lemmy.world

Norgur, do gaming w I miss manuals...

My wife got me a copy of Mass effect Andromeda as a gift once. She bought the physical copy (or so she thought) since that makes a better gift. When I opened the case, there was literally nothing in there but a code for EA Origin on a sticker.

Cosmonaut_Collin,
@Cosmonaut_Collin@lemmy.world avatar

Ea games are awful for this. I bought sims 4 when it first came out and had the same issue. It’s so cool that I can’t own games even if I try to buy the physical copy. I’m just glad that other companies haven’t been doing digital only hard copies.

4am,

They literally sold you plastic trash that could have been a man email 🤦‍♂️

yamanii,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

I mean, do you even have a bluray drive on your PC? That’s why they do it, I remember having the option to buy San Andreas on one dvd or 8 cds or something, precisely because people don’t often replace their drives.

SilverFlame,

I haven’t had a disc drive of any sort on my PC for over a decade

Norgur,

They can sell codes in stores all they want. But.... print them on a nice greeting card or something instead of using about 100g of ABS plastic?

JeeBaiChow, do gaming w I miss manuals...

Best in box surprise you ever received? Anyone?

For me it was the cloth map and manual that came with Ultima 4 or something.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Leather Goddesses of Phobos came with a scratch-n-sniff card. If I recall correctly, you can’t win the game without it.

soycapitan451,

The map in GTA3. There was a mission towards the end of the game I kept failing; to deliver a corrupt FBI agent to the airport. Eventually I realised, after studying the map, I could bypass all the road blocks by taking the light rail system. I felt like an 11 year old Einstein.

SilverFlame,

Is that the timed mission where they posted up enemies everywhere with rocket launchers along the normal route? That mission ended my last attempt at a playthrough, still never finished GTA3

soycapitan451,

That’s the one, I think it’s the 2nd to last mission.

FlyingSquid, do gaming w I miss manuals...
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

If anyone is old enough to remember Infocom games, they came with “feelies,” just random fun stuff related to the game they decided to include. It occasionally was needed to solve a game puzzle, but usually not.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/efb22da1-bbcc-4003-8e4d-c3dc9168624d.png

I can still smell that box. They had a certain smell back then.

The_Picard_Maneuver,
@The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world avatar

When people talk about games having heart, this is it. Little unnecessary goodies just because you’re excited that people are buying your game and you want them to be into it.

wazzupdog,

Getting a new game and having books and stickers to mess with on the ride home until you can play the game.

Kiosade,

“Kids these days” will never know that feeling. Of course, they’ll have their ipads, so probably won’t care.

Classy,

Myst and Riven had the greatest boxes! Then also The 11th Hour and Phantasmagoria.

Daft_ish, do gaming w I miss manuals...

I’m estatic! Look a physical copy!

loudWaterEnjoyer, do gaming w I miss manuals...
@loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Makes me sad too

MonkderZweite, do gaming w I miss manuals...

Or a piece of cardboard with a code inside.

Geek_King, do gaming w I miss manuals...

The height of new game glory for me were the old school huge boxes PC games came in. It wasn’t uncommon to get a thick manual with wonderful art, sometimes spiral bound, maps, other neat add-ins. Even console games had nice manuals with useful information you may not otherwise know. I miss that stuff.

MamboGator,
@MamboGator@lemmy.world avatar

I still have all my big box PC games, and they all have thick manuals full of lore, character biographies and art. We lost an art form.

Geek_King,

I collapsed and recycled all of my large PC game boxes out of necessary, but I have every single manual/map/pack-in though!

PhobosAnomaly,

I wrote a similar reply to a higher comment without seeing yours, and I completely agree - I miss it.

I was a bit younger in the 90s and half the magic of the ride home was reading the manual so you could hit the ground running when you installed it/put the cartridge in/loaded the tape.

Speculater,
@Speculater@lemmy.world avatar

Way back in the day places like Working Designs sent Lunar and Lunar 2 out with badass merch and maps. They were amazing.

TheMinions,

I very distinctly remember pouring over the City of Heroes art book/manual they shipped with that game.

Man I loved that game. So fun.

Zink, do gaming w I miss manuals...

Even better if it’s one of the games that can’t even fit on the cartridge.

SinningStromgald, (edited ) do gaming w I miss manuals...

The lack of game manuals in game cases still makes me sad.

brbposting,

Are they trying to sell digital manuals? Or was it just about the $.10 per copy savings?

yamanii,
@yamanii@lemmy.world avatar

it’s penny pinching, some have soulless digital manuals.

Dudewitbow,

conpanies usually either bake it into the game as tutorials or have digital manuals nowadays. it was always about cutting physical sales cost (as the physical media itself has a cost attached to it)

IDK how it works on the current console devices, but on the yhe previous generation, the wiiu for example would give the player the option to open the digital manual when the game is launched by pressing the home button and selecting the manual. one of yhe pros is that the manuals digitally tend to be more complete and not rushed to save on cost. take for example, the Xenoblade Chronicle X manual is 142 pages long, something that would basically never exist physically.

Warjac, do gaming w Lemme show you how its done

Always loved that the second I was doing better than they were or just got to a further point than them they’d rip the controller away and say something like “I got it I got it, stop hogging the game!” Then would cry and scream if I beat it for them because inevitably 12 minutes later they’d ask for help again and no amount of showing them would help them figure it out.

Kids are fuckin stupid.

gennygameshark, do gaming w I miss manuals...

They want you to feel that way, say “what’s the point” and buy digital…

PlutoniumAcid,
@PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world avatar

Physical I can sell again! Big advantage right there.

RagingRobot,

They don’t like that part lol

MadBigote,

Now you’re on Nintendos list.

mihnt, do gaming w Nothing is stopping you from this right now
@mihnt@lemmy.world avatar

Nothing is stopping you from this right now

Except the cost of the console and games. :(

Also, Beetle Adventure Racing > Wrestlemania

XEAL,

You guys don’t keep your childhood consoles?

Isoprenoid,

I would have if I had the luxury of storage.

mihnt,
@mihnt@lemmy.world avatar

Someone stole it from me when I was 18.

Speculater,
@Speculater@lemmy.world avatar

Not all of us came from stable backgrounds. My father lost everything we owned when I was in the Army because he couldn’t stop gambling and didn’t pay our storage unit… My entire fucking Magic the Gathering collection. I had power 9 and a full duel lands set, many many decks. Not to mention all my consoles and games.

Patches,

Your phone has enough power to emulate an N64 and roms are free. Ain’t nobody making royalties 25 years later on Wrestlemania.

Cosmonauticus,

Argggh the seas of piracy are calm and rife with plunder

mihnt,
@mihnt@lemmy.world avatar

Well, yes, I have a gaming PC as well. (and a steam deck) It just ain’t the same without the OG controller. Need to get a USB one eventually but I’m poor.

I do still have some of my original carts as well. Same with a bunch of NES carts I got from my previous job. Been eyeing those modern consoles that work with NES carts because that would be nice to have in the living room.

SRo,

They are pretty cheap. Around 50 bucks. With the box around 150. SNES is expensive compared to it. Also, Diddy Kong racing > beetle adventure racing.

StopSpazzing,
@StopSpazzing@lemmy.world avatar

Ahhh beetle adventure racing! Brings back memories. I found a legit “cheat” way to play by doing something like turning and then clicking handbrake? A few times and it would take super sharp turns depending on how many times you click handbrake no matter the speed you were going. Allowed be to beat the game and unlock all cars pretty easily.

mihnt,
@mihnt@lemmy.world avatar

Did you find the secret level?

StopSpazzing,
@StopSpazzing@lemmy.world avatar

I want to say yes, but honestly that was such a long time ago. I remember there was an “out of this world” secret car but I don’t remember much else.

JeeBaiChow, do gaming w I miss manuals...

… and cloth maps. And developer notes. And figurines. And trinkets from the lore. And the game costing under $20. And…

GTG3000, do gaming w I miss manuals...

Always funny to me to be reminded that in some countries game came with manuals.

Here it was always just a cartridge/disk. Possibly the reason the most popular NES game was Battle City instead of Super Mario Bros.

ThePJN, do gaming w Nothing is stopping you from this right now
@ThePJN@sopuli.xyz avatar

Ha! Jokes on you, I’m not 38 until… next week. Guck!

(I meant to type “fuck” but “guck” works just as well.)

StopSpazzing,
@StopSpazzing@lemmy.world avatar

This honestly needs to be a lemmy insider only word. Replace all reference of fuck with guck going forward.

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