Nostalgic Guidebooks

[Rotobit]

I just got to thinking about how guides are basically dead now but I have some very fond memories of two in particular

First is Ocarina of Time's. I never even finished the game until the 3DS port came out (I have no idea why it took me so long), but I had this N64 guidebook back in the day and I remember pouring over it, even the stuff from the back pages.

In a time before the internet and things like Hyrule Historia it was awesome to be able to see the artwork at such high resolution

And the two pages for Ocarina songs were really cool. IIRC they even printed those on a different laminated kind of paper, so you could write the scarecrow song on a blank bar with an erasable marker.

The other extremely nostalgic guide for me is Pokémon Crystal's, entirely because of the maps. Unfortunately I can't find any good scans of them, and I have no idea where my copy of the book went, but basically it had the full sprite map printed out and I used to trace my finger along them. Honestly might be one of the main reasons why I got into pixel-art.

Did any strategy guides stick in your mind?

 

[Camisado]

The Final Fantasy Piggyback guides were a big part of my childhood. Amazing artwork and all the info I could ever need in one place. (...with the exception of the FF9 one, which is now basically a paper weight.)

I had a lot of other guides over the years, but the Final Fantasy ones were basically a tradition for me and I got every single one, right up until the final one in Final Fantasy 15.

Was gutted when the Final Fantasy 7 Remake didn't have one.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Your second and third images don't work

 

[Rotobit]

Your second and third images don't work

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Thanks for the heads up, swapped 'em out.

 

[Pop-O-Matic]

Why are you posting Prima trash and not the official Nintendo Power guides?

 

[BlackSalad]

I still have my Turok prima book, I remember using it religiously back when I got my N64 for xmas. Finding that first grenade launcher in I think the third part of the first world On some cliffs? Very good memories. Very happy my parents bought me an "M" rated game as a 12 year old.

honorable mention, The map in the back of the morrowind book was amazing, that game was something else

 

[Rotobit]

Why are you posting Prima trash and not the official Nintendo Power guides?

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It's what I had and in the UK Nintendo Power wasn't a thing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[butzopower]

I remember getting the Mario 64 Nintendo Power guide when I reupped my subscription when I was 10. I didn't actually own Mario 64 until I got Mario 64 DS, but I read the mfer cover to cover.

 

[.exe]

I had the Pokémon Sapphire/Ruby guide book. My mind was completely blown by all that hidden Braille stuff and how you got to Rayquaza. Really cool and surprisingly elaborate even by today's standards, I think.

 

[NeonCarbon]

Pokemon and Vice City were the ones for me.

Then switched to googling and YouTube.

Looks like they don't even sell one anymore for RDR2 on Amazon UK. Might pick one up for Cyberpunk.

 

[Deleted member 18021]

thanks oak

 

[show me your skeleton]

oh how the mighty have fallen

 

[Ultratech]

Why are you posting Prima trash and not the official Nintendo Power guides?

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haha

Honestly, they were all pretty hit or miss at times.

Like I still have Nintendo Power's OG Pokemon guide, and it has nearly everything you'd need to know.
Then they came out with a guide for G/S which was enough to get you through the game, but had no Pokedex! (IIRC, they sold that as a separate book later.)

I think I still got a good number of guides lying around:

• Ocarina of Time (NP) - This one's actually pretty well done with lots of art and whatnot.
• Twilight Princess (NP) - This one is pretty big compared most of my other guides.
• Link to the Past/Four Swords GBA (NP)
• Golden Sun + GS: TLA (Prima) - Very nice since it covers both games in their entirety.
• Final Fantasy I & II DoS (NP) - Extremely nice since it has maps for the Bonus Dungeons in FF1.
• Final Fantasy III (Brady)
• Final Fantasy IV (NP) - This one's a bit on the small side; also skimps on the Bonus Dungeon stuff after you beat the game which is annoying.
• Diablo II (Brady) - Came with the D2 Battle Chest.
• Final Fantasy X (Brady) - Sorta big, but has TONS of info on stuff in the game including a Mix chart!
• Tales of Symphonia (Brady)
• TLoZ Collector's Edition (NP) - Guide for the Zelda Collection on Gamecube. So it's got guides for Zelda 1, 2, OoT, and Majora's Mask. (OoT and MM take up most of the guide and it's not terribly big.)
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (NP) - Another big guide IIRC.
• Disgaea 2 (Double Jump) - Has nearly everything you'd need to know about D2 and it's literally jam-packed. Also a bit on the small size (like the size of a trade paperback, but it's got 640 pages so it's thick).

 

[Secretofmateria]

 

[greenbird]

This FFVII one is really the only guide I have fond memories of. From the writing style, artwork, layout, information, I just loved everything about it. I read my copy of this so much over the years, and lent it to someone, but eventually became badly damaged. Luckily I was able to track down a scan of this years back, and then later found one that was pretty high quality. Still wish I had my original in good shape, especially after seeing those 2nd hand prices on ebay.

 

[Noema]

I got the Nintendo Power Final Fantasy 1 guide before even knowing what the game was. The guide made me want the game, though I had to wait until my birthday in 1991 to get it. By the time I got the game, I'd read through the guide so many times I'd basically memorized it, which kinda sorta spoiled the game a bit for me.

 

[rucury]

I remember reading this Minish Cap guide (and smelling it, it smelled... new?) on long car rides. Very nostalgic. Probably the reason I love guidebooks so much.

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[Rotobit]

I got the Nintendo Power Final Fantasy 1 guide before even knowing what the game was. The guide made me want the game, though I had to wait until my birthday in 1991 to get it. By the time I got the game, I'd read through the guide so many times I'd basically memorized it, which kinda sorta spoiled the game a bit for me.

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I love the creative license with all of the characters but they made the airship look as dinky as its game sprite

they're all gonna fall out

Also the one dude about to poke out a guy's eye with the tip of his halberd

 

[Noema]

I love the creative license with all of the characters but they made the airship look as dinky as its game sprite

they're all gonna fall out

Also the one dude about to poke out a guy's eye with the tip of his halberd

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Hahaha, yeah!

The whole guide is filled with artwork that could make the cover of a cheesy 80s fantasy novel.

They could've used some Amano artwork, but this was back when Nintendo still went out of its way to hide anything that looked even remotely Japanese.

 

[entremet]

Anyone regret throwing their guides?

I had tons from Nintendo (Player's Guides), Prima, Brady, and the legendary Versus Books!

Something unique about guides, with proper layout, maps, photography, art. GameFAQs is comprehensive, but txt only guides are wack.

Youtube is cool for tips and tricks, but ephemeral.

 

[Vivian-Pogo]

I spent hours just looking through Mario Mania as a kid. It's got a lot of nice artwork and fun facts and stuff.

They knew DK would become a good ape 3 years before DKC happened.

 

[Lobster Roll]

oh how the mighty have fallen

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I know this is posted as a meme, but it's my legit answer. It's the one guide that stands out in memory for me.

 

[bahorel]

my brother and i subsisted on this for years.

ours is just an absolute mess, the whole binding fell apart so now it's just a stack of individual pages still in a drawer in our parents house

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Here are some I used to have. I didn't end up using them that much, though:

 

[Deleted member 23893]

For a summer this was my bible.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

This guide for Pokémon Red and Blue - it covered Green as well. Loved the layout and simplicity, all the info easily accessible with perfect maps. looked like a total knock off based on the cover though.

And Nintendo Power's guide for Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Easily my most used and favorite guide. It reads like a story instead of instructions doesn't give every step away.

 

[NekoFever]

I'll never forget Prima's Shenmue guide having paragraph-long profiles of every single NPC, down to the ones who walk around town and only have a couple of lines. Name, age, job title, blood type, etc.

Did you know the guy who walks around Dobuita as Santa can walk up and down the street all day because he has strong legs from being a keen marathon runner? Now you do.

 

[Crashman]

I always preferred Nintendo Power or Versus guides if a game had one of those. The versus Pokemon guides were really good. Usually liked the Prima guidebooks less and the Bradygames books even less than that.

Edit: Oh yeah, Mario Mania. I think that's the guide I looked at the most. I think I destroyed it by just bringing it everywhere, got a new copy, and then that started to fall apart too.

 

[Pyro]

I still have/love my Fallout 3 guide that feels like it came straight from that universe with its page design

 

[Giga Man]

This is the best guide I've ever had right here.

The Sonic Adventure 2 Battle + Sonic Advance Official Perfect Guides from Versus Books. That titles don't lie as far as I'm concerned.
Also, I completely forgot the SA2B logo covers Knuckles and Rouge, which kinda sucks. lol

 

[delete12345]

I own a Prima Animal Crossing New Horizons guide. I don't know if I should open it, out of fear I have to restart everything.

 

[Kamek]

oh how the mighty have fallen

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This fucking shit was so bare bones and "go online for the real tips"

 

[AaronMT]

 

[show me your skeleton]

This fucking shit was so bare bones and "go online for the real tips"

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was terrible!

 

[Meatwad]

I have a strong urge to start collecting these for the games I love

 

[Meatwad]

was terrible!

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I bought that when it came out and it pissed me off. The only time a strategy guide made me angry

 

[skeezx]

my brother and i subsisted on this for years.

ours is just an absolute mess, the whole binding fell apart so now it's just a stack of individual pages still in a drawer in our parents house

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the "player's guide" series was incredible in that first run. not only a guide book all kinds of other stuff - it's where i first learned of the SMB2/doki doki panic thing which blew my head off as a kid

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

The Vagrant Story one sat on the bottom shelf of the game section in a local shop for ages back in the day. I always meant to pick it up, not because I was stuck but because I just wanted more things Vagrant Story. It was just gone one day and I was kinda bummed.

 

[Deleted member 18021]

~*EXTREMELY CURSED IMAGE*~

Remember to sub RDM on MNK, kiddos.

 

[Kamek]

Most of the times I got these books was for the art and to trace it and be creative. Also I remember getting 2 OoT guides because one came free with Nintendo power yearly subscription, but it was ripped in the mail and Nintendo sent me another one.

 

[Slim Action]

It would be interesting to go back and make a guide for Pokemon Red & Blue with all the crazy information we now have about that game's code. "Don't forget kids, all attacks have a 1/256 chance to miss due to a glitch!"

Basically a strategy guide with ACTUALLY correct information, down to information that was only obtainable via datamining.

 

[ChrisD]

I still have my Pokémon Emerald guide. I used to spend so much time with it. Looking at the art, the photos, reading Battle Frontier stuff. I played a lot of games vicariously through Strategy Guides, and for those like Pokemon, replayed.

E: oh yeah, can't forget Zelda Twilight Princess'! Long story short, religious upbringing, I was afraid to play the game in the house in front of religious parent, and also afraid because I thought I'd go to Hell for playing it due to its evil content. I did have the Strategy Guide, though.. and it was the way I lived that version of Hyrule.

 

[Stencil]

I bought that when it came out and it pissed me off. The only time a strategy guide made me angry

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Ya I couldn't even reliably get the online part to work thats to having minimal internet connection back in the day. Never finished FFIX

 

[Deleted member 13015]

I was going to post the early Pokemon ones!

Love them, extreme nostalgia for the art.

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[MoonsaultSlayer]

The oldest strategy guide I had was this:

This book had so many maps and enemy guides for tons of games and blurbs about others. It was awesome to look at and filled my head with so much wonder and imagination with all of the imagery.
It was basically my dad's as he was a big NES gamer. Loved watching him play (I played too, but wasn't a "gotta beat it" gamer in those days). Ended up giving it to a big nintendo fan years later and kind of regret it.

A personal fav of mine is the Tekken 3 guide as I got it the day before the game came out and just read that thing front to back. Character bios, strats, Namco history, the art etc. The memories:

I was just looking through my Tekken and SC books the other day with my kids showing them Yoshimitsu's transformations when we lost power. (Explaining the theatrics of Samurai because of Ghost of Tsushima and they questioning the helmets and masks). So much nostalgia.

 

[Rotobit]

The oldest strategy guide I had was this:

This book had so many maps and enemy guides for tons of games and blurbs about others. It was awesome to look at and filled my head with so much wonder and imagination with all of the imagery.
It was basically my dad's as he was a big NES gamer. Loved watching him play (I played too, but wasn't a "gotta beat it" gamer in those days). Ended up giving it to a big nintendo fan years later and kind of regret it.

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The graphic design on that one looks incredibly modern, they could put that in stores today and it'd look pretty snazzy

Takes me back to a little mini book I had once that was filled with cheats and tricks for a variety of games. One part was all about easter eggs and let me tell you, reading about the secret MGS3 EVA dialogue from the final part of the game made it seem extremely lewd with no context.

 

[Defunkled]

Perfect timing with this thread! I've been cleaning out my basement this month and found a box with all my old strategy guides and magazines. Couldn't get enough RPGs as a kid!

 

[john tv]

The oldest strategy guide I had was this:

This book had so many maps and enemy guides for tons of games and blurbs about others. It was awesome to look at and filled my head with so much wonder and imagination with all of the imagery.
It was basically my dad's as he was a big NES gamer. Loved watching him play (I played too, but wasn't a "gotta beat it" gamer in those days). Ended up giving it to a big nintendo fan years later and kind of regret it.

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This was the holy bible during the golden age of the NES. Pre-internet, pre-Nintendo Power — at the time it was literally the most amazing tome of information anyone could ever be lucky enough to get their hands on. Practically worshipped this book, read it cover to cover like 900 times lol

 

[RowdyReverb]

I remember using it to find Knuckle's emerald shards. Still have it somewhere

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

This was the holy bible during the golden age of the NES. Pre-internet, pre-Nintendo Power — at the time it was literally the most amazing tome of information anyone could ever be lucky enough to get their hands on. Practically worshipped this book, read it cover to cover like 900 times lol

Click to shrink...

Reading it and looking at it so much, it felt like I HAD every game in there and knew enough about them despite actually wishing I had many of them.

It's also funny because this was before spoiler culture so seeing entire maps to later levels was a huge deal in SMB and Metroid etc.