Is there any kind of "Manual Project" site?

[Kirkland]

I did that when I made my colorized SNES Super Bomberman manual- played the game to get close to what it needed to be and then photoshopped around to make it correct.  Ditto for Frogger (the only two Black and White SNES manuals)

[Kirkland]

And because Arseen likes to cry.........
http://www.atensionspan.com/NES.JPG
Right at 200.
http://www.atensionspan.com/N64.JPG
100 ish?
http://www.atensionspan.com/Genesis.JPG
A bunch.
http://www.atensionspan.com/Misc.JPG
(That's Atari 2600 in upper right, Game Gear / Virtual Boy and Gameboy Advance in the left/middle.  Bottom is Gameboy.)
I mentioned before the ~700 US SNES (in binders- have a few feet of them on the shelf)

Then I have a couple hundred XBOX and maybe 150ish GameCube ones down in the dungeon.
Maybe a hundred Playstation.  Handful of Saturn and Game Gear.

Oh, and about 1820 unique Playstation 2.

And because Arseen *really* likes to cry.........
http://www.atensionspan.com/PAL-SNES.JPG

[larryinc64]

I have a Zip file somewhere of a ton of US manuals scanned.

[Arseen]

And because Arseen *really* likes to cry.........
http://www.atensionspan.com/PAL-SNES.JPG

Oh that I can beat easily.
My unsorted SNES manuals pile stacked alone is over meter high.
Add to that the sorted one and it's least 0.5 meters more.

Quite a few duplicates in the unsorted pile though, but couple hundred different ones.

[Arseen]

Color adjusting the front is actually way easier than I thought.
Grabbed random cover image from the Google and did tone adjustments.

Red


Green


These were done in mere seconds, so with good scan, little efford alternate color covers for the manuals will be easy.

[Kirkland]

Photoshop is the beast that can make some amazing fixes in seconds, but then you have some minor tweaks and you can fight and fight and fight it for hours.  Then I run down the rabbit hole of "fixing" things at 600dpi.  Which takes an eternity.

Arseen- I knew you'd at least appreciate the handful of PAL stuff this guy in the middle of the US could get my hands on.  Populous 2 was a beast to acquire (I was hunting rare English PAL-only manuals) and did you take a closer look at that street fighter cover.......

[sheep2001]

You know about this site?
http://www.replacementdocs.com/news.php

[Arseen]

and did you take a closer look at that street fighter cover.......

Didn't notice, but now that you mentioned: WTF is that?
And is there repro cart for that?

[gam3rz3r0]

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.

I never thought of that. That's pretty friggin genius.

[PersianImm0rtal]

Thanks for all the information guys! I would really love to see a Youtube Tutorial come out that teaches you how to restore manuals with photoshop, and then make them print ready. I would gladly spend  a little bit each day slowly restoring manuals.

[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.

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.

I never thought of that. That's pretty friggin genius.

http://vgmaps.com
http://www.spriters-resource.com/
http://spritedatabase.net/

Oh why yes, I did just kill a bunch of your upcoming free time.  You're welcome.

[Kirkland]

and did you take a closer look at that street fighter cover.......

Didn't notice, but now that you mentioned: WTF is that?
And is there repro cart for that?

That was in a stack I got from Australia almost 20 years ago.  Was a somewhat legit South American bootleg at the time.  Manual looks professional and everything.

Here is what I found online (under Additional Versions):
http://bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/Street_Fighter_II:_Champion_Edition

[Kirkland]

Aimed mostly at Arseen, but anyone can contribute...
(Preferably UKV/English versions although multi language is awesome as well)

Missing the following unique-to-*PAL* SNES Manual scans:

90 Minutes: European Prime Goal
Archer Maclean's Super Dropzone
Astérix & Obélix
Cannon Fodder
Daze Before Christmas
Dirt Racer
Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension
Dragon Ball Z: La Legende SAIEN
Dragon Ball Z: Ultime Menace
F1 Pole Position 2
Firemen, The
Hebereke's Popoon
Humans, The
Hungry Dinosaurs
Jelly Boy
Lucky Luke
Manchester United Championship Soccer
Marko's Magic Football
Mega-Lo-Mania
Micro Machines 2: Turbo Tournament
Might and Magic II
Pop'n TwinBee
Sailormoon
Smash Tennis
Smurfs, The
Spirou
Super Dany
Super Ice Hockey
Syvalion
Tintin in Prisoners of the Sun
Tintin in Tibet
Turbo Toons
Waterworld
Whirlo
Winter Gold
Worms

I think I have the French versions of some of the Dragon Ball Z manuals (I think I snagged from Arseen awhile back-they aren't popping up with the rest so I'll have to dig around)

[Arseen]

On top of my head

These only have French and Spanish (and Japanese) manuals in exsistence.
No english official manual ever made.
Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension
Dragon Ball Z: La Legende SAIEN
Dragon Ball Z: Ultime Menace

All skanned in my Mediafire, linked somewhere, re-linking later.

Winter Gold I scanned in multiple languages, but seems scans lost, I think rhere was English & German, and Italian leaflet in B&W.

and someother manuals.

Read PM I sent you.

[CZroe]

While a similar project involving full manuals seems a bit far-fetched to me, one with quick-reference cards and a custom instruction card seems doable. I don't know how other feel about plagiarizing  the instructions printed on old rental cases, but I've preserved a bunch to use as a substitute for instructions on many NES, SNES, and N64 games. Writing similar blurbs for other games and slapping them on a card with some screen shots doesn't seem too difficult.