this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
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This was simply not a huge thing back then. Remember that the only way for most people to experience on-demand video back then was via VHS and the TV, and most households only had one TV that was presumably being used to play the game. To watch a tutorial video, you would have had to watch it on TV at a specific time, or you would have had to buy or rent said guide, stop your game, connect your VHS, and watch it. I can find references to game guide videos people sold in magazines, but these don't seem to have been very popular. Most people just read the manual, which isn't that crazy of a concept. All games before video games came with rule books so why shouldn't these?
I meant games that had tutorial videos built into them. Stuff like Syphon Filter; a rushed, poorly voiced video that lists your controls and tosses you into the mission. The player is told what does what and isn't given a chance to learn how to interact with the world.
Soul Reaver 1's first 20 minutes is what every game should be aiming for. You learn how to navigate the world, how health and the spectral/material realms work, how to solve the combat puzzles, and more importantly, how those systems interact; then you're on your own. If a game needs the help of extrenal resources to convey such basic information, it's a failure of game design. Not necessarily out of incompetence but because game design principles hadn't evolved to that point.
I'm not against external (including physical) resources, iff they're used in a clever way. Shenzhen IO has a thirty-page manual themed as actual technical documentation about the electronics used in the game. Through this, the manual becomes part of the game. Same for Keep talking and nobody explodes. Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate is a fantastic example of presenting supplemental information that is good to know but isn't a roadblock in its absence. If a manual improves the game experience, it's good material. If it's necessary to make a game playable, it's bad design.
Another good example for the good implementation of external ressources into a game is EXAPUNKS, a hacking game in which the game mechanics are conveyed through 3 issues of a magazine - I really liked that one. (it's another Zachtronics game, like Shenzen IO)
I know arcanum has a manual that is themed like a late 1800's style research book, which is really cool.