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Prima Guides

122 files

  1. Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

    Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

    2,658 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted

  2. Secret of Mana - Official Game Secrets

    Secret of Mana - Official Game Secrets

    1,885 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted

  3. Resident Evil Director's Cut (Prima's Unauthorized Guide to)

    Resident Evil Director's Cut (Prima's Unauthorized Guide to)

    1,299 downloads

    4 comments

    Updated

  4. Tomb Raider I and II - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

    Tomb Raider I and II - Prima's Official Strategy Guide
    Paper Doll can be found here scanned by the lovely Areala

    1,186 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated

  5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Prima Guide

    The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Prima Guide

    938 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated

  6. Legend of Legaia - Prima's Official Guide

    Legend of Legaia - Prima's Official Guide

    796 downloads

    2 comments

    Submitted

  7. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Prima Guide

    This scan was provided by Melora from History of Hyrule.
    Visit the History of Hyrule website and follow him on twitter @historyofhyrule.
    Thanks to TimBisley for asking for permission!

    791 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated

  8. Tomb Raider III Official Strategy Guide

    Of the classic, PS1-era Tomb Raider titles, Tomb Raider III is probably the most difficult, and not always for the right reasons. With Core Design's employees struggling with epic burnout after being forced to churn out two sequels in two years, this game had the largest design team yet behind it, but by now the cracks were starting to show. With the public clambering for more everything, and no time to build a new in-game engine, they still managed to pack in new moves, including crawling, hand-over-hand climbing, and sprinting. Lara's arsenal was upgraded. There were new outfits to wear and new environments to explore, new enemies to slay, and new traps to contend with. The devs put a major focus on the idea of multiple ways to reach the same goal this time around, something they briefly toyed with in a couple of places in the first two games; this time, it was practically law. Instead of linear level progression, once players beat the opening stages set in India, they could choose to visit London, Nevada, or an island in the South Pacific, before taking Lara to Antarctica for her final confrontation.
    The other Tomb Raider games could easily be completed without a guide; you'd occasionally want to refer to one if you couldn't locate that last secret, or were having difficulty understanding one of the puzzles, but by and large, it was within most players' abilities to complete the game without one. Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider II fostered level design that wanted to surprise and delight the player. Tomb Raider III, on the other hand, was designed in such a way as to be openly hostile, with massive, sprawling levels filled with death traps and obtuse puzzles, along with enemies placed specifically to force the player to waste resources. Picking the wrong location after finishing India, in fact, is tantamount to the game kicking you in the nuts/ovaries, and the "wrong" choice is not telegraphed in any way. If you ever flip through a strategy guide for Tomb Raider III that does not instruct you to go to Nevada upon finishing India, throw that book away.
    Fortunately, this Prima guide does not make that mistake, and the path Kip Ward lays out is the "easiest" way through the game. That doesn't mean you get a cake walk, it just means you won't flip the difficulty switch to "screw you" without realizing it. Kudos also to Ward for providing a walkthrough of sorts for Lara's Home, explaining how to get into the secret treasure room, find the Racetrack key, and unlock the Quad Bike course. None of this is essential to beating the main quest, but it's possible to explore her mansion without realizing there's more to it than just beating the Assault Course and learning how to jump around.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    779 downloads

    3 comments

    Submitted

  9. Tomb Raider II Official Strategy Guide

    The second installment of the Divine Pony-tail's adventure takes her globetrotting polygons to the mountains of Nepal, the depths of the ocean, the Great Wall of China, and the mine-infested canals of Venice in search of the Dagger of Xian, which turns you into a dragon if you stab it directly into your heart.
    That sounds painful. Don't do that, boys and girls.
    This Prima guide is in full-colour, featuring a walkthrough by Kip Ward filled with copious screenshots and illustrations of Lara Croft adorning every single page! What more could a love-struck woman such as I, Areala fans of Tomb Raider II ask? So, while it pained me to put my beloved TR2 guide beneath the cruel guillotine for debinding, the ability to spread the Gospel of the Divine Pony-tail will hopefully more than make up for the sacrifice.
    Enjoy, my beloved disciples! Enjoy! ❤️

    765 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated

  10. Tekken 3: The Art of Tekken 3

    The Art of Tekken 3

    754 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated

  11. Jade Cocoon - Story of the Tamamayu - Prima's Offical Strategy Guide

    Jade Cocoon - Story of the Tamamayu - Prima's Offical Strategy Guide

    724 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted

  12. Nintendo Games Secrets

    Nintendo Games Secrets is a historical landmark in the world of video game publishing, being the first title produced by Prima for their newly-birthed "Secrets of the Games" imprint in 1990. From the humble roots of this black-and-white, mostly-text guide written by then-GamePro staff writer Rusel DeMaria, Prima rose to become one of the preeminent publishers of gaming strategy guides, eventually acquiring their closest rival, BradyGames, in 2015.
    Prima's "Secrets of the Games" imprint played an enormous role in the company's success throughout the 90's, with multiple volumes covering NES, Genesis, Game Boy, TurboGrafx-16, and Super NES games in this format, as well as stand-alone guides for specific games like Secret of Mana, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
    If you browsed a bookstore in the early 90s, and you were into video games, chances are good you drooled over one of these Prima books and tried to convince your parents to buy one for you. Maybe you succeeded, maybe you didn't, but either way, I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. I have thirteen more of these in my collection, so expect to see more in the future.

    711 downloads

    8 comments

    Updated

  13. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Official Strategy Guide

    Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation was a grand and confusing piece of art, with some excellent ideas and some utterly brain-wrecking puzzles which were clearly put there to pad out the play time and prevent people renting the game and beating it over a weekend. This was the first Tomb Raider released on the Sega Dreamcast, but aside from slightly better graphics than the PlayStation edition, it and the PC incarnation are all the same game, so this guide can walk you through any incarnation.
    Much like Tomb Raider III, Last Revelation absolutely screamed for a strategy guide due to the aforementioned hair-pulling puzzles and some generally obnoxious gameplay elements which made things far more difficult than they should be. It's the most difficult of all the "classic" era entries, even harder than picking Nevada last in TR3, so if you managed to complete it without resorting to a walkthrough at any point, hats off to you. It's also the longest single entry in the franchise, comprising 42 stages in total, although some of these are re-visits to older stages with some minor tweaks due to story progression. It's the first Tomb Raider game to feature no hidden levels or special bonuses for collecting all of the in-game secrets (of which there are 70), although the British paper The Times teamed up with Core Design to release a special, PC-only downloadable level which celebrated the 75th anniversary of Howard Carter's excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb. Interestingly enough, this level wasn't just DLC, it was a full-fledged mini Tomb Raider game all on its own which didn't require the full version of Last Revelation in order to run, and came with two other TR-themed puzzle games to mess around with. This guide doesn't cover that bonus level, but if you're interested in playing it, you can find it at Stella's Tomb Raider Page. Both the GOG and Steam versions of Last Revelation come with the Times bonus content, just FYI.
    Anyway, at nearly 180 pages, this is also the longest classic-era Tomb Raider game guide Prima ever made.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    689 downloads

    2 comments

    Updated

  14. Secrets of the Games Series - Sega Genesis Secrets Volume 2 (1991)

    Secrets of the Games Series - Sega Genesis Secrets Volume 2 (1991)

    687 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted

  15. Official Sega Genesis Power Tips Book (New and Updated Edition)

    A great Sega Genesis compilation guide from Prima: full-colour, tons of excellent games, just an ultimate walk down nostalgia lane. For $15 back in the day, this was a solid book. As the name implies, this is a newer, more up-to-date version. I don't own the original release sadly, so I can't tell what all is new or updated about this version. Maybe someone else can provide that info?
    My copy had a printing defect with the pages dedicated to Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, where the print portion pulled deeper into the gutter than on other pages. This means some of the text got cut off when the book was de-bound--it's still usable, and it affects only 2 out of the book's 112 pages, but I wanted to point it out, since this is a defect with the book itself, not my own scanning incompetence. I'm not a good enough graphical wizard to fix this, but if someone else out there wants to take the time, that would be awesome.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    676 downloads

    2 comments

    Updated

  16. Mega Man Legends Hint Book

    Mega Man Legends Hint Book

    653 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted

  17. Game Boy Game Secrets, 2001 Edition

    Another solid game compilation guide, this time from Prima, who seemed to do better at these kinds of things than Brady much of the time. This covers a slew of great games that most people would be interested in playing: top-notch stuff like Link's Awakening DX, Donkey Kong Country, two Wario Land titles, and even contains a bit about the Game Boy Camera peripheral. It's nothing mind-blowing, but the production value is high, there are plenty of full-color screen captures, and the writing for the walkthroughs is on point and descriptive. Well worth the download, IMO.
    Donated by ModernZorker.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    653 downloads

    2 comments

    Submitted

  18. WCW/nWo Revenge Prima's Official Guide

    WCW/nWo Revenge Prima's Official Guide

    642 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted

  19. Official Sega Genesis Power Tips Book, Volume 2

    Another awesome Genesis compilation book from Prima. Full-colour, just like the first, with a slew of new games, only a couple of which were looked at in the previous edition. Strategies and tactics for 35 games, with a bevy of cheats, passwords, and other goodies for 35 more. An excellent addition to your digital library, if I do say so myself.
    Donated by ModernZorker.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    630 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted

  20. DOOM II Official Strategy Guide

    A reasonably decent guide to DOOM II, written by Ed Dille in the voice of an annoyed drill instructor trying to whip a new recruit (that's you, the reader) into fighting shape. It includes a number of strategies for co-operative play, which game guides often lacked back in the day, especially for First-Person Shooter titles. No Deathmatch strategies beyond "always be running, don't stand in one place, and fire the biggest guns you've got", but the amount of time spent discussing fire team formations and other co-op strategies is really cool to see. Also includes a short interview with John Romero which is worth reading by itself, although much of the information in it you'll already know if you've read Masters of DOOM.
    This should have been a black-and-white guide, but Prima for some reason chose to go with a spot colour printing approach, infusing red ink into virtually every page, and even into the black-and-white screenshots. It's an interesting look, but it also jacked the price of this guide up to $20 US when it really should have been $15 or thereabouts. Prima must have realized this price might turn some people off, because they released a stripped-down, 96-page budget hint book called The DOOM II Survival Guide which contains the basic item, enemy, weapon, and map info from this book, but none of the level strategies, multiplayer info, interview, or cheat codes.
    But here's the big, bad mama in all its glory. Enjoy! ❤️

    625 downloads

    8 comments

    Updated

  21. Nintendo Games Secrets, Volume 2

    After the original Nintendo Games Secrets became a best-selling success, a sequel was all but assured. Sure enough, one year later, Prima released this book onto store shelves, giving kids a reason to do their chores and accumulate the $10 US (or 14 so-called Canadian "dollars") necessary for its purchase.
    More of the same, but also a little less of the same. This volume omits Rusel DeMaria's "Introduction to Video Games" and "A Parents' Guide to Gaming" which were present in Volume 1. It also focuses only on software, so there are no previews of any upcoming peripherals. Added are some cartoon segments which combine over the course of the book to present an overall narrative which, we are assured, will be continued in Volume 3. (Spoiler alert: it is not.)
    At 328 pages vs. the original book's 360, this feels like a step back. On the other hand, while there are plenty of other books out there which covered major titles like Castlevania III, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, and Mega Man 3, there are nowhere near as many which covered the likes of The Immortal, Dungeon Magic, or Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, so you have to give it props on game selection at least.

    602 downloads

    5 comments

    Updated

  22. Nintendo Games Secrets, Volume 3

    Third book in the series, which is shorter even than volume 2. Though that's not surprising, since volume 3 came out a whopping three months after volume two was already on store shelves. When on earth did DeMaria and Meston sleep?
    In any case, this might be my favorite volume of the NES series, since it covers a whole slew of games you almost never see mentioned in other books of the day. Seriously, where else did you find coverage of Pirates!, Faria, Hillsfar, The Last Ninja, The Rocketeer, Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Beetlejuice, or The Uninvited?
    Despite promising a continuation of the comic begun in the pages of volume 2, that never happens. I guess we'll never learn everyone's ultimate fate. Oh well. We bought these for the tips and strategies, not the fan fiction.
    Enjoy! ❤️
     

    601 downloads

    3 comments

    Updated

  23. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Unauthorized Game Secrets

    This is the second edition of Prima's A Link to the Past strategy guide. This book was a massive best-seller for Prima. It was re-printed more than twenty times (this particular edition is a 22nd printing from 1997, which, it should be noted, is well into the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 era) and sold in excess of 125,000 copies.
    The first edition of the guide contained strategies and walkthroughs for The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Those were dropped for this edition, but replaced with a walkthrough for Link's Awakening on the Game Boy. This lowered the page count, but not the cover price. Cheeky of you, Prima...
    Enjoy! ❤️

    597 downloads

    3 comments

    Updated

  24. Master of Magic: The Official Strategy Guide

    This is a testament to how useful a well-written game guide can be. Master of Magic is an incredibly complex and deep RPG/turn-based strategy hybrid, easily capable of overwhelming novice players before they've had a chance to get a handle on the rules. More than a simple walkthrough, this behemoth of a guide explains everything you never even knew you wanted to know about the game: its units, spells, weapons, monsters, diplomacy, missions, everything.
    It was one of the most popular titles of its ilk in the 90s, and remains accessible to this day thanks to being re-released on platforms like GOG and Steam, which include a number of quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes. This is a gold-standard guide book, pretty much the opposite of Complete Final Fantasy III Forbidden Game Secrets, written in conjunction with people who actually made the game to ensure every bit of it is accurate down to the last decimal place.
    Blank pages have been omitted in order to reduce file size.
    Long out of print, commanding a price ten times that of the game itself, your Retromags Goddess has lovingly sacrificed her copy to the guillotine so that players everywhere no longer have to scrape together fifty bucks or more to access it. You can show your love by leaving her a like.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    584 downloads

    5 comments

    Updated

  25. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Game Secrets

    This was the first book Zach Meston wrote for Prima without Rusel DeMaria's name associated with it. If the introduction is to be believed, DeMaria handed the project to Meston and told him to go forth and kick ass, which is what Meston did.
    This is the first of two versions of this book published. This one contains the walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but also contains a supplementary section that reprints the entries on The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link which previously appeared in their NES Game Secrets series. For $9.99, you get full walkthroughs for three awesome games, making it a great value for the money. Unsurprisingly, this book was a massive seller for Prima, reprinted over twenty times.
    The second version, which was released in 1997, altered the title slightly, redid the cover art, and dropped the Zelda and Zelda II portion of the book, replacing it instead with the walkthrough for Link's Awakening which used the same format as similar walkthroughs from their Nintendo Game Boy Secrets line, and again sold a ridiculous number of copies. Don't worry; I'll have that one up for you here shortly.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    579 downloads

    5 comments

    Updated

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