Jump to content
  • Welcome Guest!

    Welcome to Retromags! Feel free to download as many of our releases as you like, but why not go ahead and sign up and thank our members for their hard work below. 😀

     

Brady Games

49 files

  1. Max Payne Official Strategy Guide

    Max Payne Official Strategy Guide

    700 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted

  2. Official Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Arcade Secrets

    Official Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 Arcade Secrets

    398 downloads

    3 comments

    Submitted

  3. Quake Authorized Strategy Guide

    Quake Authorized Strategy Guide

    681 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated

  4. Quake Authorized Strategy Guide

    Flying into 2023 with this first release of the year, what could be more epic than another strategy guide for the behemoth FPS known as Quake?
    Yeah, yeah, I know, almost anything else.
    But it's Quake, so you're going to download this, you're going to slap the 'thank you' button to pay me my tribute, and you're going to wait for the next strategy guide with baited breath, because you all love me.
    Happy New Year!
    Enjoy! ❤️

    310 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated

  5. Quake II Authorized Strategy Guide

    It's a Quake II strategy guide which printed the maps twice: one in green-and-greyscale, once in full colour! And they're just as useless no matter which version of them you're viewing! Hooray!
    Otherwise, this is just your bog-standard strategy guide to an FPS. There's the obligatory enemy list, weapons load-out, multiplayer tips, a page and a half on using the console, and those full colour maps!
    Also, whoever had the bright idea to only put page numbers on every other page, or just stop them for a bit then start up again later, deserves to be dipped in horseradish and thrown to the jellyfish. 😡
    You don't need this. You're going to download it anyway, because you're a digital hoarder, and that's totally fine. I'm just pointing out the obvious.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    246 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated

  6. Resident Evil - Operation Raccoon City (2012)

    Resident Evil - Operation Raccoon City (2012)

    337 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted

  7. RPG Companion: An Insider's Guide to PC Roleplaying Games

    For all the time I've spent giving Brady Games guff about the quality of their mid-90's content, this is a pretty darn cool book. Maybe because it's aimed more at PC gamers, maybe because it's written by Ronald Wartow (who could both write about games and play them with equal skill), maybe it's because he solicited input from some of the industry's top designers, but this is a badass tome: 500 pages of knowledge, lore, and history all wrapped into one big bible-thick slab.
    With the resurgence in availability of these games on modern systems thanks to services like GOG and Steam, the usefulness of books like this has come 'round again. Twenty-five years later, we can play through these games again without the need to hack around with boot floppies, CONFIG.SYS files, driver mishaps, IRQ conflicts, and restarting in MS-DOS mode to free up memory. This one contains walkthroughs for twenty-six different games, and while they aren't step-by-step, hold-your-hand sorts, they (along with the principles Wartow introduces in the early chapters) will get the job done while still leaving it up to your skills to actually play the game.
    Lots of tables, interviews, screenshots, hints, cheats, and other information is dispensed about each game as well. Some of this stuff gets downright hacker-esque, with tips on hex editing, mucking around with your save files, where to find update patches, and other things books of the day didn't often comment on.
    It also shipped with a free issue of "Interactive Entertainment", a magazine-on-CD which lasted for about 25 or so issues before it was folded in to become the cover disc for "Computer Games Strategy Plus" magazine. My copy was missing this CD-ROM, but Archive.org has more than half of them available for download if you want to see what they were like.
    Anyway, this is an awesome book, and it belongs in the library of anyone who grew up a classic era PC gamer, or who is interested in that era of PC gaming history.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    426 downloads

    6 comments

    Updated

  8. Secret Code Overload

    This is a much better multi-game guide than some of Brady's other offerings. Ninety-six pages of cheats, unlockables, and GameShark codes for Nintendo 64, Saturn, and PlayStation titles...this stuff was like GameFAQs before there was a GameFAQs, ya know?
    Because of the way this book was printed, a lot of the text on the odd-numbered pages ran smack-dab against the gutter. I don't think anything got completely lost in the de-binding process, but you may see some white areas where I over-compensated for the close shave. My apologies; I suck at editing.
    Donated by ModernZorker, who isn't a member here, but sent me this in a care package anyway.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    304 downloads

    2 comments

    Submitted

  9. Street Fighter Alpha Anthology Official Strategy Guide (2006)

    Street Fighter Alpha Anthology Official Strategy Guide (2006)

    463 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted

  10. Street Fighter Anniversary Collection Official Fighter's Guide (2004)

    Street Fighter Anniversary Collection Official Fighter's Guide (2004)

    492 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted

  11. Syphon Filter - Totally Unauthorized Strategy Guide

    Syphon Filter - Totally Unauthorized Strategy Guide

    332 downloads

    3 comments

    Submitted

  12. The Legend Of Zelda - The Wind Waker - Official Strategy Guide (2003)

    The Legend Of Zelda - The Wind Waker - Official Strategy Guide (2003)
    Platform: Nintendo GameCube
    Note, Magazine is complete but it's missing the huge map, it will be scanned and added in a couple of days.

    239 downloads

    3 comments

    Updated

  13. Tomb Raider II Totally Unauthorized Pocket Guide

    Testing the waters with my own ability to scan stuff using my old, slow flatbed.

    349 downloads

    4 comments

    Updated

  14. Tomb Raider III Pocket Guide

    As with other Brady Games pocket guides, this one is a bare-bones walkthrough explaining a single path through the game mostly through text with some black-and-white screenshots thrown in for good measure. Tomb Raider III introduced a non-linear stage concept, where after completing the India portion of the game, the next several missions (taking place in the South Pacific, the Nevada desert, and London) could be attempted in any order before Lara headed to Antarctica to confront her final adversary.
    While the middle stages can be attempted in any order, the path chosen by the guide's author is objectively the worst one possible. In the Nevada segment, Lara is captured by the US Military and stripped of her weapons, ammo, and supplementary items like medkits and flares. While she can and does reacquire her weapons, the additional ammo and usable items she had gathered up to that point in the game are permanently lost. Because of this, experienced players know to head straight for Nevada after India, thus allowing them to re-supply in London and the South Pacific. The walkthrough in this guide, however, leaves the Nevada missions for last, making the Antarctica levels harder than necessary.
    Oh well. Nobody's perfect.
    Interestingly enough, this is one of the few Brady Games pocket guides which is not an unauthorized release.

    255 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated

  15. Totally Unauthorized Combat Guide to Duke Nukem 3D

    Guides which brand themselves as "totally unauthorized" are a mixed bag. I mean, the writers of the authorized guides get their info from the game's publisher and developer, they get the rights to use artwork, screenshots, and other assets, and typically offer some bonus features like interviews with the developers, a CD-ROM stuffed with extra goodies, and other tidbits. The "unauthorized" guys, though? They have to make do with whatever artwork the in-house artists come up with, don't get any special access to designers and programmers, and have to build their strategies from scratch. To stand out, the unauthorized guides are usually a few bucks cheaper than the official one right next to it on the shelf, and that's usually all they've got. But occasionally an unauthorized guide will go above and beyond the call of duty to kick ass and take names, making itself worthy of your cash despite not being authorized.
    This book, my friends, is one of those special snowflakes. Because despite Sybex buying the right to make the official guide for Duke Nukem 3D (and making a kick-ass guide in their own write, complete with its own CD on the back cover), Steven Schafer and the hooligans at Brady Games laced up the combat boots and waded into the trenches to make their combat guide totally worth the money.
    In here, you'll find the normal write-ups on weapons, enemies, and power-ups. In here, you'll see the same level maps as you'd see in the official book. But that's only the first 150 pages. From page 152 on, you're treated to an orgy of information concerning configuring and playing multiplayer DukeMatch games, a comprehensive breakdown of all the game's media files (textures, sprites, sounds, etc...), and a complete tutorial on how to make your own levels using the Build Engine (which is where all that index info on the game's internal media files comes in handy, and can help you best utilize and/or replace assets as needed).
    The official guide devotes a whole two pages to this. They're basically like, "Yeah, um, Duke Nukem 3D includes a level editor. It's called Build. Check it out!". Probably this was so people would feel enticed to fork over another $24.99 in order to get Sybex's Duke Nukem 3D Level Design Handbook (which is a great book in its own right, well worth the buy if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of level creation, and will be appearing here in the not too distant future), but I'm not joking when I tell you this unauthorized book can teach you enough to make the level design book almost completely unnecessary.
    It also covers the secret DukeMatch-only level, "Faces of Death", which comes with the game, but requires a command-line interface trick to get working if you want to see it in single-player, and is something even the official guidebook doesn't bring up.
    I reiterate: the official guide leaves out all mention of the fact this level even exists, but the Brady gang gives it two full pages of maps and basic level info. What?!
    This book kicks some serious ass, and as far as I'm concerned, if you're a Duke Nukem 3D fan, you need it in your library.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    171 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated

  16. Totally Unauthorized Fighting Secrets III: No Mercy

    This book. Oh my gosh, this book.
    I've seen a lot of strategy guides in my four decades on this planet. I've seen a number of books and guides which have typos in them. Sometimes in the text, sometimes (very rarely) in the table of contents or the index. But I want you to take a minute and open up the cover image for this book, and take a look at it. Because never have I seen a strategy guide so rushed to market that it misspelled the name of one of the games it covers on the front cover.
    Can someone, anyone, please tell me about the game "Soul Egde"? Because I've certainly never heard of it. Soul Edge? Absolutely! But "Soul EGDE"?
    SOUL EGDE?!
    On the front and back covers of your book?
    Please, BradyGames, PLEASE tell me someone lost their job over letting that one slip through quality control.
    As if the black-and-white only presentation wasn't cheap enough. As if the text-only interior didn't already scream "we put this whole thing together the night before the deadline". But then you expected us to pay ten dollars, in 1996 money, for a book with the misspelled title of a game on the covers?
    You, sir, are the cash-grab guide book to end all cash-grab guide books.
    Debinding this book brought me nigh-on orgasmic pleasure. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.
    Good day to you, strategy guide.
    I SAID, "GOOD DAY"!
    Enjoy! ❤️

    219 downloads

    8 comments

    Updated

  17. Totally Unauthorized Guide to Resident Evil Director's Cut Pocket Guide

    This is a version of the original Totally Unauthorized Guide to Resident Evil pocket guide, adapted by David Cassady and Debra McBride for use with the Director's Cut of the game. It's based on a pre-release edition of the software, but like its predecessor it contains walkthroughs for both Chris and Jill's playthroughs, along with maps, enemy descriptions, and item and weapon locations.
    Gone from the previous edition is the "speed run" text in red, so you'll have to figure out the optimal strategies for that sub-one-hour time yourself.
    No mention of the terrible mess made of the soundtrack in the Director's Cut version either, but you don't buy a strategy guide to learn about the music, so that's not surprising.

    441 downloads

    4 comments

    Updated

  18. Totally Unauthorized Guide to Resident Evil Pocket Guide

    Brady's unofficial pocket guide to the original PS1 release of Resident Evil. This doesn't cover the Director's Cut, which got its own pocket guide release later.
    A very bare-bones walkthrough presented almost entirely in text with the occasional screenshot and a few maps. It covers both Jill and Chris's scenarios, and presents a single optimized route through the Spencer mansion and surrounding environs for each character. Walkthrough text is presented in both black and red; red sections are meant to be skipped if you are attempting a sub-one-hour play in order to unlock the infinite Rocket Launcher for subsequent playthroughs.
    My copy of this has some minor water damage to a few of the pages early on; I did the best I could, but the quality isn't stellar because I have zero Photoshop knowledge. Anyone with the means and/or desire to clean this one up, feel free.

    356 downloads

    3 comments

    Updated

  19. Totally Unauthorized PlayStation Games Book Volume 2

    Totally Unauthorized PlayStation Games Book Volume 2

    484 downloads

    0 comments

    Updated

  20. Totally Unauthorized PlayStation Games Book, Volume 3

    First we released Volume 2, then we released Volume 5, now we release Volume 3. I know you're all giddy with anticipation!
    Presented in full color with minimal screencaps (since this was an unofficial guide, after all), this is a pretty ordinary, just-the-facts type of guide to a variety of best-selling PS1 hits. Average in almost every way. The text for Tekken 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 was lifted from Totally Unauthorized Fighting Secrets III: No Mercy, so if you already have that one, this was not as great a value as it seemed on the cover.
    Still, ten game strategies for ten bucks, in colour, and on decent quality paper? You could do worse.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    339 downloads

    1 comment

    Updated

  21. Totally Unauthorized PlayStation Games Book, Volume 5

    These unauthorized compilation books from BradyGames really aren't that great. About the best thing you can say about this one is that it's in colour, and it covers nine different games, but even then there's just not a lot of content in those 128 pages. The strategies are fine, but there aren't any screenshots, just the occasional bit of artwork Brady could get away with including without obtaining an actual license to use assets. The code list which takes up the last few pages is honestly the best part of this. The Tomb Raider II section is just a list of where each item is found in each level, but it doesn't give you any help on actually beating any of the stages or anything. Boo!
    At least with fighting games, it's pretty easy to nail down a move list and go from there. Then again, if one of the fighting games you're covering is Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi...well, do I really have to say anything?
    The thing is, if these books didn't sell well, then it's hard to see why Brady would have kept cranking them out. I mean, five volumes of this stuff is about four too many, but Brady did a metric shit-ton of these compilation books spanning multiple eras and multiple platforms, so somebody must have been buying them.
    This one was donated by ModernZorker, who isn't a member here (maybe think about fixing that, bro?) but who does write about video games and other nerdy things in various places around the internet, and who, according to him, made his wife's day by getting it out of his house. Now it's making my day by going into the recycle bin.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    291 downloads

    2 comments

    Updated

  22. Totally Unauthorized Sega Games Guide

    Another totally unauthorized compilation book from BradyGames, this time aimed at the Sega Genesis, along with the Sega CD and 32X attachments. This is a pretty good book, all things considered. Lots of screenshots, printed in full colour on high-quality paper stock. Sega groupies will eat this right up!
    Donated by ModernZorker.
    Enjoy! ❤️

    432 downloads

    8 comments

    Submitted

  23. Unreal Tournament Official Strategy Guide

    Unreal Tournament Official Strategy Guide

    437 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted

  24. Zone of Enders - Official Strategy Guide

    Zone of Enders - Official Strategy Guide

    493 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted

×
×
  • Create New...
Affiliate Disclaimer: Retromags may earn a commission on purchases made through our affiliate links on Retromags.com and social media channels. As an Amazon & Ebay Associate, Retromags earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your continued support!