Question of the Day: Do You Ever Read the Instruction Manual?

[Emulation_Chief]

Hello:

Yes. I usually read the manuals. Things like button configuration and uses, does not always appear on the game options. Also, you can find discrepancies between the game and the manual itself.

I will cite as example Sonic the Hedgehog for Genesis. on the manual, when explaining the bonus stages, several icons appeared on the paper. One of them is the 1up icon. When you play the game and enter the bonus stage to get the chaos emerald, you will not find that icon, even if you move trough the entire area before getting the emerald or touch the GOAL icons. That is until you activate the debug mode. In the bonus stage, press A to start debug and move the d-pad to your left to leave the boundaries of the stage. Deactivate the mode to see sonic spin until you find a special zone with the manual-mentioned 1up icon.

If you didn't try it before, give it a shot.

[robman84]

Only if I buy something at a shop then have some time to kill before getting it home (e.g. bus journey). My kids generally read the manuals, but more for the "full experience" than finding out how it works.

Used to love reading the cassette inlays from new speccy games I'd bought whilst on the train home from the city (the nearest outlet for decent games when I was a kid).

[mike_jmg]

I almost never read the manuals, only when I get stuck with something, sometimes I end up reading them when I have nothing else to do years later, and I "discover" new things LOL

[jamotto]

I read the manuals, it is an old habit from my computer gaming days.

Quite frankly though what passes for manuals today are pretty lousy. Back in the golden days a game would come with a beefy manual (100+ pages) that included lots of extras, for example Aces Over the Pacific had full color pictures of the planes with specs, a general history of events from the war and tactics and maneuvers that was taken from real flight school material used in WWII.

[goshogun1]

I don't dead a lot of manuals nowadays, because most games have tutorials built in. But, any manual for a game released by Nintendo must be read. They put a lot of time into their manuals. Such as Warioware, Mario, and Smash Bros. And they also put a lot of data that might not be mentioned in the games themselves. Like certain character bios etc. Full color, glossy, chocked full of official artwork and pics, and usually well written. How could I forgot Earthbounds GIANT book that came with it.
So yeah, I don't read the xbox 360 7-page B&W pamphlets that they consider game manuals. Not to bash the games themselves though.

[Spanishpeacock]

There is a few games where reading the manual/case actually pay off. For instance, Metal Gear Solid has Merryl's number on the back of the case. For you old school NES fans, Star Tropics taught me a serious lesson about keeping papers... you know what I mean.

[____anders____]

nah i don't read them..