In regard to strat guides

[kainemaxwell]

Anyone here enjoy getting strategy guides for games, not just for the tips and advice, but for other reasons, like the artwork, rare along with the game, etc?

[Frica89]

yeah, I've got a few, mostly nintendo power ones, that i have just for the hell of it. I think its a nice thing to have along with a game, especially if the game's one of your favorites.

[MrRoboto19XX]

Yeah, Im a big fan of buying strategy guides, if anything they're a great read.

I especially love the old NP guides, theyre full of info that occasionally can't be found anywhere else, useless as it is.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I have found that the guides for the games by Working Designs are just as nice as the games. I have the nice hardback guides for the Arc The Lad Collection and Vanguard Bandits as well as the paperback guide for Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete.

JY

[jdc]

Gosh yeah, I love guides. I actually DO like them for the various snippets of original artwork that you find in them.

[heybtbm]

Anyone here enjoy getting strategy guides for games, not just for the tips and advice, but for other reasons, like the artwork, rare along with the game, etc?

I have something like 110-120 guides. I buy most of them cheap from used game stores. I get them for all sorts of reasons...my only (informal) rule is I like to own the game of the guide I'm buying. Example: Even though I love Double Jump guides, I never purchased their recent Genji guide...simply because I have no interest in the game.

Pics...http://videogamecollectors.com/gallery/album479/Dsc00382b

[Azraelscross]

I barely use strategy guides. I have only one but my friend whose the same way has alot.I bought the FF XII guide*the big one with the art book* a month or two before i got surprised at christmas with a PS2.

[Oobgarm]

I like strat guides. I don't buy them often, but I think they're nice companions to the game. I mean, I'm not going to buy one specifically for gameplay help, as that stuff is available free online, but the occasional map and whatnot is useful.

[mailman187666]

I like to get the guides every now and again because I feel like it makes the game more complete from a collector's standpoint. Say for Final Fantasy 7 fans (I love it but I don't swear by it) you gotta have the guide book with a complete copy of the game, just cuz it seems to complete it.

[kainemaxwell]

Another thing good with guides- saves from going back and forth to gamefaqs if you need it and saving paper from print things out. :)

[Hwj_Chim]

I get them on occasion mostly for the art work but a nice looking map is good to have also.

[TurboGenesis]

I had put up a poll about strat guides a while ago.

Stratagy guide poll/views (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=96602&highlight=guides)

Personally I am like them and are using them more than ever in my life as I am not have much time to devote to games :(

[MarioMania]

I love guides....I get them cheap

[8Ways2Tuesday]

I try to get the guides when I can. They're generally the closest things to artbooks that appear in the US and I like having little details like item stats or random info at my fingertips. Especially since game manuals can be kinda lacking on vital info, even about the main characters. ^^;

[kainemaxwell]

I try to get the guides when I can. They're generally the closest things to artbooks that appear in the US and I like having little details like item stats or random info at my fingertips. Especially since game manuals can be kinda lacking on vital info, even about the main characters. ^^;

Agreed there.

[bangtango]

I especially love the old NP guides, theyre full of info that occasionally can't be found anywhere else, useless as it is.

For that reason, the NP guides for Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World were both awesome.

The SMB 3 guide showed you all of the possible combinations on the matching game and also let you know how/where to get the White Mushroom house in each of the worlds. Pretty awesome stuff.

The SMW guide had every useless fact you ever wanted to know about the Mario series and even referenced The Lost Levels (Jpn SMB 2) in a couple places. Do understand this guide came out before Super Mario All Stars, which had the inclusion of Japan's SMB 2.

One of the major magazines, I think Gamepro, did pretty good guides for Street Fighter 2, SF 2 Turbo and the original Mortal Kombat. Lots of useless info and art for all of the characters and in the case of the Mortal Kombat guide, it covered every home version of the game and the arcade version as well.

[DonMarco]

I'm fairly sure I don't have the largest guide collection (especially 'round this forum), and I love to show off pics of it.

Pic 1 (http://www.dontpressstart.com/upload/guides/left.jpg), Pic 2 - with different sections labeled (http://www.dontpressstart.com/upload/guides/right.jpg)

These pics are almost a year old, right about the time I got my 1000th guide. I've been meaning to take a new one, seeing as how I'm up to 1100 now and almost none of my PC game guides were in those.

My favorite series are Versus Books, GameFan Books, Working Designs and DoubleJump Books. Those guys all really loved the games they were writing about and it shows. GameFan had a bunch of the Capcom fighting games and were hard as hell to track down. But I did it!

Shameless plug: I've got something of a wiki (http://wiki.dontpressstart.com/index.php?title=Category:Guides) with a few hundred of the older guides uploaded, if you ever can't find a cover or decide to start your own collection and need a list. I'll be putting up the Nintendo Power guides this month, I guess, seeing as how popular they are and all. I never really focused on collecting them, so I only have 55 titles... now...

[carlcarlson]

Damn dude, that's mighty sexy. I love strategy guides and have recently been pursuing the penny guide hunt. I'm fairly selective with what I'll buy, I'm not going to pick up every guide I come across. I mainly look for rpg guides or guides to "quality" games (like my recent CoD 4 guide). I've probably got about forty or so and I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed with them. Still, I'm sure I'll keep going after them.

And yeah, DoubeJump guides are the best.

[namzep]

I have around 150 or so guides (not sure of the exact count) and really like collecting them. The only problem is they take up alot of space to display. I have to agree that the old Nintendo Power guides were some of the best guides ever done. I still have fond memories of the Final Fantasy III guide that started to have it's pages fall out from using it so much.

[The 1 2 P]

I'm fairly sure I don't have the largest guide collection (especially 'round this forum), and I love to show off pics of it.

Thats alot of damn strategy guides. I have about two shelf's worth(meaning two levels of a five level shelf) and most have been collected for half cover price or less. Probably 35% were either penny or dollar guides. Getting them cheap is why I have so many. To be honest, I rarely ever use them for games I play unless I'm really stuck but that hardly ever happens. I do like how they add value to my collection though.

[maxlords]

Yeah, I'm at around 150ish too. I mostly buy either the clearanced ones or guides for obscure games and RPGs. I'm pretty selective about which ones I'll pick up, but I have a LOT of obscure ones, especially RPG guides. I buy em mainly to accelerate my RPG progress...as I don't have time to muddle about anymore like I used to :D But I also buy em for collectibility, as a lot of guides seem to get pretty short-printed.

[DonMarco]

A fair chunk of mine are penny guides, yeah. The rest I got for a buck or two from a friend. Maybe even a game if they had a stack to trade me. Later on, people just started giving me their old guides, just to help me build my collection. Yard sales, eBay...

It's odd when every so often you find out that one of them has become a "rare collectible". The Resident Evil Archive, for example, was a terrible buy. It was expensive, had factually incorrect information, translation errors, sloppy editing (and possibly no editor). I was happy to take one home, after it dropped to a penny. Now, three years later, it goes for $55-100 on eBay.

The DoubleJump guides I try to buy new, though. For one, I want to throw them the money. And for two, there's a good chance they'll be more expensive down the road. Paying $20 now for a guide that's $50 later *cough*Persona 3*cough* makes good sense to me.

[maxlords]

P3 guide is back down to about $25-30 now :D

[Gamebrain]

It depends on the game. I usually dont like buying it with the game (because I don't want to spoil any of the story for myself). If, like others said, it has cool art and features along with it, I'll probably buy it after I beat the story.