It's literally and unironically over

Hypothetically speaking, what would stop me from buying one, cutting the pages, putting them in a scanner, printing out my own, and selling them for a tenth the price on ebay while pretending that they're originals?

https://vimm.net/manual
You will pay nothing
You will have everything
You will be happy

>>11812013 (OP)
I bet you could pay a Slav on fiverr to recreate them as latex files, then print a few thousand and sell them on Ebay to retards.

>>11812020
Literally all of these are online already you don't need to waste your money.

>>11812020
Pretty sure people sell repro manuals on etsy for most popular games already.

>>11812020
Paper and ink will be the most, but if you got the right stuff, it'll be profitable... Eventually. It's not like these things are selling like new iPhones, just collectors who want to complete their game. Lots of collectors only buy cib, but as supply dwindles, there definitely will be a bigger market for this stuff.

>>11812013 (OP)
>Read it on the way home!
Man i remember reading the ocarina of time manual on the train home. I've never felt more hyped for a game, and wow did it live up to the hype.

>>11812039
OoTnigger trying not to bring up his decades long obsession in random threads challenge: impossible

collecting physicals is a meme.
just pirate and emulate, who gives a fuck

>>11812039
I bought oot and my 64 at a pawnshop, so I never got the manual. Still haven't read it to this day, but still enjoyed the game. Maybe I'll go read it now.

>>11812046
Would you rather it have been a saturn vn?

>>11812051
I actually got a used copy from FuncoLand and they kindly included the manual.

https://www.videogamemanual.com/
Total paypig death

Manuals.
SOUL.

>>11812064
This but only the PC manuals with +100 pages

>>11812020
Those japanese manuals were stapled over 3,000 times.

>>11812064
Why aren't these on the toilet seat tank lid

>>11812020
The law, maybe? That sounds illegal.

>>11812149
there are dozens of people already doing it
amazon and ebay is full of repro boxes and manuals to go with repro games
its only illegal when you lie about it being legit
and even then nobody cares
because amazons business model is literally "what are you gonna do about it faggot"
i mean they sell fake circuit breakers and fake smoke alarms
they arent worried about photocopied mario books

>>11812149
Go spend a few minutes on etsy

>>11812163
>its only illegal when you lie about it being legit
I love sharing a board with 30 something year old ESLs who have about as much knowledge of copyright law as a 10 year old in 2009 who makes Club Penguin music videos.

>>11812191
>he don't deleted the ROM image file after having of 24 whores if he doesn't of owning the game
Tsk tsk

>>11812206
It was funny how nearly every romsite had that warning to the point that everyone thought it was true even though it was completely made up, I recall even emulation news sites who believed the 24 hour thing was true. Sounds like something someone once made up on a forum or newsgroup discussion and it just spread everywhere from people thinking it was true. Haven't seen that nonsense mentioned on any site in ages.

I think I recall one idiot saying that he would delete and re-download his roms every 24 hours because of it.

>>11812013 (OP)
they're less available than the loose cartridges, so it makes sense to sell them separately instead of a portion of cartridges with them. it's not much more than what pricecharting lists them for

>>11812013 (OP)
Why does this stuff ONLY occur in america?

>>11812013 (OP)
This HAS to be a tendies thing.
I refuse to believe anyone but a fucking tendie would pay 40+ bucks for an instruction manual

>>11812238

>>11812238
>>11812251
These are sold listings, btw

The "it's morally justified to pirate Nintendo games", but morally justified to steal retro games in general

>>11812220
When your culture treats capitalism as a religion that can't be touched or modified, you whore everything and everyone out.

>>11812238
Pricecharting lists the manual at $31.34

These were quickly separated from the cartridges for a number of reasons. The cardboard boxes are priced even higher because most folks didn't care to keep a collection. They were seen as packaging for the cartridge which itself is packaging for the ROM. People buying games at the time only wanted to play the game, not fetishize them.

>>11812023

>>11812023
it's missing most of them, even some i still have

>>11812273
Yeah it's often hard to find obscure games' manuals. In those cases though, I suppose actually buying one would be relatively easy since the low demand would lead to a low-ish price. Probably.

>>11812339
i could just search and immediately find it anywhere else. That's the smallest collection of scans i've ever seen.

>>11812349
There are tons of games manuals I have spent a long time looking for and concluded there's a 99% chance they just haven't been scanned. That's pretty much only for Japanese games, though. If it was released in North America its usually on the internet.

>>11812376
99% of JP-only releases are shovelware

>>11812380
#1, this is not true. #2, Japanese manuals tend to be much better than their English counterparts. They're often significantly longer, containing much more background information and artwork. I had no idea until I started studying the language and collecting JP games myself. A lot of the time they even come with supplements that were never released elsewhere. SotN, for example, comes with a little art book containing illustrations and an exclusive little manga. King's Field III comes with an extra booklet which recounts the stories of the first 2 games in their entirety. Then there's things like the JP SotC manual which are little works of art unto themselves. They're a fair bit more interesting, and not well preserved digitally at all.

>>11812409
you didn't name a single JP-only release?

>>11812413
My point was to illustrate that, even in cases of games that received a localization, the JP manuals are not only worthwhile, but usually superior. To do that, I have to refer to games that are not exclusives for obvious reasons. I'm not going to litigate the quality of JP exclusives in a thread devoted to discussing manuals. I will say that OreShika has some juicy paperwork, though :^)

>>11812430
it's looking like 100% of JP-only releases are shovelware

>>11812020
>Hypothetically speaking, what would stop me from buying one, cutting the pages, putting them in a scanner, printing out my own, and selling them for a tenth the price on ebay while pretending that they're originals?
Absolutely nothing. If you want to go all the way then they also sell counterfeit game carts on ebay too. All you need is to print off the boxes and manuals and get a shrink wrapper and you could sell complete new in box fake copies.

>>11812013 (OP)
>READ IT ON THE WAY HOME!
While driving a car?

>>11812464
Your mom doesn't still drive you around?

>>11812220
>Why does this stuff ONLY occur in america?
Because Americans, through Americas reserve currency status, are the only people on earth with enough disposable income to not care about buying into scams. Therefore everyone tries to scam Americans while Americans try to scam each other. There are entire industries that can only exist in America due to the countries unique reserve currency monetary privilege, like 30 years mortgages. Apparently people in most other countries are lucky to get a five year mortgage, but when you can just print money out of thin air then all of a sudden 30 years doesn't really have that much risk to institutions so why not.

Didn't keep any of my GBA boxes but I still have most of the manuals.

instead of photocopying bunch of papers won't it be cheaper to print it all on a big paper then folding it neatly like those pocket maps? no staples required either

>>11812409
Yeah, Japanese manuals kick ass. I bought a copy of Shin Onigashima recently, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that its manual is a double sided scroll printed on a sort of fiber material rather than the usual glossy booklet. The art is very slick as well. Everything is styled like a traditional Japanese painting; it sets the tone for the adventure quite nicely. American manuals just didn't do stuff like this.

>>11812238
have you seen the manuals market for classic cars?
>>11812220
Because you are indoctrinated to consoom more than any other people on earth. It's become your blood to make "deals", while actually you are being taken advantage of those who own, who are richer than you and more clever than you.

>>11812191
>muh copyright law
Nigga no normal human gives a fuck about copyright that shit gay.
It's so complicated that no one can give you a straight answer to the legality of it so they default to no, but again due to how retarded it is there's a small chance you could win any case that might arise from copying the manual from a 20 year old video game made by a dead studio.

>>11812682
>It's so complicated that no one can give you a straight answer to the legality of it so they default to no
You can't get a straight answer because copyright law is comprised of a set of standards which are to be applied to specific scenarios, rather than hard rules written in stone. The wording, while very simple, is intentionally left open, because the real world doesn't neatly conform to man made categories. We can draw a parallel to obscenity law: extremely simple, but intentionally open because what is or isn't 'obscene' is not something you can draw a neat little box around. A jury is meant to take the standards outlined in the Miller Test - a test any native English speaker can understand with ease - and see if they think the material in the case they're deliberating on applies. Nothing in US law is 'obscene' unto itself. It has to be found as such by a jury. Most copyright cases function in the exact same way. The legal standard for what constitutes a 'parody' or a 'market substitute' is very easy to understand, but the wording is intentionally left open to give jurors wiggle room. Like with obscenity cases, one can only speculate on how a jury is likely to apply these standards. In this case, any sane jury would find a 1:1 replica of a copyrighted item to be infringing on the rights of the rights holder.

>>11812013 (OP)
Value is in the eye of the beholder. I would personally be willing to pay $10 for a manual, maybe even $20 if it was a game I loved and I just wanted to have a complete set for. $40 is fucking crazy to me, though.

>>11812023
https://archive.org/details/kirklands_manual_labor_-_super_nintendo_-_usa_-_2k_version/3%20Ninjas%20Kick%20Back%20%28USA%29/
https://www.theoldcomputer.com/libraries/manuals/
https://www.gamesdatabase.org/all_manuals

>>11812068
based

>>11812262
Still bloated.

Kinda sad that when the truth is said about this shit here that someone doesn't like it

>>11812013 (OP)
$40 for an authentic first print manual is not a bad deal.

>>11812376
The only JP manual I never found a scan for was the PC98 version of Dragon Slayer Eiyuu Densetsu 2 but it was released on EGG and their release has a manual scan and luckily someone looked through it on youtube. Love me some EGG.

>>11812020
nothing. it get most of my manuals on the internet archive

>>11812020
>cutting the pages
Just pry up the staples, retard.

>>11812020
Theres already 2 websites with manuals uploaded for printing.
People buying these are morons but then again look at who there aimed at

>>11812013 (OP)
collectors market is filled with easy marks lmao

>>11812682
>>11813272
The answer is simple: No it is not legal

Nintendo managed to successfully sue Blockbuster over this. They failed to manage to make game rentals illegal, but were petty enough to still want revenge and noticed that their rental games would have photocopies manuals because people would steal/lose the originals. So they sued that this was copyright infringement and won, this is why they started just including a small little piece of paper with a handful of sentences they wrote up about how to play the game.

>>11813689
EGG?

>>11813351
If it's the unopend manual for Ultimate 11 or Kizuna Encounter on AES, Id happily pay 10 times that to get it.

>>11814424
this is a worthwhile JP-only game that creep could have named if they weren't just bullshitting

>>11814581
>that creep could have named if they weren't just bullshitting
Huh?

Also, I was serious, what is this EGG place that anon was talking about?

Falcon 4.0 had documentation that took more time than playing the game.

>>11814421
Ok and? People break the law constantly.
I get what you're saying but like no one cares. If Nintendo wants to sue me over 40 year old ROM's I'd take that.

>>11814589
>Also, I was serious, what is this EGG place that anon was talking about?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D4_Enterprise#Project_EGG

its like GoG for older Japanese computer games

>>11812046
>piss baby on a retro gaming board is devastated by the mention of THE retro game
I got a solid chuckle

>>11814813
Just answering if it's legal or not. Depending on where you are selling these manuals you could get your store taken down/banned if people report it.

>If Nintendo wants to sue me over 40 year old ROM's I'd take that.
Ok Gary Bowser

>>11814819
So it's an emulator that others can use to re-release old PC games? All I can find is them selling a few ports to Switch on their site, and not much else other than sites claiming that they support dozens of old Japanese PCs with no links to their storefront.

>>11815231
https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/game/

They have a service where they charge a monthly fee and if you are subscribed you can purchase the games they offer from a separate launcher. Im not familiar with the emulation technology they use but theyre not selling an emulator that you put roms in afaik.

>>11812191
While I respect putting ESLers in their place, you chose the dumbest fucking example possible
There is nobody outside of record company lawyers that truly understands music copyright, that shit is intentionally convoluted due to a full century of multiple trade groups conducting legal warfare to get their piece

>>11814618
>Falcon 4.0 had documentation that took more time than playing the game.

Incredibly cool. Must have been so exciting back then. A serious fucking project!

>>11812013 (OP)
>Read it on the way home!
This only worked because you were a kid in the back seat, not the driver.

>>11812023
>>11812273
I just google "internet archive" for everything

>>11812482
Which Rayman is your favorite?

>>11815650
cars have self-driving now

>>11812061
I wonder what those paper price guides for Funcoland would be worth these days. I loved that store and spent hours looking the papers over, and circling, and underlining things on them, so I wish I kept them just to be able to look at them again.
(Actually, the Funcoland I went to the most the whole area was awesome, and nowadays basically everything is gone, and the whole area has gotten all crime ridden and shitty. The before and after is just really depressing)

>>11815652
doesn't work for obscure shit

>>11814897
UHHHH NOOOO THATS MARIO

For me it's the N64 cardboard concept graphs

>>11815723
What are we talking about? Multiple other sites were posted too.

>>11812013 (OP)
Most manuals have been expensive for years, moron.

>>11815810
bro, manuals have not been $40 for 'years.' If you're paying $40 for a manual YOU'RE the retarded one.

>>11815821
I wasn't paying that kind of money. I was just noticing some of my manuals were selling for that much. Don't be as retarded as you assume everyone else is.
I've seen the manual for MegaMan 5 on sale at a store for $110 for years. They've recently lowered it to $70 because nobody is going to pay over a hundred dollars for a manual in that town. Big Chain stores think every town is NYC and LA with their prices.
The point is there have certainly been manuals worth big money for YEARS.

>>11812163
>they arent worried about photocopied mario books
Anymore

>>11815838
>They are selling for that much
>includes anecdote about how a store is not able to sell a Megaman 5 manual for either $110 or $70
>"The point is there have certainly been manuals worth big money for YEARS."
"Worth" and "selling for" are both different things.
You can price anything you want at some ridiculous price but it's actual worth is likely to not align with that price.
Also >>11815810 said "most manuals."

I often feel a disconnect with the prices people say they pay on here because I'm in the country and even specialty stores usually have prices way lower.
>Big Chain stores
Who are they anon?

>>11815868
The chain is called The Exchange.
And yes, I'm fully aware that price wanted does not equal what an item is worth.
I'm sure you will agree that a color made in Japan manual for a North American Super Castlevania IV has been worth at least $20 for the last decade.

>>11812023
This. I've made a few backups of my ROM sets in case Nintendo kills emulation at some point, and I made sure to include manual sets aswell, it's SOVL playing something with the manual right next to you, even if only digitally, just having it open is very cozy, also they can often help in cryptic parts better than a lot of videos or even GameFAQs guides, though those are SOVL aswell.

>>11812013 (OP)
This is probably bad advice if you’re in your 30s or 40s and driving yourself home

>>11812028
i'm thankful for this, but when is someone gonna scan the manual to Fun & Games on the genesis

>>11812013 (OP)
wtf this is why game collecting is shit now

>>11816278
Ruined by millennial manchildren

>>11812013 (OP)
> read it on the way home
> $40
> no refunds
embarrassing

>>11816278
it's really shit. there was a news story in my town recently about how the retro gaming bubble "popped", bunch of faggots in this store selling carts you could have bought 10-15 years ago for $2-$5 being sold in 2025 for $100+
> we just can't make any money! cost of living! second hand game market was over hyped but it will recover!
> *camera pans over to a pokemon firered cart with a $250 price sticker on it, no box or manual*
basically shekel miners and greedy fucks have fucked it for everyone, especially themselves. instead of trying to sell their trash at a reasonable price, they refuse to reduce the price and would prefer to have no customers while paying rent, business taxes etc. for the privilege.

>>11812039
I had Super Mario 64 for something like 4 months before my parents could find an N64 in stock, so I would just read the manual over and over again imagining how cool the game was. Zoomers will never experience something like this, which is why they have such stunted imaginations.

>>11816913
you forget what decade you're in, old man? 10 years before n64 we were all playing 8-bit slop. between 1985-2005 there was a massive evolution of computer hardware. 3d graphics even at low res was impressive because computers at home couldn't really do this shit well. fast foward to 2025 to a generation of kids that grew up with multi core ARM powered cell phones with a gpu that makes the n64 look like a game and watch, how is it a mystery that kids have stunted imaginations? there's been no rapid tech advancements. stagnation of innovation.

>>11816918
>8-bit slop.
Moron. You wish the N64 was half as good as the NES. Stupid millienoid.

>>11816918
The stunted imagination comes from the fact that they've been sitting in front of a screen for 8 hours a day since they were 2. They can't even be separated from their screens for more than 5 minutes without having a mental breakdown.

>>11816924
the nes was never good.

>>11816928
i remember parents moaning about the same shit to kids in the 1980s about computers and television. not much has changed except the device.

>>11816932
Nobody except the worst deadbeat parents let their kids spend 8 hours a day watching television in the 80s and 90s, and those kids all grew up to be retards. Now the majority of parents think it's perfectly ok to buy an iPad for their baby and let it do all the parenting for them. If you think zoomers are retarded, wait until gen alpha grows up.

>>11812023
What the fuck?

>>11816772
WTF is with everyone cursing millennials since birth?
The true antagonist is boomer hippies.

>>11816929
You never played the NES. You're a lying retard.

>>11816937
>gen alpha
They are a very strange generation. From brilliant little brats that only dance to the beat of their own drum. To stunted retards incapable of thinking or doing anything for them selves.

>>11812013 (OP)
>twitter screencap thread

>>11812463
>Asia of Sorrow

>>11816772
>boomers steal all our wealth
>then complain about Millennials are killing industries that require said wealth as disposable income

Make it make sense.

>>11812013 (OP)
Whatever happened to this place for manuals?
http://www.replacementdocs.com/news.php

>>11817884
Ever since they stopped calling them Gen Y the millennial generation has been shit on by everyone.

>>11812028
Oh yeah? Link me this one, pretty please!

>>11812013 (OP)
Most manuals are worthless, even the bigger titles
It's just the typical shit of low produced game, Ps2 horror, pokemon, and rpgs that are bullshit. And even then, a Pokemon GBA manual is $20 at a con

>>11820259
>Shits on his keyboard. Hits post.

>>11819309
https://psinstructionmanual.com/harmfulpark/

>>11814421
then they went onto a suck blockbuster's dick, in hopes they could make that pos virtualboy a success

>>11815843
yeah, I'm sure the company that sued palworld for ripping off pokemon and tried to stop people scaring scans of old issues of nintendo power doesn't care... right

>>11813697
literally this, it's how I scan all my doujinshi I posted online

>>11820261
Bot post

>>11820265
Not saying it's worth it to buy Harmful Park for the manual, but this scan is awful. Any of the kanji with more than 8 or so strokes is downright painful to read.

>>11820354
Could have just said thank you, now I have to tell you youre a fucking retard who cant read.

>>11816772
These late boomers/early gen xers are literally shitting on their children they raised themselves. They literally created the world the millenials and later gens live in.
Imagine hating your own kids so much you make them responsible for the perceived demise of everything.
>old people burning, old people burning, put your hands up
>>11812013 (OP)
of course it is. We are meant to spend our money, but our generation is - on average - too poor to spend it on things earlier gens did: houses, kids, vacations, a corvette. We're left with surplus funnds but not enough to do "as we should". So we look inwards and backwards to find something that gives us the satisfaction of purchasing and we landed on collecting videogames and videogame tangents, because that is what brings us joy and is something seeping with nostalgia, which is highly marketable nowadays. Which in return attracts grifters, scalpers and other honorable businessmen that try to skew the market into a favourable direction for them. And so far, it's working quite well.
Things will not change until either the hardware or the software starts breaking down in large numbers and all turn to emulation, which will only get more and more accurate and better. It will be a sad day, when I will have to retire my collection, but I know that day will come and that's why I already put my eggs into several baskets. Real hardware, flashcards/OSDs/softmods, and emulation.

>>11812013 (OP)
I never understood people who just kept cartridges, it's so stupid and lazy. Everything I ever had as a kid I kept with the box and manual.

>>11821413
don't have anything from when I was a kid, but now I only have carts
don't need manuals cause I know my games, and i don't need cases cause I have cartridge dust covers and good storage for them.
whats the point in collecting the case when it just takes up more space and does nothing to enhance my gameplay? the argument for manuals is different, but I'm not paying for manuals, instead i've printed out manuals and have them all in a binder.
>>11812013 (OP)
nintendo tax, that's what you get for following cultural phenomenon

Anyone buying these deserves to ripped off.

Holy shit.

>>11812217
Not only that, when trying to sell the cartridges, some people don't want the manuals.

>>11821426
yeah like me
i dont need no fucking manual for an extra 30%

>>11821413
Thank Nintendo for cheaping out with cardboard. Even SEGA was using plastic cases for their 8 bit and even pre-NES-era systems. Nintendo however only switched to plastic cases for carts after the GBA. Considering NES/SNES games came with dust covers and it was annoying to put the carts back into the cardboard boxes many just tossed them after getting the game. This generally meant it was easy to lose the manual too because there was no real way to keep it with the game.

>>11817626
nes was never good. everyone knows this. the sex offenders on this board act like it was like a playstation 5 of its era yet got destroyed by a computer made by commodore that became one of the greatest selling computers of all time.

>>11812217
>they're less available than the loose cartridges,
so what? that doesn't give them "value". are you trying to operate one of these scamming retro stores? you seem like the kind of spastic that would use ebay as a reliable price guide.

>>11822313
despite sega having plastic boxes, seen many of them with no manuals. what are you talking about? people just throw that shit out. people also threw out the plastic cases for them. you underestimate just how little some people give a shit. they never did.

>>11822625
There were people who did yes, I am not saying everyone kept them. But many did, and if the game came in a plastic case that easily held the manual and cart then you are far far more likely to still find them vs something like NES or SNES games that still have their manual and box.

I can't remember the last time I was in a retro store and saw an NES or SNES game still in it's box that wasn't some laughably overpriced sealed copy behind a glass case. Meanwhile in that very same store I can find dozens of Genesis games still in their plastic cases with the manual for a few bucks.

>>11820352
Room temperature IQ post

>>11822579
>>11822590
It's embarrassing how fucking dumb you are.

>>11820354
Looks fine to me. Furigana is legible too. Git gud.

>>11815780
jap stuff really like Wondertrek, Blade Arts, Brightis, and Prisoner

>>11812013 (OP)
that is sort of a cool illustration though and its from an era where it was changing really fast