magerette
Hedgewitch
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- October 18, 2006
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In an article called Warning: No Instructions Included, Nick Breckon of Shack News takes a look at a condition familiar to us all these days: the lack of a substantial and informative game manual, and cites a few games from the past that had exemplary ones:
More information.In addition to actually providing instruction, manuals used to be an important part of a game's presentation--and presentation is everything. Before you play the game, the manual is there, serving as your introduction to the world. It sets the mood and the expectation for the experience to come. It provides the very best in bathroom reading material.
The following is a look at a few stand-out manuals from games of yester-year, selections that reflect the one-time importance of this waning format, and illustrate the current drought of quality booklets.
Fallout 1997
Mixing humor with a dark, post-apocalyptic setting, Interplay's masterpiece RPG Fallout stands the test of time--and its manual is no different. Titled "Vault Dweller's Survival Guide," the book begins with extraneous statistics of the underground vault your character has inhabited since the nuclear holocaust, listing everything from budgetary sums to typical power requirements. This is followed by a detailed, multi-page synopsis of the effects of a nuclear blast. These cold facts effectively introduce the heavy, lead-laden atmosphere that pervades Fallout....
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