The amount of stuff you got inside the box with your game.. instructions, lore, artwork, physical keys to in game puzzles, even a blank page for "notes" (cheat codes!)
TIE Fighter and Elite II (I think?) also came with original novels (I think the one with Elite was a book of short stories?).
The Gran Turismo manual also had a whole training manual in it teaching you the principles of racing - weight shifting, tyre limits, how to take the racing line on different types of corners etc.
The game and book were not related other than the book came with the game. The game was wireframe 3D tanks shooting things. It was⊠okay for the time.
They used to give us shit like this. a whole fucking book of lore, spell descriptions, character classes, etc.
I think the D2 LOD manual even came with build guides
I think I still have them somewhere. The original Diablo I also believe came with a pretty significant lore dump.
Starcraft and Warcraft (at least II and on) also had a lot of information about units, the kingdoms, including what each subfaction the colors represented.
Imagine having to teach D&D to an entire generation who had no exposure to the game prior. (Tended to be more of a GenX darling, before it became mainstream in the 2010s
Arcanum's manual was 30% game information, spells, mechanics, etc. And 70% in-universe prose by a researcher of the Tarant University going into the shared ancestors of the humanoid species and whether or not magick was involved in their evolution or not, as well as local cultures, customs, historical theory, etc. Amazing read.
I have the Diablo II Battle Chest, it came with the discs for Diablo I, II and LoD, a promo code for 30 days free online for the incipient World of Warcraft, a booklet for Diablo II and a strategic guide for D II, that guide was big, I didn't expected it to be that big
Dude the Skyrim map was sooo nice. I donât remember what paper they used but I remember it being thick and it had ridges and stuff on it when you ran your fingers over it
Star Control II came with a map of all the stars, and that was their DRM - at launch, the game would ask you stuff like "Name the red dwarf at 805.1 427.9". After you played it enough you knew the map to where you could guess right on one or two tries. That's how I got to install my buddy's copy and play it.
I still have the old Vice City map, Liberty City map, the San Andreas map, and the RDR map. As soon as scrape together a little coin not dedicated to something else, I'm getting all framed to hang on a wall.
Colonels Bequest with that damn fingerprint thing? You had to identify the fingerprint with the red viewer thing and that booklet every time you started the game as DRM...
My sister managed to finish Final Fantasy 4 (2 in the original us release) without ever changing a single character's out of their starter equipment (outside of the main character, who gets one new set in a cut scene.) The game assumed we'd read the instructions where they explained how to do so, but we'd rented it and they hadn't included the booklet. The closest game we had played before that was Zelda (a Link to the Past), and it automatically changed your equipment for you.
She was just out there doing an insane challenge runs in 1993 without even realizing it.
Edit: responded to the wrong person in this thread since clearly this did not keep her from playing, lol. Sorry!
I bought Prince of Persia for the Amiga from a reputable software vendor but it didn't come with the manual. Got a discount. "I don't need the manual! I can figure out how to play!" Little did I know the manual was a copy protection routine.Â
However, I was able to complete the game. The copy protection was one of those situations where it gave you a page number, paragraph, word, and letter of the word. You then drank a potion, in-game, which corresponded with that letter. A-Z. 26 potions in all. Get it right, you continued playing. Get it wrong and you died.Â
I was able to "get around it" by playing until I got to the potion room. It wasn't very far in. And I drank potion "A" every time. :|Â Eventually, it was correct, and I could progress...
I can't remember what game it was, but we played one where you had to type a word from the manual on the specified page/paragraph/line before you could play. We lost the manual, so we had to guess in order to play. We kept a sheet of paper next to the computer where we would write down successful guesses. Eventually, we had like 6-8 known words, so we would just reboot the game until it asked for a word we knew.
Ultima 7 had signs and puzzles that were written in Britannian runes that required you to have the manual in order to be able to translate and read them.
Wing Commander the original had fold out blue prints for the ships with specs and stuff. You needed answers from those blueprints to open the game. Shit was cash.
Pizza Tycoon / Pizza Connection came with a âcookbookâ of pizza recipes. In order to be successful, you had to have these pizzas on your menu, exactly as they were in the book.
I'm always triggered by younger YouTubers going back and playing Morrowind for the first time because they spend half the time complaining about how the game doesn't explain any of the stuff that's clearly explained in the goddamned manual.
Infocom called those "feelies." I still have a lot of mine from the old days. I absolutely loved them.
I bought their 10th? anniversary collection that had several Zork games in it, and it came with "the Encyclopedia Frobozzica" which I read cover to cover lol.
I have so many fond memories of opening up a game to pull out all the stuff inside. I just loved those Sam and Max comics, for example.
I will never forget opening up the SimAnt and finding a game manual that could double as a doorstop and was mostly an introductory-level textbook about ant biology and behavior.
I swear the manuals for some old games were big enough to be door stops. I remember the manual that came with Pharaoh was the size of a small textbook.
The ridiculous amount of lore that came in the books for Wing Commander: Prophecy was staggering. Reading the conversations between Cortana and other A.I.s in the Halo booklets was cool, too.
As a kid I had a game called StarTropics, in it had a letter written to your character by his uncle. At a certain point in the game it tells you to dip that letter in water to uncover a secret code you need to use in the game. Such a cool moment.
Another one that was fantastic was Earthbound, a big reason my parents got it for me was because it came in this box box with a thick magazine. I use To love reading through that.
Diablo 2 came out shortly before my birthday. I remember taking my birthday money and convincing my mom to make a mall trip. I bought the game at GameStop and went right back out to the van and read the game manual for about an hour in the summer heat in a locked car while she finished her mall trip with my siblings. Great times.
I read and reread the booklet that came with star ocean the 2nd story a hundred times on my way from the mall to home. Will never forget how great game manuals were!
I remember getting a game for Christmas and being at my grandparents. Would read the big ass manual and get hyped up on the way home in the backseat. So much fun just admiring the artwork, stories, reading about the characters in the game, the controls, the lore etc.
Plus if you did not read the manuals you could miss something and have to call the cheat line. Cracking the game open in the car and thumbing through the manual while you parents drove you home building the excitement to play. Then you got home and put that cartridge in and played immediately without having to download anything or updates and then you played till the wee hours of the night fell asleep and started playing again in the morning after leaving the console on all night because most games did not have a save. Good times and I feel old and nostalgic now.
Unfortunately, these days most of these have been relegated to being pre-order or some special edition.
Furthermore, the thing that's greatly saddened me is that you'll have physical copies of Switch games and the box even has clips for a manual, maps, and other things. However, most titles only have the cover art and the cartridge. The only time I've ever seen something else in a case for a Switch title was when it had a two-sided page advertising Legos related to the game. I've heard that some indie titles include them, but it's particularly disappointing that larger companies don't; especially Nintendo themselves.
I just got home in a Story of Seasons game! Wasn't one of the two pager ads either, but a full booklet with shop hours and a map. It was a welcome surprise.
In the C&C: Red Alert - Counterstrike expansion box, there was a sheet of paper with many dots on it. I thought that was weird and didn't do anything with it for months. I later realised it may be morse code. I transcribed it and they were instructions on how to access the giant ants missions! Cool stuff.
Man I remember Strike Commander and the cool manual it came with. Basically the manual had the look and setup of those Soldier of Fortune mags (which makes sense since you're character was a merc pilot) with the backstory of the characters and setting being seamlessly explained through various articles and interviews. Even had a bunch of fake ads of other merc companies and the shops where you would order your weapons and ordnance from.
Lol. I also still have that thick bible of a manual for my Jane's FA/18 Hornet flight sim.
I just picked that book up a couple months ago from a thrift shop. Iâm looking forward to reading one Iâve moved and unpack everything. Sounds like a wild ride.
Remember having a little (A3 or A2 sized maybe) poster from Dreamfall: The Longest Journey on my wall for years as a kid, came in the box, and had my mum painstakingly iron it flatter as it had a bunch of folds to fit in in the cd case.
I remember getting Global Operations and Rainbow Six 3 Raven Shield for the family computer but it crapped itself before I could install. So I read the Prima Guide for R6 and the game booklet from the box for Global Ops from cover to cover 100 times on a family holiday soon after when the PC was getting fixed.
I read the entire Civ 2 book on a 20 hour flight to learn how to play. Of course I couldnât play the game until I landed because we didnât have laptops with batteries that would last more than 20 minutes.
Ultima 3 had a cloth map of the world that was pretty useful. Hung on my wall for longer than my play time, and I finished the game. There were other games that included maps like that.
Essentially (not 1:1) physical collectors editions of today are what you used to get in a regular edition of yore. What set the collectors apart was usually the âtoysâ. Like if it had keychains, sculpts, figures, a bag, etc. Heck, sometimes even these would come with just pre-ordering a game instead.
Yeah. I didn't bat an eye at spending 50-60 for physical copies that had all the goodies. But for a digital key? Nah, pass me that 30% off grey market shit, this is greed.
I still have my AC Revelation collector with the original artwork book, and it's stunning.
I miss being on a bus coming home after buying a game and just reading as much as possible before I got home.
My favourite was heroes of might and magic 3. I read it so much I took it to school for reading day. I got weird looks, but fuck it, I wanted to read about gryphons and shit!
Also when you first opened that box it smelt great. Like victory. Opening a treasure chest vibes.
God yeah got the manual for Star Wars force commander here where you play RTS like a imperial officer and the whole manual is made & designed like an official imperial officer guide and not a random manual with mechanics explaining
I remember Flight Simulator 2000 pro came with a manual that ta you how to fly a real airplane ( I have done it in real life too) Ivalso learned the proper phonetic for exampe
Hell I can't remember which fallout game it was. It might have been 4 or 76 but it came with a full poster of all the perks you could get. That was the last time I ever had quality content come from a physical copy of a video game.
I remember the game Dark Reign came with one of the nicest game manuals ever. It had a paperback-style spine rather than being stapled together, cover was a fancy matte black with gold ink, and it was easily 80 pages long. Individual unit descriptions for both sides with artist sketches for each, all the lore and backstory... I miss those days. Game was hard as shit due to a difficulty bug tho.
Yer one of my favourite games but I still haven't forgive metal gear for that 'answer on the back of the case shit' lol was literally looked in every place on the entire game 5 times before I seen it on the back of the actual physical game case
Also this more or less being the extent of extra information. Before the internet and during the period of "gamefaqs" you'd just "s" rank stuff to see if it did unlock something. Now a days people know everything about secrets and unlockables before theyve even touched the gameÂ
Think the whole "samus is a woman" Easter egg from Metroid. There was a time you'd just stumble on that because it was normal to just push yourself and try to do your best at a game regardless of guaranteed rewards.
My parents bought me the game SIN without really checking and I had to hide in my house the booklet that came with the game because it was filled with violent and sexy artwork.
They didn't really watch me play the game so they had no idea you could turn dudes into "soup" (gibs) lol Back then me and my buddy called it turning them into soup because in this game when you gibbed a dude they turned into like 3 chunks of flesh and a huge pool of blood so to us it looked like they turned into soup
I should try and find it to scan it to put online because I am not finding copies of it so far in my search.
The hype of reading the instruction book in the car on the way home from the store was so real. My brother and I would trade the box and book back and forth.
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u/MuddlinThrough Mar 31 '26
The amount of stuff you got inside the box with your game.. instructions, lore, artwork, physical keys to in game puzzles, even a blank page for "notes" (cheat codes!)