Miscellaneous
48 files
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Final Fantasy III Players Guide
By Areala
Final Fantasy III / Final Fantasy VI is, hands down, my favorite Final Fantasy title. And this right here just might be my favorite strategy guide of all time. Presented in full colour, flush with screenshots, along with copious artwork by artist Yoshitaka Amano, and a section at the end featuring some gorgeous full-size in-game maps, Olafson's guide is written more like a story as opposed to a walkthrough.
At $12.95, this was an absolute showstopper of a book. It may be less complete overall than Nintendo's own game guide, as it doesn't contain things like monster stats, weapon and item lists, Gau's Rage tables, or other in-depth information one might expect to see in an RPG guide. But the sheer quality of Olafson's prose guides the reader through the story so well it feels like playing the game. It's one of the few guides I've read from cover to cover multiple times. It's just that good.
This book is generally very expensive on the second-hand market. Copies on eBay routinely sell for $50 or more, and copies in excellent condition can fetch upwards of $100. For Final Fantasy III fans, it's a highly-sought collector's item. If you've ever looked at a listing and wondered why, I hope a flip through this book explains everything. If every guide followed Olafson's example, strategy guides would be regarded as works of art instead of simple cash grabs.
Enjoy! ❤️
982 downloads
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Ocean Jurassic Park Super Strategy Guide
By E-Day
Ocean Jurassic Park Super Strategy Guide
626 downloads
Submitted
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Castlevania - Symphony of the Night Survival Guide
By MigJmz
Castlevania - Symphony of the Night Survival Guide
614 downloads
0 comments
Submitted
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Duke Nukem 3D Official Strategies & Secrets
By Areala
Come get some!
The man with the mightiest boot in all of FPS-dom is in town with a few days to kill. But who wants to waste all their time bumping into walls and burning through jetpacks to find all the secrets, easter eggs, and crazy loot? So do yourself a favour: use this official strategy guide, with all its excellent walkthroughs and maps, to make those alien bastards pay for shooting up your ride.
This is a fun guide, with some extra developer commentary packed into the Appendix, and the obligatory CD-ROM on the back cover, stuffed with level maps, shareware, the entire first episode of Duke Nukem 3D, and other goodies.
The CD-ROM isn't a part of the .cbz archive, but you can download your own ISO of The Exclusive SYBEX/3D Realms Duke Nukem Companion CD to play around with, because your Retromags Goddesss loves you and ripped her copy so you could have the complete experience.
What are you waiting for, Christmas?
Enjoy! ❤️
526 downloads
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How to Win at Super Mario Bros. Games (1990)
By E-Day
Searchable PDF version of this book
486 downloads
0 comments
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Mortal Kombat 3 Player's Guide
By Areala
A fairly comprehensive guide to Mortal Kombat 3, mainly focused on the Arcade version, but also applicable to numerous home ports as well.
What makes this guide especially interesting is that it's also a guide to Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II, with complete character breakdowns and move lists for those games too. So this is really a three-in-one deal. Not bad for the money!
Screenshots are very clear despite being black-and-white, and there was even an offer to get a supplementary update to the book for when the arcade MK3 received its newest upgrade (which wound up being the Ultimate MK3 board revision).
All apologies for the Walden Software sticker on the back, covering up some of the text. That sucker was on there like cement, and peeling it would have damaged the cover worse than leaving it on. It, like this book, is a relic of a bygone era. Consider it special bonus content, just for you!
Enjoy! ❤️
449 downloads
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Tricks of the DOOM Programming Gurus
By Areala
A mammoth resource back in the day for creators looking to make their own levels for DOOM, DOOM II, and (to a much lesser extent) Heretic. Although the information on the various WAD authoring and editing tools is quite outdated (there are much, much better programs available for modern systems that also work under the enormous variety of source ports), if you're looking to mess around with the internal workings of DOOM then there's still plenty of information about level creation that is valid today. The book also spotlights a number of great WADs, points out some of the gimmicks in their level design, and explains how to use those same tricks and gimmicks in your own levels.
This is a massive book, nearly 950 total pages in size, including an 8-page color gallery right in the middle. It also contains a number of pages which are completely blank; to help lower the file size, I elected not to include these blank pages in the scan.
This file also doesn't include the CD which came with the book, but those interested in checking it out can find it over at Archive.org.
Enjoy!
*huggles*
Areala
448 downloads
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Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Game Strategies
By Areala
A 1989 NES book published by Bantam, likely pushed out to capitalize on the success of Jeff Rovin's How to Win at Nintendo Games from St. Martin's Press. This is mostly text with the occasional screenshot or box artwork thrown in, but either their screen capture tech was too primitive, or Bantam's monochrome printing process wasn't set up to handle pictures, because the screenshots from this book look awful.
Also, the margins in my copy of this book are seriously wacky. You'll see text running almost straight to the edge of the page in some sections, while others give plenty of space for the text. This is an issue with the printing of the book, not me being a klutz with the cropping tool, but I still apologize for how the text waffles and flies all over the place as you're scrolling through.
That said, the book is amusing for Sandler and Badgett's witty asides and commentary on the games they are covering. It's one of the very few books from this era to cover Friday the 13th, and it also features write-ups with mock artwork for several NES titles which never came to fruition. I've never seen these games mentioned in any other publication of the era, so it's an important historical artifact from that perspective alone, confirming that Matchbox at one time was working on creating NES software (or at least paying someone else to do so).
In any case, this kicked off a successful series for Bantam, who followed this up with three additional volumes on NES games, along with books related to Game Boy, Genesis, Game Gear, and Super Nintendo hardware, many of which went through multiple print runs and editions.
Enjoy! ❤️
439 downloads
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Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Game Strategies, Volume 3
By Areala
Wow! So ultimate! Such strategy! Many unauthorized! Much Nintendo! Oh no!
So, yes, this is the third volume in Sandler and Badgett's series devoted to NES games. I don't know if this was just my copy or what, but the printing on this was some of the worst I've ever seen, with some pages printed at an angle, and some margins running straight to the bleed with seemingly little rhyme or reason. But, you know, back in the day, you paid your money and took your chances.
If you like these books, and their bizarre cover artwork, then you'll want this one in your collection, no doubt. If you don't? Then don't download it, I guess... You do you, Retromags peeps.
My final complaint? They rate the difficulty of Castlequest at "Apprentice", when it's one of the most punishingly brutal NES cartridges ever made. Seriously, the game comes with its own map showing you exactly where you need to go to rescue the princess, and also gives you fifty lives. Then it sits and laughs at you as you lose them all, one by one, and have to restart the game. What the hell were you smoking, Corey Sandler? Explain yourself!
Enjoy! ❤️
428 downloads
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Lara Croft Paper Doll
By Areala
This most excellent paper doll was included as an exclusive bonus for people who purchased the Tomb Raider I and II Official Strategy Guide from Prima back in 1999. The doll herself was printed on thick cardstock, with scoring lines, while her clothing came on high-gloss paper stock.
I've done a high-resolution 600dpi scan of the doll by herself, so you can print her out, dress her up, and take her on all sorts of adventures outside of her video games. Where will you travel? What treasures will you discover? It's all up to you!
Enjoy! ❤️
419 downloads
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Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Classic Game Strategies
By Areala
Another Sandler & Badgett production, so if you liked previous ones, you'll dig this one too. As always, blank pages have been omitted to reduce the file size.
I have to say, this might actually be the best of the bunch I've found so far. The quality of paper on this one is higher than previous editions, the screen shots look better, and there were no issues with dramatically shifting margins or other weirdness from Bantam's printers.
Lots of good games covered in this one; it's practically a "greatest hits" run-down of the NES's best series. Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Mega Man, and more all get their due. If you're only going to have one of this series in your library, make sure it's this one.
There were at least 2 editions of this book printed. This is the first printing. I've seen pictures online of the second, which is slightly smaller, and says "2nd Edition" in the upper-left corner of the cover, but I don't have this version.
Enjoy! ❤️
414 downloads
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Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Game Strategies, Volume 2
By Areala
What's that? You want more ultimate, more unauthorized, more Nintendo, more strategies? Of course you do! Here's another 250+ pages of them!
Much like Volume 1, there's quite a bit left to be desired in this book. The images are still all in black and white, and still very low quality when compared to those in Prima's "Game Secrets" series. And there are some mistakes here and there (the image from Magmax showing up in the entry for Seicross being probably the most egregious offender). But look at all those money saving coupons in the back!
Well, they've long since expired, but you get my point. If you loved the first book, you're going to love the second. If the first volume did nothing for you, then I'm afraid I have some bad news...
Enjoy! ❤️
Edit: check out the discussion thread for this file for some more great info about the artwork by Bill Mayer used on this and other covers in this series, courtesy of @TresHombres:
410 downloads
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How to Win at Nintendo Games #2
By Areala
Volume 2 of the series which keeps on giving gave everybody more of what they already got last time, and we were all delighted by that, thank you very much!
While this series wasn't specifically aimed at children, the ad in the back for a bunch of books in the "Truly Tasteless Jokes" series seems...well, tasteless. Then again, it's not like Rovin had half a dozen of these guys under his belt for St. Martin's Press to advertise, and crass humour likely sold just as well as video game books, so who knows: maybe they made a fortune off the cross-promotion.
Now I want to get one of those dirty joke books and see if they advertise Rovin's material in the back.
Enjoy! ❤️
405 downloads
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Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Super NES Game Strategies, '94 Edition
By Areala
The 90s kept rolling on, and like clockwork, Corey Sandler and Tom Badgett cranked out yet another volume of this best-selling series. While this one's a pocket-sized paperback, it's still rocking over 300 pages of content, though like the rest of the series, the bulk of it is text, and the screenshots are both minimal and monochromatic.
This, as best I can tell, is the final book in the Bantam Game Mastery Series worked on by Sandler and Badgett. The early 90s was the peak era for game books like this, which were already starting to get squeezed off the shelves in favor of large-format, single-game guides which often came in full colour. Prima was on the rise, Brady was cooking up trouble in the basement, and traditional book publishers like Random House and St. Martin's Press scaling back operations on video game books. Still, I think there's a lot to like in this one, and if you were a kid on a limited budget, the fact this was $6.99 vs. $12 or more for a full-sized, single-game guide didn't hurt.
Like some of the other books in this series, the margins get pretty tight in my copy, so you'll see text running almost to the edge of the page in a few instances. Once again, this is a printing issue in my particular copy, not an issue with my ability to crop scans, but still it makes the overall file look kind of dopey, and for that, I apologize.
Enjoy! ❤️
399 downloads
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Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Game Boy Strategies, 3rd Edition
By Areala
Jeff Rovin might have figured out how to get the money from video game books flowing, but brother, Corey Sandler and Tom Badgett's output over the years stuck a vacuum hose into the pockets of America's youth, siphoning off birthday cash, allowance money, and everything else they could get their hands on. This here's the third edition of their already best-selling Game Boy book, and for a mere five dollars, it promised nothing less than total dominance and the latest info on the most recent games.
You've got to hand it to these guys for attacking their topics with such mercenary zeal. Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis...no system was safe from this daring duo and their game-addicted progeny. This edition was condensed down to a more portable mass-market paperback from the previous versions' trade paperback size, also resulting in a price cut ($4.99 vs. $9.99), no doubt making it that much easier to sell, while scaling down the size of both the text and interior images.
It's competent, accessible, and everything you would want something like this to be. Which is good, because it's the fifteenth book these guys churned out in four years, so you'd expect them to have mastered the formula. They don't disappoint.
Enjoy! ❤️
392 downloads
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How to Win at Game Boy Games
By Areala
Jeff Rovin and his sons branch into the portable gaming market with this book. Like the others in this series, this is an all-text, all-the-time format.
My copy of this book had a few pages where the print seeped dangerously close to the margins. I don't know if this was a problem solely with my copy, or if every book looks like this, but if it looks like the margins jump around at some point, it wasn't anything I did on my end while creating the file, I promise. There was also a corner gouged from one corner on the second-to-last page in my copy which shall remain immortalized in this scan. I try to take good care of my books, but accidents happen, alas.
Enjoy! ❤️
383 downloads
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Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Super NES Game Strategies '95 Edition
By Areala
The 1995 update to the long-running "Ultimate Unauthorized" series of books, this time written by Jason Rich as opposed to Corey Sandler and Tom Badgett. Very minimal illustrations and screenshots, almost all text, it's a travesty that at this point in the series they were charging $10.95 for this book when there were so many better offerings out there. About the only good things one can say is that it does cover a ton of titles, and the paper quality is superior to other books of its type.
Otherwise, pity the poor reader who wound up with this book instead of one of the many better selections out there. I felt guilty chopping up some of the other books I've scanned, just because going through them brought back so many good memories and it seems a shame to destroy one even if the end result is that it's preserved for others to enjoy.
This one though? I feel zero guilt. It merely existed on my shelf, and now I can recycle it to make room for something worthier.
Enjoy. ❤️
382 downloads
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How to Win at Super Nintendo Entertainment System Games
By Areala
Jeff's a bit late to jump on the Super Nintendo train, since it had been out in the US for a year by the time this edition of his best-selling series was published. But if you thought the man had earned enough bank with eight prior game book releases, you had another thing coming. Still unofficial, still unendorsed by Nintendo, and still written by watching his kids and their neighborhood cronies play the game while he took copious notes. Why waste a perfectly good system?
Some of the games in here benefit little from Rovin's advice; the short write-up on Final Fight may as well be condensed to read, "Walk right and punch people." The Pilotwings strategy is literally just some passwords and a few tips on how to tackle the game's bonus stages (although the cheeky entry under "Enemies" made me giggle). On the other hand, games like Super Mario World, Link to the Past, and Wanderers From Ys get quite a bit more attention.
Methinks Jeff's son Michael had a girlfriend at this time in his life. The name used for all the passwords in Super Castlevania IV is MEGNMIKE. Awwwwww... 😍
Enjoy! ❤️
380 downloads
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Gamemaster: Conquering Sega Genesis Games
By Areala
The second book released by Jeff Rovin under his "Gamemaster" moniker, this time aimed at helping you whittle down that backlog of Sega Genesis and Sega CD games you'd built up over the years. Like the rest of his video game books, this one's all-text, all the time. Like the Super Nintendo book, it dispenses with reviews and other unnecessary bits to focus entirely on cheats, Game Genie/Pro Action Replay codes, tips, and strategies to get you as far into the games as possible. There are some extra pages in the back where you can take notes, write down passwords, or draw maps.
My version of this book has the previous owner's name and date of purchase inscribed on the first page. I thought about editing this out, but decided against it since it was part of this particular copy's history. Susan Forman, wherever you are, if you should run across this file some day I hope it makes you smile to know we've immortalized your specific book in our archives.
Enjoy! ❤️
355 downloads
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Gamemaster: Conquering Super Nintendo Games
By Areala
After teaching everybody "How to Win" for five years, Jeff Rovin adopted a new moniker for himself: "Gamemaster". A bit ironic, since Rovin himself never actually played the games for which he was writing down strategies, but the 90s were nothing if not the "fake it 'til you make it" era, so there you have it.
The book's broken down into two separate sections; the first features varying degrees of secret codes and strategies for 90 different titles, although nothing terribly comprehensive for any of the games no matter how complex or long said games might be. A little over three pages devoted to Final Fantasy II, about the same for Zombies Ate my Neighbors, but only one page or so given over to most action, platformer, and sports titles. The second section is literally nothing but cheats, passwords, Game Genie and Pro Action Replay codes, and the like; stuff you'd find in any magazine's cheat column. At $5 for a solid 230 pages of content, this isn't a bad deal. Rovin's introduction and afterward are also interesting reading, with Rovin making the case that the government has about as much reason to come after video games as they did with comics books back in the 1950s. Nice to see a guy who is a parent opining that it's really up to the parents to be responsible for what their children play instead of assuming an involuntary rating system will do anything except give kids a reason to rent the more mature titles on Friday night.
There are a lot of errors, omissions, and mistakes in this book though. The back cover claims Super Metroid is covered inside, when it doesn't appear in either section. The table of contents labels the second section of the book as "NES Short Takes" instead of SNES Short Takes. The front cover refers to the Zelda titles as "Link Games" (which makes it sound like carts you could connect to other carts a-la Sonic the Hedgehog 3), and the back cover mentions a game called "Streetfighters II".
There are also oddities in the presentation of some material. Rovin sometimes offers up passwords without explaining where they put you or what they'll give you (see Wings 2: Aces High), and does the same with Game Genie codes (see Final Fantasy II). Yeah, it doesn't take long to type in a couple of codes and see what happens, but maybe I'd like to know what I'm getting into before plugging in the ol' Game Genie. Especially if one of the codes you're going to give us is a "Gunslinger" code which can be used to change any item in the game into any other item in the game. If you don't explain what that code does, and how to use it, you haven't done anybody any favours, Jeff.
Anyway, my copy of this book has some slight water damage on the first couple of pages, but everything came out legible. Enjoy! ❤️
349 downloads
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Compute's Adventure Game Player's Handbook
By Areala
Another 500-page tome of PC gaming goodness. Compute's Adventure Game Player's Handbook provides walkthroughs for 37 games which are (mostly) of the point-and-click variety from the mid-90's catalogue of DOS offerings. And these are some top-notch games: some Leisure Suit Larry titles, a couple of Space Quest entries, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, both Ultima Underworld adventures, the CD-ROM sensation that was The 7th Guest, Laura Bow's first outing in The Dagger of Amon Ra, the H.R. Geiger inspired Dark Seed, the second Tex Murphy adventure Martian Memorandum, Sierra's Rise of the Dragon cyberpunk tale, and even Steve Meretzky's comical final entry in the Spellcasting trilogy...seriously, some of the best PC adventure games available at the time.
Once again, not as outdated as you might think, since many of these titles are easily available and accessible from digital services like GOG and Steam, meaning you could re-play many of them today with minimal hassle and put this book to good use. Mostly text, but there are an awful lot of screenshots and computer-rendered maps along with other things like item lists and even the occasional cheat code or two which make this a great reference work.
Enjoy! ❤️
315 downloads
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Beyond the Nintendo Masters
By Areala
Follow-up publication to Tricks of the Nintendo Masters, which was itself followed by Winner's Guide to Sega Genesis.
Like other publications of the time, this one is almost entirely text-based, with only some neat art pieces for the interior pages to break up the words. Unlike other publications of the time, this one contains a forward by sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card, author of the Ender's Game series of books among others.
At only 148 pages, it's much smaller than many of its contemporaries despite being the same price. The Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Game Strategies books offered over 100 more pages for the same cover price, and also included screenshots. In addition, the authors either were told not to give too much away, or just plain couldn't get too far into some games. The strategy section for Metal Gear, for instance, goes up to the point where Snake can locate the rocket launcher. It tells you to contact Jennifer on a specific frequency before you enter a certain room, then offers this nugget: "Which room? You figure it out." I'm sorry, I thought that's what I was paying you for...?
Another me-too cash grab which is all-too-blatant when viewed through adult eyes.
This copy was fairly beat up on the covers, and had some writing on the front title page which I simply blocked out in GIMP. I edited it up slightly, but again, my background is in writing, not graphic design, so my apologies if the obvious edits are distracting.
Enjoy! ❤️
309 downloads
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Final Fantasy VII Unofficial Strategies & Secrets for the PC
By Areala
An unofficial, text-only strategy guide produced specifically for the PC edition of Final Fantasy VII. This is a pretty odd beast, considering virtually every other FF7 guide on the market is both full colour and packed with screenshots. Even though this was meant for the PC release, there's really nothing preventing you from using it to play through the PS1 version, since they're almost entirely identical.
Not a particularly common guide, but also not a terribly interesting one thanks to its bland presentation. Ronald Wartow is a good writer though, and even if you've played through the console version many times, you may enjoy reading his take on the adventure.
Enjoy! ❤️
307 downloads
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Pokemon Trainer's Survival Guide (1998)
By dablais
Pokemon Trainer's Survival Guide (1998)
306 downloads
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