's Alice - The story is that Alice survived a fire which killed her parents, and is in an insane asylum, where in her trauma, her mind has retreated into Wonderland, but it has become corrupt and evil.  The manual contains a journal by the Asylum's 'warden' regarding Alice.

-CyberMage: Darklight Awakening - Comes with a comic book telling the story f how the world came to be the way it is, and the origins of the CyberMage himself.

-Beneath a Steel Sky - Also comes with a neat comic book explaining the story of the game.

Honourable mention goes to Quarantine, whos manual is designed like a Kemo City Hovercab Driver's Handbook.  It's even very short and wide, like driver's handbooks.

Unfortunately, it seems good manuals are a dying breed, being replaced by little jewel case inserts explaining little more than installation instructions.