? about Secret of Mana strat guide..

[scorch56]

I'm turning this over to the experts and hopefully.. someone who actually has a copy and can confirm it. Years ago.. I bought a copy of the Official Game Secrets Secret of Mana guide by Squaresoft (actually.. I believe it's published by Prima). We've all seen it a hundred times.. it's the full sized 162-page guide with a picture of the tree on the front (same as the game box, same as the poster in the game).

Now I'm trying to sell it. I listed it as a 162-page entirely monochrome guide because that's what mine is. A couple of people have asked me if the map.. or poster is included. Honestly.. there is NO mention of a map, poster.. or for that matter.. even a COLOR section on the front OR back cover. Looking at the guide on end.. NOR is there any evidence that anything was ever removed from the guide (as in a gap in pages or the spine, torn serrated remnants of a flap inside.. etc.).

Nevertheless.. I did a search of several other listings for the guide. Some like me.. mention nothing; and there IS one person who mentions something about a map/poster and the other seller mentions a "full-color" map section. There is absolutely nothing like that in my guide.. but NO missing page numbers.

If there is someone out there who bought the guide brand-new and never "disassembled" it, could you tell me if indeed there was any "bonus" material and exactly where (in between what pages) in the book it was?

I suppose there could have been two issues of this guide much like some nowdays.. but I can also theorize that the people who ARE mentioning it may have gotten it confused with the poster in the game itself.. especially since the two people that mention anything of the sort.. don't show pictures of it.

[JSN]

I have that SoM Prima guide, it has a splash on the cover that indicates “FULL COLOR MAPS INSIDE!”, which it has eight pages of dead in the book's center. It the third printing, so maybe it had some revisions.

[scorch56]

Thank you very, very much for your answer and photo.. that helps immensely. Apparently.. there were different revisions of the book. Because right where your splash proclaims "color maps", mine simply says in the same splash "specific strategies inside".

Now I can give an honest & knowledgeable answer to my questioners. Just curious? Exactly where is it mentioned what "printing" it is? I've looked on the few inner preface pages and all I can see about mine is:

copyright 1993 by the author
and an isbn # of 1-55958-465-3

There is no mention of revisions or printing runs so I guess mine is the original. Weird that they would "enhance" a guide later after it's release.. usually it's the other way around.

[JSN]

The printing is on the fourth page (iv)... it looks like a sequence of numbers counting backwards from 10:

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

The 3 being the lowest number indicates it's the third printing.

[scorch56]

Hehe.. guess I'm wrong again then. Mine says on page 4.. right under the Library of Congress #:

96 FF 10 9

.. so I'm going to assume this is the ninth printing and it was ran in 1996. Makes sense. Thanks again for your help.