Largest game manual ever?

[BetaWolf47]

Is it known which game has the largest manual ever? Biggest I know of is SimCity 3000 Unlimited, which is 224 pages long.

It can be classic or modern. You know, because modern games have such detailed instruction manuals.

[wiggyx]

Have you seen the manual for the 3DS? Holy crap, it's like a freakin' bible!

Go figure, the system treats everyone of its owners as if they're 6 years old, but comes with a manual that couldn't be read through by most high school graduates.

[Gameguy]

For console games there's Earthbound which came with the huge strategy guide as a manual. The largest one has to be for a PC game, one of the older simulation games most likely.

[A.C. Sativa]

Largest manual I can think of of the top of my head is Sim City for the SNES. As for modern games, probably the Metal Gear Solid series. Manuals are are a dead art these days due to people just going to gamefaqs.com, and the VG companies know this. Printing all those little books is pretty expensive...

[SparTonberry]

Largest console manual I know of is Galaxy Odyssey for the Famicom Disk System (I forget the exact number of pages, but it's around 140. It's a double-ended manual with around 30 pages of game play information from the end that opens to the right (the front, opening it western-style), and around 110 pages of background story (that may or may not be referenced during the game) from the end that opens to the left (the front, opening it Japanese-style).

[j_factor]

SimEarth is close at 212 pages. The console versions are under 100 though.

For a console, StarFlight (Genesis) is up there, with 143 pages. It's the only Genesis manual I know of with an actual spine instead of just being pages folded over and stapled.

[Shulamana]

While not really a manual, didn't one of the Carmen Sandiego games come with a full sized encyclopedia?

[j_factor]

While not really a manual, didn't one of the Carmen Sandiego games come with a full sized encyclopedia?

A pocket encyclopedia, yes.

[Nebagram]

Civ 3 on the PC weighs in at 236 pages (though this includes space for notes)- Civ IV isn't far behind at 224.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I've got this bigass manual for an Interplay collection that's as thick as a bible... Around 450 pages, I think.

[Rob2600]

I dont remember the exact page count, but the Falcon 4.0 flight simulator manual was so thick it came in a binder.

[Clownzilla]

I dont remember the exact page count, but the Falcon 4.0 flight simulator manual was so thick it came in a binder.

Yeah, I want to say Falcon 4.0. It's a very complex game though so it's warranted.

[Collector_Gaming]

the biggest manual for a single game that i have (unless i threw it away.. haven't seen in ages so who knows). is for Nascar Racing 2 released back in the day. Its a small novel sized manual that goes on about the different tracks and how to setup your cars ratios and what does what this and that and that.

[substantial_snake]

I remember the Space Sim Independence War Delux Edition had a really thick, all-english manual.

This really awesome 4x game called Imperium Galactica II: Alliances also had an awesomely thick manual too.

Someone else already mentioned the PC release of Sim Earth though and I think that's the largest I've ever seen outside of terribly detailed WWI flight sims from the mid nineties.

[tom]

flight sims do have the biggest manual usually


Star Saga 1 and 2 have an awful lot of manuals

[kupomogli]

Can the Diablo 2 guide from the Diablo Battle Chest be considered? It does come included with the game as the only source of information.

[FoxNtd]

Though not huge, my Gran Turismo 4 Reference Manual is 210 pages long. Still thinner than the PS2 game case though.

[Natty Bumppo]

For a console, StarFlight (Genesis) is up there, with 143 pages. It's the only Genesis manual I know of with an actual spine instead of just being pages folded over and stapled.

There were at least two other Electronic Arts games for the Genesis that had those IIRC - Might and Magic and Buck Rogers.

While not manuals, those guides that are the same size as the game cases for Phantasy Star II and Sword of
Vermillion are pretty neat - I think I read somewhere that they came packed with the intial releases of the games.


For shortest manual I would put up the SNES E.V.O. Speaking of which, I wonder if it is time to sell my complete copy?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVO-Search-F...#ht_2112wt_932

[Lerxstnj]

I remember when huge manuals were a form of copy protection on older PC games. Nobody wanted to copy the entire manual, but you needed it to start the game by typing in a random word on a random line of a random page.

[Jorpho]

Have you seen the manual for the 3DS? Holy crap, it's like a freakin' bible!

But doesn't that cover three or four different languages?