Gen Z/late millenials trying to interpret retro games they play on emulators with no manuals is the modern “people making extremely detailed marble statues because they don’t realize Romans painted theirs”.
That’s how you end up with Blue Prince and Dark Souls and stuff.
Yeah, and old games were just well designed with no handholding and absolutely didn’t include full bullet pointed tutorials for the first hour in the manual as a matter of course.
Somebody made a good point in another thread a while back (or maybe it was The 8-Bit Guy in a youtube video?) that a lot of times the manual got read as you were riding in the car back home from the store since you couldn’t play the thing yet.
What did you do during the ten minutes it took to load tape games? Or the ten minutes it took to install them from floppy? Or…
Oh, wait, NES/N64, huh? You were into rich kid games.
So what did you do while you were getting driven back from the shop by your valet or whatever you guys had at the time?
All joking aside, I bet there was some divide between console and computer players on that front. I had binders of technical documentation from flight sims and entire novellas that came in RPG and adventure game boxes. The “here’s how to play through the first chunk of the game” tutorials were just one format for that stuff, but perhaps the most platform-agnostic of them.
And, of course, there were walkthroughs and guides in gaming magazines. Getting stuck and waiting for the next monthly issue hoping they’d cover the game was a subtle form of monetization for games journalists even then. “Pivot to guides” has happened before.
The GameFAQs era will become a bit of a lost age between the print magazine guides and the “IGN became a guide site so slowly we barely even noticed” period.
I wonder if there will ever be some specific nostalgia for it or it was just too short and grungy for anybody to care.
GoG has decent manual integration. Steam has decent guide integration.
I think it’s a good idea on paper, but at some point having it in an overlay or whatever seems less functional than just bringing it up on a phone or a second screen, you know?
Tunic is really cool, it’s sorta based off the dudes experiences not being able to read and playing Zelda trying to use the manual to figure out wtf is going on, to my understanding.
I think they’re saying if you fire up some old NES games without the manual, you’ll only learn from trial and error, and it’s going to be hard as hell. (Even with the manual, they were not as forgiving back then)
Hence, people designing challenging games without instructions thinking THAT’S what the old timers must like!
Is there a database of scans of old video game manuals somewhere? Seems like something that would be great to add to stuff like RetroArch etc., along side the automatic download of box art and such.
Dark Souls is largely inspired by Miyazaki consuming western media without being able to fully understand it. He had to try to fill in the gaps himself. I assume that’s what they meant.
A good example of this is Tunic, where the manual is not understandable at first, but you can figure out as you play. These games create very interactive world building where you’re supposed to pay attention and piece things together yourself instead of being handed the solution.
It is a mystery/puzzle/roguelike where you have to figure out what to do, how to do it, and even how the game works. You get a broad goal at the beginning, but you have to experiment, learn, and solve puzzles to progress. It basically requires that you take notes. It’s brilliant
Gen Z/late millenials trying to interpret retro games they play on emulators with no manuals is the modern “people making extremely detailed marble statues because they don’t realize Romans painted theirs”.
That’s how you end up with Blue Prince and Dark Souls and stuff.
I refuse to believe that Romans painted theirs. I mean, the evidence is clear that they did but it would look so terrible!
Yeah, and old games were just well designed with no handholding and absolutely didn’t include full bullet pointed tutorials for the first hour in the manual as a matter of course.
Removed by mod
Somebody made a good point in another thread a while back (or maybe it was The 8-Bit Guy in a youtube video?) that a lot of times the manual got read as you were riding in the car back home from the store since you couldn’t play the thing yet.
What did you do during the ten minutes it took to load tape games? Or the ten minutes it took to install them from floppy? Or…
Oh, wait, NES/N64, huh? You were into rich kid games.
So what did you do while you were getting driven back from the shop by your valet or whatever you guys had at the time?
All joking aside, I bet there was some divide between console and computer players on that front. I had binders of technical documentation from flight sims and entire novellas that came in RPG and adventure game boxes. The “here’s how to play through the first chunk of the game” tutorials were just one format for that stuff, but perhaps the most platform-agnostic of them.
And, of course, there were walkthroughs and guides in gaming magazines. Getting stuck and waiting for the next monthly issue hoping they’d cover the game was a subtle form of monetization for games journalists even then. “Pivot to guides” has happened before.
Removed by mod
The GameFAQs era will become a bit of a lost age between the print magazine guides and the “IGN became a guide site so slowly we barely even noticed” period.
I wonder if there will ever be some specific nostalgia for it or it was just too short and grungy for anybody to care.
GameFAQs etc. need to be archived in a public database and incorporated into stuff like RetroArch.
Stop. Please! I can only get SO erect!
GoG has decent manual integration. Steam has decent guide integration.
I think it’s a good idea on paper, but at some point having it in an overlay or whatever seems less functional than just bringing it up on a phone or a second screen, you know?
What did you do on the ride home from the mall?
Tunic is really cool, it’s sorta based off the dudes experiences not being able to read and playing Zelda trying to use the manual to figure out wtf is going on, to my understanding.
I’m interested in your take on what Blue Prince and Dark Souls are echoing, if I’m reading this right.
I think they’re saying if you fire up some old NES games without the manual, you’ll only learn from trial and error, and it’s going to be hard as hell. (Even with the manual, they were not as forgiving back then)
Hence, people designing challenging games without instructions thinking THAT’S what the old timers must like!
Oh yeah, that makes sense.
Honestly, I do enjoy that though.
Yes, and that’s why Dark Souls is fun. Lol
Is there a database of scans of old video game manuals somewhere? Seems like something that would be great to add to stuff like RetroArch etc., along side the automatic download of box art and such.
Edit: @nocturne posted one downthread: https://www.gamesdatabase.org/all_manuals
yeah i have this on emulationstation
We do!!! Blue Prince is fantastic
Dark Souls is largely inspired by Miyazaki consuming western media without being able to fully understand it. He had to try to fill in the gaps himself. I assume that’s what they meant.
A good example of this is Tunic, where the manual is not understandable at first, but you can figure out as you play. These games create very interactive world building where you’re supposed to pay attention and piece things together yourself instead of being handed the solution.
Wait, Blue Prince isn’t just a point-and-click adventure/escape room kinda game?
It is a mystery/puzzle/roguelike where you have to figure out what to do, how to do it, and even how the game works. You get a broad goal at the beginning, but you have to experiment, learn, and solve puzzles to progress. It basically requires that you take notes. It’s brilliant
That’s actually pretty awesome! I have it on my wishlist but it thought it was more like just an adventure/puzzle kinda thing.
Dude play it. Stop reading about it to avoid any spoilers and just play. It’s fantastic.
Oh I haven’t read/watched anything. I saw somebody just kinda starting it and thought it looked like my kinda jam, so I wish listed it.
Imagine not knowing about Vimm’s manual project