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-   -   Got my Drakensang: TRoT import today… (https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13847)

JDR13 June 2nd, 2011 00:19
Got my Drakensang: TRoT import today…
 
1 Attachment(s)
Finally got my hands on a retail copy of The River Time. It was shipped from the UK, but I assume they got it from Belgium or the Netherlands.

Very nice 87 page full color manual. Although I'm quite irked that it was slightly damaged due to the design of the case interior (see photo). I don't understand why they would put a plastic ridge on the inner spine of the case. >:(

Purchased mine from an Ebay vendor, and only paid $19.20 with shipping.

I was under the impression that it also came with a map, but my copy didn't. Anyone else here get this import? Did you get a map, or anything else besides the manual?

Alrik Fassbauer June 2nd, 2011 09:54
I think only the Collector's Edition and the Personal edition comes with a map.

And yes - packages with this "inner spine" are relatively normal here. One can find them every now and then. Maybe the firm which packages the game has once bought a huge numbers of "boxes" with this spine ? Because - as a tendency - I tend to see them rather for games which are published by dtp.

A short notice on the cover of the handbook : "Firun" is the name of one of the Zwelvegods who is symbolically connected with the North is usually associated with hunting.

Praios is the one of the Twelvegods who is symbolically connected with the South. You should already know Praios from the first Drakensang game (ever been in the temple there ? You can learn a few bits about Praios there). ;)

Gorath June 2nd, 2011 14:13
Your post made me worried and I decided to open my German retail version. It's exactly the same. :( The manual is slightly damaged.

The included poster is nothing special. A3 size paper with the German cover on one side and a skill tree on the other.

The Flexbox dvd case is inside a cardbox. I doubt foreign releases came with a poster, simply because their expected retail price was less than half the German one.

Drithius June 2nd, 2011 16:06
Am I the only one who thinks back to his novella-sized BG2 manual when I see one of these DVD boxes? This is a big part of the reason why I'm slowly being converted into a digital download guy. :(

Alrik Fassbauer June 2nd, 2011 18:33
The manual for Arcanum was by far the biggest one I've *ever* seen for an RPG.
Only strategy games manuals were bigger.
Don't remember on the BG2 manual, though.

Pessimeister July 9th, 2011 21:46
I love my trusty BG2 manual. It's a ring-binded version and very well used from years of referral. It's loaded with my notes in the back of party combinations/answers to riddles etc. The Arcanum manual was also a highly entertaining read. Needless to say, I'm a fan of the old fashioned manual.

Thanks to this thread and others here, I think I've found my source to finally pick up Drakensang TRoT. :) I had such a nice fun whimsical time with the first game, that I just have to pick this one up as well.

Alrik Fassbauer July 10th, 2011 13:36
I think a ring-binded manual is an absolute exceoption from the rule; I've never seen a thing like that.

hishadow July 10th, 2011 13:59
/me greet sales representatives from dtp entertainment AG welcome to the party.
/me asks sales representatives to put on blindfolds so not to spoil the surprise.
/me signals for firing squad to enter.

Moriendor July 10th, 2011 15:55
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer (Post 1061080003)
I think a ring-binded manual is an absolute exceoption from the rule; I've never seen a thing like that.
Back then it was not that much of an exception. I remember quite a few games with ring-binded manuals from the 1990s. Mostly sims though like EA's excellent Jane's series of combat flight sims (F-15 etc.) or Total Air War (TAW). Those were some seriously big manuals, too. Just checked my boxed copy of TAW. The ring-binded manual has 334 pages.

Alrik Fassbauer July 10th, 2011 20:01
Well, I don't remember a single one - except BG2, of course.

Even those games from the 90s I know of (mainly adventure games, though, but also SIM City 2000, for example) had normal binding.

I must admit that I didn't play much simulating games, then.

Fnord July 14th, 2011 17:09
Certain Paradox releases also had ringbound manuals. Hearts of Iron is one of those (and it actually looked really nice. One of the better manuals that I've seen overall).

Quote:
Am I the only one who thinks back to his novella-sized BG2 manual when I see one of these DVD boxes? This is a big part of the reason why I'm slowly being converted into a digital download guy.
You could almost fit my BG2 manual into a DVD case. Had they changed its format slightly, it would probably have been possible (or they could have done it like they did with Age of Wonders 2 and Europa Universalis 3 and put everything in a sleeve that could hold both the game & the manual)

Also, have you seen the thing that comes with the X-superbox? While not a manual (it is an encyclopedia of the universe) it is still rather massive. Almost 300 pages of information about the game world. The arcanum manual is just shy of 200 pages, and contains a lot less information.

Jane's AH-64D longbow's manual is 236 of pure information. I would dread trying out Total air war, considering how hard Longbow was to get into. Because the manual lacks conventional numbering of the pages, I just added the ones noted in the index together, any pages containing only images are not counted (and there are a few of those)

I've also never come across a Maxis game with a ringbound manual. Most of them were surprisingly thick though. SimAnt clocks in at 176 pages, and that was one of their lighter games (of course, about 100 of those pages were information about ants, that had little to do with the game itself)

*edit* The Nordic release of Dark Omen did by the way have a 272 page manual of gibberish (poorly translated into 4 different languages)

GhanBuriGhan July 14th, 2011 17:36
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fnord (Post 1061080856)
Certain Paradox releases also had ringbound manuals. Hearts of Iron is one of those (and it actually looked really nice. One of the better manuals that I've seen overall).


You could almost fit my BG2 manual into a DVD case. Had they changed its format slightly, it would probably have been possible (or they could have done it like they did with Age of Wonders 2 and Europa Universalis 3 and put everything in a sleeve that could hold both the game & the manual)

Also, have you seen the thing that comes with the X-superbox? While not a manual (it is an encyclopedia of the universe) it is still rather massive. Almost 300 pages of information about the game world. The arcanum manual is just shy of 200 pages, and contains a lot less information.

Jane's AH-64D longbow's manual is 236 of pure information. I would dread trying out Total air war, considering how hard Longbow was to get into. Because the manual lacks conventional numbering of the pages, I just added the ones noted in the index together, any pages containing only images are not counted (and there are a few of those)

I've also never come across a Maxis game with a ringbound manual. Most of them were surprisingly thick though. SimAnt clocks in at 176 pages, and that was one of their lighter games (of course, about 100 of those pages were information about ants, that had little to do with the game itself)

*edit* The Nordic release of Dark Omen did by the way have a 272 page manual of gibberish (poorly translated into 4 different languages)
Pretty sure my Sim World manual was ringbound. But… why are you guys having this discussion???

Alrik Fassbauer July 14th, 2011 20:15
My SIM City 2000 manual wasn't ring bound. Neither was my Railroad Tycoon II manual.

Could it be that this is a country-specific thing ?

JDR13 July 15th, 2011 00:16
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fnord (Post 1061080856)
You could almost fit my BG2 manual into a DVD case. Had they changed its format slightly, it would probably have been possible (or they could have done it like they did with Age of Wonders 2 and Europa Universalis 3 and put everything in a sleeve that could hold both the game & the manual)
You must have received a different manual than I did. I don't think the book that came with my BG2 Collector's Edition would even fit in two DVD cases, much less one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fnord (Post 1061080856)
Also, have you seen the thing that comes with the X-superbox? While not a manual (it is an encyclopedia of the universe) it is still rather massive. Almost 300 pages of information about the game world.
I was so pissed that the X-superbox wasn't released over here. I kept hoping that a copy would show up on Ebay or something, but it never did.

Alrik Fassbauer July 15th, 2011 12:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by JDR13 (Post 1061080931)
I was so pissed that the X-superbox wasn't released over here. I kept hoping that a copy would show up on Ebay or something, but it never did.
I guess you are a victim of some video game industry beliefs that some games just wouldn't sell in the U.S. … "not contemporary", maybe ?

Fnord July 15th, 2011 14:42
Quote:
You must have received a different manual than I did. I don't think the book that came with my BG2 Collector's Edition would even fit in two DVD cases, much less one.
If I remove the DVD from a single-DVD DVD case, I can fit the manual into it into it. Had they been able to remove ~20 or so pages from it (which would have been possible if they changed the format, and removed the adds (and possibly credits)) then it would not have been a problem at all to fit it into a DVD case.

Have you tried to order X-superbox from Amazon.co.uk? It is usually not a problem for me to order from amazon.com, so the reverse might be true (I don't live in the uk though, so I don't know if amazon.com will ship to the uk). Shipping is not prohibitively expensive, at least not from the states to europe (~$8, which often means that if I order 2-3 books (or 1 pen & paper RPG rulebook/supplement ), it will be cheaper to order them from the states than to buy them over here)

JDR13 July 15th, 2011 19:33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fnord (Post 1061081035)
If I remove the DVD from a single-DVD DVD case, I can fit the manual into it into it. Had they been able to remove ~20 or so pages from it (which would have been possible if they changed the format, and removed the adds (and possibly credits)) then it would not have been a problem at all to fit it into a DVD case. )
I'm pretty sure we're not talking about the same manual. :)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fnord (Post 1061081035)
Have you tried to order X-superbox from Amazon.co.uk? It is usually not a problem for me to order from amazon.com, so the reverse might be true (I don't live in the uk though, so I don't know if amazon.com will ship to the uk). Shipping is not prohibitively expensive, at least not from the states to europe (~$8, which often means that if I order 2-3 books (or 1 pen & paper RPG rulebook/supplement ), it will be cheaper to order them from the states than to buy them over here)
I just checked, and there's only 2 Amazon stores that sell it, and both are used copies. I'm guessing the Superbox was somewhat of a limited production regarding quantity.

It's easy enough to buy the DD version, and you get the X encyclopedia on PDF, but it would have been nice to have a physical copy.

DeepO July 16th, 2011 04:40
It´s a friggin´ great game, just play it already!

Dark Savant July 16th, 2011 13:18
Quote:
I was so pissed that the X-superbox wasn't released over here. I kept hoping that a copy would show up on Ebay or something, but it never did.
I sold two sealed first editions on Ebay.
Guess you did not see this last December
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showp…&postcount=156

JDR13 July 16th, 2011 18:31
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark Savant (Post 1061081264)
I sold two sealed first editions on Ebay.
Guess you did not see this last December
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showp…&postcount=156
Indeed I missed that. I hope you got a good price for them. :)

Fnord July 16th, 2011 19:58
Yes it seem to have been a rather limited release, but there are a few floating around out there. http://english.megastore.se/template…56&source=1900
This store claims to ship internationally, and has at least one left in stock. As it is a Swedish store, it is rather expensive though.

JDR13 July 16th, 2011 20:40
The problem is that there's no way of knowing if those copies contain the printed X-encyclopedia (which is the primary reason I wanted the X-superbox). It's been said that later productions of the superbox only contain the encyclopedia on PDF.

Dark Savant July 16th, 2011 21:42
Actually the price is quite fair it it is first edition with printed encyclopedia. You can always contact them via e-mail if it is printed or on disc. If they don`t bother with answer then stay away anyway.
I sold both mine for 60 bucks each plus shipping via buy now option. Guess I would get a better price with auction format but in the end I bought three copies for 10 EUR each at local games shop bargain bin.:D

On topic - best price for TRoT at the moment is here
10,69 pounds plus 0.99 delivery

http://www.startupmedia.co.uk/p-4951…e-game-pc.aspx

Fnord July 16th, 2011 21:56
The item description claims that it contains the encyclopedia. But as Dark Savant said, it is probably best to mail them.

I got my first edition superbox for 30€. But that was just a short while after its release, and from the UK. I suspect that Megastore is unaware of the growing collectors value of this item, it is after all a big chain, and those are usually horrible at finding the right price point for games that are not brand new.

Dark Savant July 16th, 2011 22:17
off topic - they have great price on boxed Dragon Knight Saga (12,49 EUR). Unfortunately shipping is expensive flat rate 10 EUR and they don`t accept paypal.


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