Oldest RPG Cluebook?

M

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Greetings, All!

Been lurking for a while, but now I'm official--Welcome me! :)

In going through all of my games and ephemera recently, I started to wonder what the very first cluebook was that was ever created for a game. I know that there were cluebooks to arcade games sold (like PacMan) before this time, but on the computer game front, what was the first cluebook ever released for individual sale?
I'm thinking that it could be Ultima 3, but I can't be sure. I turn to the experts to help me discover the answer.
What was the first RPG cluebook?

Joe
 
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Hi JDR.

I know you're kidding, and I assume that the 'chop-busting' is a kind of welcome--thanks. :)

For those who don't know, I use the term ephemera to mean 'and-related-junk'. Stuff like cluebooks, advertisments, promotional items, original artwork, artifacts, etc.
(and the word sounds cool and distinguished-like).

I did some research after posting, and saw that there were cluebooks put out in 1981 and 1982 for Infocom games, called Invisiclues. These predate Ultima 3, which came out in 1983, but it still doesn't answer my question. Is the Ultima 3 cluebook (Secrets of Sosaria) the first RPG cluebook ever put out by a company?

Joe
 
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Wasn't the 'ephemera' the end boss in System Shock or something?;p

I remember back in the day when clue books were like 250 pages long and had solutions to more than one game.

The first clue books I remember were for the Infocom games; they had pens with invisible ink and whatnot; I can't remember how they worked. We're talking circa 1983.
 
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Welcome, I know there were clue books to Bard's Tale and Gold Box. BT was, I think the first I ever saw, but it may not be the earliest.
 
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I'm with Corwin. The first cluebook I remember getting was for BT. In Grade 5 my mapping and puzzle solving skills were not good enough for that game. The Cluebook was a must buy when I first saw it.
 
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skavenhorde said:
I'm with Corwin. The first cluebook I remember getting was for BT. In Grade 5 my mapping and puzzle solving skills were not good enough for that game. The Cluebook was a must buy when I first saw it.
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Grade 5 for BT? Woo that's so unfair I was grade 5 around 1972 and I got my first hint book around 1991. :biggrin:
 
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Hmmm Bards tale....I have fond memories of the clue books they were so well done and added to the game.


I hear the inn has wine that goes down. (any remember this?)
 
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I loved the BT cluebooks. They told a story as well as gave you the walkthrough. They were the first cluebook I remember seeing...although I think there was one for Ultima III, which came before BT.
 
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I suggest Infocom - zork 2 (and possibly 1) as they had purchasable invisiclues. I used them on the balloon puzzle for Zork 2. That would have been in late 1982 I think.
 
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Do you mean official clue books?

Before it was Zork 1,2 and 3 it was just Zork on mainframe. I'm sure we can dig up so old txt files on how to solve these. Same with Colossal Cavern Adventure. For video game history I wouldn't be surprised if there were tips at MIT written for Space War.

If you want RPG then what about those two original Intellivision D&D games? There must be clues about the original Ubliette. I doubt anyone bothered with DnD because it was all randomly generated AFAIK.
 
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My first clue book (and only one I've purchased, which was also at a discount) was The Summoning from the early 90's. I've kept that clue book in reasonably good condition over the years and I think that will be one thing I won't throw out. Despite that, I've never actually completed the game itself.
 
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The Prima books never reached Germany until short before the turn of the millennium.

Therefore, lots and lots and lots of cluebooks by Prima are kind of "lost" to the German market - but we had our own cluebooks here. Basically with the same content.

Several years ago I browsed through the Prima cluebooks on their web page. Only then I began to realize what German gamers had missed !

And Germany never got any "official" clue books from whatever publisher. Only licesed stuff, and that only beginning with in the second half of the 90s.


But - magazines have always been willing to fill the gap with special magazine issues.

And besides - lots and lots of the content that was in BG's original English-language handbnook was just cut for the German version of BG and sold as a clue book. Go figure.
 
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Not sure which came first, but all the old SSI RPG's used to have $9.99 cluebooks. I refer to titles like "Wizards Crown" and "Shard of Spring". I still have my old Questbusters collections, but passed my single game cluebooks on to my nephews back in the day.
 
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I think I have the cluebook to some of the old SSI games. I know I have the cluebook to Exile 1 and that might be the first shareware cluebook that I owned. I have one title Errondor too, I think that might be the game Exelsior or something like that. It kinda looked like Ultima V IIRC.
 
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I have two older cluebooks that are both wonderful reads; one for Bard's Tale III and the other for Might and Magic II. Both were for C64.

I remember purchasing the Bard's Tale III one in the summer of 1994, when I found it by sheer luck in a retro gaming store. Up to that point, I'd played until Malefia but hadn't quite generated enough xp to finish the game. So finding the book was very motivating to return to the game. :)
 
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