Special version of Skies of Arcadia for Quebec?

[jpark203]

This is kind of a funny story... After I decided to get a Dreamcast once again, one of the games I wanted to get back was Skies of Arcadia, so I ended buying it on e-bay roughly about a year ago. I hadn't really found the time to play it and left it alone until recently. I wanted to reference the manual for something for a review I was writing, and that's when I noticed that the interior of the manual was completely in French. It's a North American version and features the same front cover and case artwork, yet the game was still in English when I played it. Then I noticed another difference between this version and the one that I originally owned. The back of the manual was different. If I remember correctly, the original had an ad for Phantasy Star Online, but this one featured the case artwork with both French and English on it. Check it out:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o224/jpark203/soacanadian001.jpg?t=1165210728
The case is on the top, and the back of the manual's on the bottom. So am I correct to assume that this was a version released for Quebec? But then why the heck is the manual French while the game's in English? Not sure how rare it is either.

Also, I recently saw an auction of a Japanese copy up on e-bay. It looked like it was in a DVD case, so "couterfeit" definitely popped into my head. Fortunately, I did some research on it and found out it wasn't. It's the @Barai version, which was a way of letting people play the first 10% of the game for a small fee. However, both discs were included so that the player could pay to have the rest of the game unlocked to play it if they desired. The case is similar to to that of DVDs but is twice as thick. Needless to say, I bought it. lol
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o224/jpark203/soabarai.jpg?t=1165211225

[RevQuixo]

What Sega did for Canadian releases is shrinkwrap the French manual to the back of the jewel case of the regular US version of Skies of Arcadia (and tons of other games....which is why the back of the manual has a "back cover" for a jewel case on it If you are missing the English manual it means someone tossed it and replaced it inside the Jewel Case with the French manual.

I would imagine that the French manuals are slightly rarer than the English, but in the grand scheme of things not too rare. It should be noted that all of Canada and not just Quebec got these versions...its Canadian law I believe to have the French instructions.

[badinsults]

Pretty much every game released in Canada comes with French and English manuals (at least for Gamecube games). They usually also come with an extra sleeve that is bilingual.

[jpark203]

Thanks. That makes much more sense now.

[Kitsune Sniper]

This is also done in Latin America, I've seen XBox games with Spanish manuals shrinkwrapped to the back of the game. I don't know if they still do this, though. It's an interesting variant.

[BocoDragon]

I had never considered that French manuals might be used as replacements if the original one goes missing.... something for us Canadians to consider as we scour the bargain bins of the future.

[Ze_ro]

Well, since us Canadians end up getting two manuals (one of which will usually be useless), there's a good chance that one will just get thrown in the garbage... I guess whoever you got your game from was French.

In many cases, the extra French manual is of much poorer quality (ie, cheaper paper rather than the glossy stuff, and in some cases I've even seen them printed entirely in black and white). Some DVD games also get a second case insert... usually they just take the American copies of the games (which are already shrinkwrapped), slap the french manual on the back, put the second case insert around the whole mess, and then shrinkwrap it all again. Takes a while to actually get the damn thing open. Nintendo is one of the few companies that will actually make seperate Canadian releases with bilingual manuals and inserts.

For some reason, I keep all the French manuals and inserts I get... even though I'm not fluent, I'll never use them, and they're not worth a dime. I guess I'm just a pack rat.

--Zero

[BocoDragon]

For some reason, I keep all the French manuals and inserts I get... even though I'm not fluent, I'll never use them, and they're not worth a dime. I guess I'm just a pack rat.

--Zero

I was going to make a thread about that, but I guess this'll do. Keep the french manuals? I do, I guess. Who cares? Only us, I'm sure. :)

[udisi]

wasn't only in canada I bought a Jedi Power Battles for DC in a comp USA in the seattle, wa area that had a French B&W manuel under the shrinkwrap also.

[bangtango]

Throwing away an extra video game manual, even if it is in a different language, seems like a waste. I'm glad I read this thread, since I bought a Dreamcast title on Ebay a few months back and was wondering why it came packaged with 2 manuals (English and French). It all came out in the wash, though, because I found a disc only copy of that exact same game in a thrift store a couple weeks later and just tossed the French manual into the jewel case to "complete" it after I returned home.

[Ze_ro]

Throwing away an extra video game manual, even if it is in a different language, seems like a waste.
Yes, but you're thinking like a collector. "Normal" people don't care about that kind of stuff :P Throwing out a French manual when you don't speak French and already have an English manual is, in my opinion, not even close to being as bad as throwing out a box.

I don't know of any "completist" collectors that bothers with this kind of stuff, although I like the way they get frustrated when I point it out to them :evil:

--Zero