Is there any kind of "Manual Project" site?

[PersianImm0rtal]

All of the scans for SNES manuals I have found look wrinkled and ripped up. If not someone should make one lol. Something similar to the "Cover Project" website. Is there any kind of website that has all of the Super Nintendo game manuals uploaded and photoshopped to look new again?

If not, we should try to get the project started if there is enough demand. Would could call it the "Manual Project".  I would love to see a project like this start up. I don't have the time, resources, or skills to help but I would gladly donate to support it. Have users upload their work, and then admins approve them for download. Have it set up so that you can just print them, do one horizontal fold and staple three times to have a makeshift manual that actually looks decent!

It would be pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, I am pretty shit at Photoshop, but if someone could make tutorial on how to revive them in photoshop, I would gladly get to work on it.

[palmer6strings]

Arseen and I think a few other do manual scanning. May just wait for him to respond, he may have a bunch stashed away or something.

[TDIRunner]

In most cases, to get good, proper scans of manuals, you really need to take them apart (remove staple and separate the pages).  This is what keeps me from scanning my manuals.  I know there is a site that has just about all Sega CD and Saturn manuals.  I'll have to find the link later.  The owner is a member here (although not active). 

[gam3rz3r0]

I've scanned quite a few manuals, they're not cleaned up, and I did not remove my staples but I think they came out pretty nice. They and are in jpeg format. https://app.box.com/s/a6lq8b6e4d59uifk7s8clt9q4drenilj

[sheep2001]

In most cases, to get good, proper scans of manuals, you really need to take them apart (remove staple and separate the pages).  This is what keeps me from scanning my manuals.  I know there is a site that has just about all Sega CD and Saturn manuals.  I'll have to find the link later.  The owner is a member here (although not active). 

http://www.ratigators.com

Nothing to do with me though.

[PersianImm0rtal]

Wow, those last two links had some really decent scans. If only people went through and photoshopped them to look perfect like they do for all the covers.

[Kirkland]

I've got a little ditty in the works ("Kirkland's Manual Labor"), but it is *painfully slow* manually editing everything.  Just a quick glance at my SNES works-in-progress section has 18,561 pages at 600dpi consuming *183GBs*.  That's for the original wave of ~640 manuals.  I have about 60 some odd more to scan in some day (hahaha).  I plan on eventually having a 2K and 4K release- where images are scaled to either 1080 high for front-end usage, or 2160 high for archiving.  Real collectors get all twitchy when you mention dpi- they fear everyone is out to make counterfeits and devalue their t0yz.

For US SNES manuals I have all but:

-=missing / x=have crappy scan / E=EUR version / A=AUS version

- 3 Ninjas Kick Back (USA)
x Aero Fighters (USA)
x Ardy Lightfoot (USA)
x Brainies, The (USA)
- Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus (USA) (En,Es)
x Casper (USA)
x- EarthBound (USA)
E Final Fight 3 (USA)
A Flintstones, The - The Treasure of Sierra Madrock (USA)
x Incantation (USA)
x International Superstar Soccer (USA)
xE- International Superstar Soccer Deluxe (USA)
x King of Dragons, The (USA)
x Kirby's Dream Land 3 (USA)
E Legend (USA)
x Mask, The (USA)
x Megaman X2 (USA)
- Miracle Piano Teaching System, The (USA)
- Nosferatu (USA)
x Oscar (USA)
- Peace Keepers, The (USA)
- Pirates of Dark Water, The (USA)
- Pocky & Rocky 2 (USA)
- Realm (USA)
* Romance of the Three Kingdoms III - Dragon of Destiny (USA)
- Run Saber (USA)
- SWAT Kats - The Radical Squadron (USA)
x Super Turrican 2 (USA)
- Syndicate (USA)
E World Soccer 94 - Road to Glory (USA)
- Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel (USA)

12 missing entirely
15 need better scans
 4 are European placeholders

I also oddly have a bunch of UK/PAL manuals, so I'd like to eventually (hahaha) get all the "unique" titles.  As with everything, I'm probably duplicating efforts of multitudes of other people who have burnt out on this type of project along the way.  Luckily I had a stash of stuff from when I was hardcore into collecting back in the day.  Unfortunately kids and work have completely torpedoed my pace.

As for the ratigators site, those scans really pop if you run them through a gaussian blur (.4 pixels if I remember his scanner settings) and some quick and dirty levels adjustments (black to 20?, white to like 248? and midtone to 85?- it's been awhile so I'm just guessing) in Photoshop.  Chopping the Dreamcast section into individual pages turns it into 7300 files at approximately 24GB.  TSOLFan unfortunately missed a few pages here and there.  I need to bug him with a fixes list and see if he is still alive and kicking....

[Arseen]

We actually have few manuals added, see Super Mario 64:
http://www.thecoverproject.net/view.php?cover_id=14074
But they are in PDF format, and really cleaned and not in print ready format.

There are few print ready manuals (or atleast  cleaned and easily re-arrangeable to print format) floating around the boards, but they are for repros.
And I really like manuals tthat don't exist in official format.

Mr Gimmick for NES in English and in color is one.
For that I have the original scans of real Scandic (FIN/SWE/DAN) manual it's based on, and probably somewhere the ready repro manual.

I know there is also Final Fantasy 3 for NES, but for it only watermarked version has been released.

The one I really like is the European SNES Super Bomberman 3 manual that is available both in English and textless.
By textless I mean the manual is cleaned but has no text so any language text can be inserted.

I for one really would like to have print ready manuals on our site, but it boils down to really high quality material, which for start is no problem as I have plenty of manuals to scan.
The bigger thing is that the skilled cleaners here are buzy, and this site prioritases on covers.

I do take apart manuals before scanning, here is example of bit more rarer manual I have scanned taken apart:




And I scan at 600DPI as I don't give a fuck if manual is reprodused, I EVEN LIKE THAT, as I like the preservation of these.
Don't actually even care if said manual is sold as long as it'is clearly sold as reproduction.
I can bother to sell but will definitely print for personal use if I don't own one nor can get genuine at reasonable price.

[Arseen]

And as I said I like repro manuals for games that don't have one.
So as a test of interest I'd like to have the Stadium Events manual cover in red with the Series 2 banner in blu, and in green with the banner in yellow.
Also the page provided cleaned but empty.
Just to create Spanish or Italian manual for kicks.

Here is picture of the German blue cover (which I don't own) to show another color varian:

[Arseen]

Oh and I can create structured board section for the manuals, but only Snowcone can make a section on the site.

But I think board section is good enough.

[Arseen]

he may have a bunch stashed away or something.

Not scanned yet (some are) but in boxes ready to scan you bet I have.
Couple hundred SNES ones, plenty of NES, some Game Boy, DS, Genesis/Mega Drive, N64.
Of course never ones too but I prefer the good oldies getting preserved first.

[Kirkland]

My crazy one last weekend was playing Little Samson for 20 some odd hours so I could get pixel-accurate screen shots to do a manual rebuild.  Turned out pretty good.  Cover uses the box art so it's obvious it's a repro, but otherwise the rest of the manual looks pretty spiffy.

[Arseen]

My crazy one last weekend was playing Little Samson for 20 some odd hours so I could get pixel-accurate screen shots to do a manual rebuild.  Turned out pretty good.  Cover uses the box art so it's obvious it's a repro, but otherwise the rest of the manual looks pretty spiffy.

Please do share.

[Arseen]

As for good scanning, only problem are those thick European manuals that have glued spine as those can't be taken apart safely and then reassembled, but luckily there are not too many of those.

[segamer]

My crazy one last weekend was playing Little Samson for 20 some odd hours so I could get pixel-accurate screen shots to do a manual rebuild.  Turned out pretty good.  Cover uses the box art so it's obvious it's a repro, but otherwise the rest of the manual looks pretty spiffy.

It just easier to get to the correct place in a screenshot and shift the sprites around (via Photoshopping) so the screenshot is accurate. For myself, I don't even play the game. I just go to a "Let's Play" captured in HD, fast forward to the correct stage and point in the game, take screenshots of the sprites I need in the correct animation and merge everything.