Free Digital Reproduction Manual Releases

GorillazeroGorillazero
in The Brewery
Reviewing the site, I see a lot of people creating boxes and labels, but manuals seem to be forgotten, especially for free. So, I've take it upon my self to start. Below are two initial concepts for Earthboun Zero and Makai Island. Everyone is roughly 8 to 12 pages. I will release them in PDF viewing composition. Meaning that they read left to read for each page, instead of how they would look in an actual book. It's very easy to cut and paste these into a manual like booklet in Photoshop, Paint, or Powerpoint. I'll continue doing these until I get bored.



I'll put them up for release for anyone to download and print if they want. Just keep my logo on it and we're square... but I'm assuming it wont be left there after awhile.



When I publish the final copies on this site, I will have a light watermark over each page, to attempt to stop anyone from trying to make money off these. Watermarks WILL NOT be on images that came from other websites or were googled.



The plan is the following manuals to be created for now.



Makai Island

Earthbound Zero

Ghostbusters II New

Ys I

Ys II

Sweet House

Adventure Island 4

CrossFire





Earthbound Zero







Front - Back



Pg 1 and Pg 2



pg 3 and pg 4







Makai Island







Front and Back



pg 1 and pg 2



pg 3 and pg 4.



pg 5 and pg 6
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Comments

  • Clyde The JackalClyde The Jackal
    That looks real nice! Looking forward to seeing your Adventure Island 4.
  • Luigi_MasterLuigi_Master
    Lookin' pretty good! However, a stylistic tidbit of advice. Makai Island was meant to come out around the same time as Mega Man, meaning it would've used the "Captain Commando Challenge Series" motif. They looked like this, but with a few exceptions.



    image



    The exceptions are: Mega Man 1 has a closeup of the boxart given a purple hue, Trojan's is pink instead of blue, and Gun.Smoke is blue with a black and white picture of the boxart on the front. Of course, this is a stylistic suggestion more than anything, but "second generation" Capcom manuals were white with just the boxart visible.
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    Thanks but I'll stick with this, I'll look into your design if I redo the cover etc ty
  • NES_PunkNES_Punk
    Great idea, and I think it looks great, thanks for sharing. I too look forward to your adventure island 4. I've never even heard of Makai Island but it looks cool. Is it at all similar to Pirates!..?
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    There's a picture as well



    http://www.thenesdump.com/makai/PA180274.JPG
  • Faltain1Faltain1
    I keep praying someone will pickup and do Star Ocean for the SNES.



    I might commission someone to get a manual for that game done in English at some point; it's criminal how it's one of the most celebrated games on the system for people to repro but noone has bothered doing a translated manual.
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    I'd do it but the manual is kanji
  • renodakotarenodakota
    Rad. Nice work! Do you mean Sweet Home instead of House? I guess the translation could be taken either way.



    I would love a hard copy for Sweet Home, Don't give too much away though. Just maybe a general overview of where you are going and a few key item locations.



    I always find myself doubling back to pick up substitute items when I commit suicide with one of my players.

    Some day I'll see the ending with my whole party alive...
  • vladictivovladictivo
    It's very nice that you're making these public after all the work a manual needs... I wouldn't



    Now for CAPCOM manuals why don't you switch to the Korinna font family?

    EDIT: I meant Eras Demi font family... Korinna is the font of the Capcom logo.





    On another topic I'm putting some color to a Mega Man 1 manual, so far I've only managed to finish the cover


  • Faltain1Faltain1

    Originally posted by: Gorillazero



    I'd do it but the manual is kanji



    Yeah I know... which is why I said I'd seriously commission someone to just go through, page by page, and just translate the words so we could at least get the original script of the manual out there.



    I'm dead serious, too...



    I was thinking about trying one of the few remaining translating groups out there and just private messaging someone on those forums offering Paypal $ for a Star Ocean English manual script.
  • TanookiTanooki
    Wow that looks really nice. It's a shame no one has gone and done Final Fantasy II up especially since we did get the box art intended for it thanks to that ad spot uncovered when it was supposed to come out in our market. I'd love to see an english manual translation of it using that ink for the cover.



    Surprised also you'll do Ys 1 and 2, but not 3.
  • jjreprojjrepro
    The thing about repros is that I don't think any one person can do an A+ repro by themselves. Some people like myself do carts, others do boxes and here we have a manual guy. Its almost a team effort to put the work into the game to make the game live up to the standards that we all strive for.
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    I have the manual from FF origins, so I've been using that for the NES version of FFII, I have modified the text to relate to FFII
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    Bump. Also when I finish, I'll upload these.



    Makai has been redone and looks pretty decent.



    Earthbound Zero was just started.



    When I create these, they will have a light watermark over each page, so that it will be a bitch remove, however people who use it can still enjoy a few manual.
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    Bump
  • TanookiTanooki
    Ugh watermarking eh? Oh well.
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    I'm not going to let people sell my labored work LOL. I'm not dumb. Someone is already downloading the images, I can tell from my imageshack account. So, it's hard to have faith in people.



    The watermark is my forum name three times in very late grey, so you can barely see it, but it's there.
  • TanookiTanooki
    Yeah I know some people are thieves. I'm just picky is all with certain things.
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    To be honest, I really don't care. So, I may not even do it, someone just suggested it.



    It's not like I spent HOURS doing these. I found the info throughout the interwebs lol.
  • EightBitJunkieEightBitJunkie
    Thank you very much for this. I'm in the process of making an Earthbound Zero cart, and would love to have a manual to go with it.



    I don't have a problem with watermarks, as I don't have any plans to sell it - you know just something for personal collecting.



    Keep up the good work!
  • TanookiTanooki
    Gorilla do what you feel is best for you only. I'm one side of the argument who just doesn't like the stuff for whatever reason from honest to dishonest, and then you have those who more so in particular are about it on legit docs/pics because they fear depreciation of an investment.



    What you're doing is unique, so it's your call and yours alone.
  • GuntzGuntz
    Just voicing a personal preference, but the anime artwork on the EBZ manual doesn't fit the game at all and I still hate the "Zero" moniker. Nintendo never called it that, it's simply called EarthBound. I just use NES and SNES to tell the two EarthBounds apart.
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    The anime artwork comes straight from the Earthbound NES art book. I'm not going to use pixelated people on the cover come on now lol.



    My game label and title screen say zero, so I gotta keep it the same - personal choice lol



    Again, free.
  • GuntzGuntz
    You could have always stuck with the red EarthBound cover...



    Still can't stand the "zero" addition. Sounds very tacky.
  • LaunchpadLaunchpad
    These look great! Thanks for sharing them with us.

  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    tacky? lol.



    Anyway, I'll upload them soon. The Full copies.
  • Jonny l3lankaJonny l3lanka
    Nice work man. Glad to see some love for the manuals for once
  • CloudGamerXCloudGamerX
    So how are the manuals coming along? i am really interested in that Earthbound Zero Manual
  • GorillazeroGorillazero
    I've got a few other projects I Was working on. The other free manuals I released, someone did print them and sell them.... so it kind of hurt this idea.
  • CloudGamerXCloudGamerX
    Oh, well that sucks because i was really hoping to get a digital manual for my repro of Earthbound Zero. I would probably print it out, but not like a legitimate manual but just as a personal repro manual (like what Nintendo did) for myself
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