Areala

Hey all you 'Secrets of the Games' collectors out there! Welcome to volume 1 of Prima's Super NES Games Secrets, where GamePro's Andy Eddy compiled strategies shared by Zach Meston, Rusel DeMaria, and Donn Nauert into a book covering most of the original releases for the console. Expect to see Super Mario World, Pilotwings, U.N. Squadron, F-Zero, Super R-Type, Gradius III, and (admit it, the real reason you bought this book) True Golf Classics: Waialae Country Club!
Otherwise, why are you reading this? There were something like two dozen books in this format put out by Prima. You know what they look like. You know what you're getting. You already downloaded it. Click 'Thanks' to pay your tribute, and await the release of Volume 2 as soon as I get it finished. ❤️

Straight from Prima, the official book publishers of GamePro (according to the small print on the back cover), here's ONE THOUSAND freaking hints, tips, secrets, passwords, cart swap tricks, and other assorted nonsense from the Pros. If you've been struggling with Sonic the Hedgehog, bogged down in Beast Wrestler, stuck in Splatterhouse 2, caught up in Castle of Illusion, wrapped up in Wings of Wor, traumatized by Trampoline Terror, paused in Predator 2, grounded in Gaiares, broken by Burning Force, tripped up by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist, agonized by After Burner II, demented by Dark Castle, pounded by Pit Fighter, thrashed by Technocop, menaced by Might and Magic, abused by Arnold Palmer Golf, outgunned in Onslaught, mystified by Mortal Kombat, dizzied by DecapAttack, harassed by Heavy Nova, crushed by Chakan the Forever Man, undone by Universal Soldier, zonked by Zombies Ate My Neighbors, shamed by Stormlord, kicked by Klax, lambasted by The Last Battle, rattled by Rolling Thunder 2, embarrassed by El Viento, or mauled in Mutant League Hockey, then maybe, just maybe, the stuff you need to win can be found in this handy-dandy booky-wook.
Download it, slap that 'Like' button, and leave a comment so I can afford a new thesaurus.
Enjoy! ❤️

You know what this is. I know what this is. You know you're going to download it. I know you're going to download it.
Volume 1 of Prima's Nintendo Game Boy Secrets is Rusel DeMaria and Zach Meston doing the thing they did for Nintendo NES games, Super NES games, and Sega Genesis games, only for (wait for it) the Nintendo Game Boy!
See? I didn't even have to write that. You didn't have to read it. But I did. And you did. Now, download the file, pay your tribute to your Retromags Goddess by smacking that 'Thanks' button like you're trying to smack the batteries out of your portable system, and prepare for the next release in the "Secrets of the Game" series, coming soon from my bookshelves.

This was one of the best-selling video game guidebooks of the 90's. It's a bit odd, in that there were two different versions of this book published (one with this name, the other with the slightly different title of Super Mario World Secrets), and I'm unsure of the reason behind the name change. I have both books, but aside from some minor changes on the Library of Congress page and some slight differences in cover design, I can't tell a difference. This one is copyright 1991, while Super Mario World Secrets is copyright 1992. But they otherwise have exactly the same information, the same page count, the same screenshots and information. They even use the same ISBN. I haven't done a page-by-page, line-by-line comparison on my copies, but if there are any differences, I've been unable to find them.
This is entirely different from the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past book from the 'Secrets of the Game' series, where one version contained tips for Link's Awakening on the Game Boy, while the other had strategies for Legend of Zelda and Zelda II on the NES. So while I did scan both versions of that book, I don't see any reason to do so for Super Mario World Secrets unless someone can point out some major differences or discrepancies in the text.
In any case, this is a perfectly awesome walkthrough for the game, even if it's only black and white. It won't help you break a speedrun record or anything like that, but it does actually feature a small section on getting through the game as quickly as possible, using only 13 of the game's stages (or 11 if you're willing to skip the Yellow Switch Palace), which I absolutely used back in the day.
In any case, enjoy! ❤️

Unless you were alive back then, it's almost impossible to understand just how massive the adventure genre of gaming was for personal computers. Exhibit one, were I attempting to make a legal case, would have to be this book right here. It covers seventy-seven adventure programs released across various computer platforms, everything from Adventure to Zork III, and had a cover price of $19.95. Twenty bucks probably seems like an average price for a strategy guide, especially a 350-page behemoth like this guy, but in 1984 that was the equivalent of sixty US dollars in today's currency. How on earth could publisher Arrays, Inc. get away with charging that much for a black-and-white, mostly-text guidebook?
To put that a bit more in perspective, purchasing a copy of Zork I: The Great Underground Empire for your Apple II home computer back in the halcyon days of 1981 would have set you back $39.95 (or roughly US $120 in today's money). Computer games weren't just costly, they were downright extravagant. And that was after you factored in the several thousand dollars that buying the home computer itself had already set you back. Sure, there were deals to be found when shops were looking to clear out last year's inventory to make room for the next wave of software, but there was no Steam Summer Sale where you could pick up a bunch of AAA-blockbusters for 75% or more off their list price. If you wanted to play Zork, or Wizardry, or Ultima, it was going to cost you. Minimum wage at the time was $2.75/hour, so you can do the math.
Nobody wanted to dump $40 on a game they couldn't beat, there was no internet where you could consult a FAQ, and while BBS systems were a thing, modems were not a part of the typical home computer installation. So the notion that, for half the cost of a typical adventure game, you could get puzzle solutions and maps for over seventy-five of the most popular titles from the last few years? That was a no-brainer. It was such a no-brainer that one year later, Kim Schuette put out The Book of Adventure Games II, which covered forty-five more adventures that had either been left out of the first volume, or had come out in the meantime, and it too sold like gangbusters.
I've had this book for almost as long as I've been alive. It (and its sequel) are long out of print, expensive on the second-hand market, and highly sought-after by retro adventure game enthusiasts and collectors. Chopping this one up was hard. But putting it out here, so it can have a new life and be seen and appreciated by others who may never have even known of its existence before now, gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I hope you enjoy looking through it as much as I have done over the years, back when I was just a little girl, doing her best hunt-and-peck typing on her TRS-80 keyboard, trying to figure out how to beat The Sands of Egypt.
This isn't just a piece of gaming history. This is a piece of my history. I hope you'll treasure it with me. ❤️

The first of a four-book, me-too Nintendo video game hints series. It was followed by "Mastering Nintendo Video Games II" which was a minor updated edition that reused much of this book's content. "Tricks of the Nintendo Masters" came next, and the series flared out and died with "Beyond the Nintendo Masters".
"Mastering Nintendo Video Games" was clearly inspired by Corey Sandler and Tom Badgett's "Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Game Strategies", what with its reliance on cute little icons and block text. Like other books of the time, this one focuses mainly on tips and strategies for accomplishing specific things in each game, like beating Elecman in Mega Man, or finding the raft in Zelda II. There aren't any pictures or screenshots of any kind, although some of the sections (especially the one on Super Mario Bros. 2) contain some computer-drawn diagrams to illustrate what you're going to face or what you should do.
The bad news is, the book also contains a number of hints that are either of little to no use, or are flat-out wrong. The Castlevania II portion, for instance, suggests that you should show the Ferryman some garlic, but this will do absolutely nothing except waste your garlic. Otherwise, this is a paint-by-numbers strategy book with tips mainly cribbed from the pages of Nintendo Power and GamePro.
My copy was acquired second-hand and the previous owner had made notes in pen on a few of the pages. I did my best to clean these up, but my background is in writing and not image manipulation so...sorry.

Now this is a piece of retro gaming history. While not the first book written describing strategies for winning in the arcade, Michael Blanchet was among the earliest authors putting pen to paper and explaining the ins and outs of video games as he saw them. A recent college graduate, he worked in an arcade by day, dispensing both quarters and tips for fellow gamers, and picking up strategies from his regular customers. It didn't take long for him to realize there was a thirst for this kind of knowledge, and after winning top marks in an arcade gaming tournament for his performance in Battlezone, he got noticed by an agent for Simon & Schuster. They were looking for a book about arcade games, since "Mastering Pac-Man" by Ken Uston and "How to Master the Video Games" by Tom Hirschfeld had both become recent best-sellers. Blanchet said he had some ideas he'd been kicking around, and the result was the publication of this book in 1982, which reportedly sold over 80,000 copies.
Blanchet was able to parlay the success of this book (and its successor, "How To Beat Atari, Intellivision, and Other Home Video Games") into a regular newspaper column which ran twice a week up until the industry crashed, at which point Blanchet left video games journalism and moved on to the next phase of his life.
Your Retromags Goddess is pleased as punch to be able to bring you this awesome piece of early video game history as her first scan for 2024.

Getting in just under the deadline for this to be possibly the final release for 2023, I present to you, my lovely Retromags family, friends, and followers, this wonderful showpiece of DOS gaming history! Matt Tagliaferri got the goods straight from the 3D Realm gurus themselves so he could explain how the Duke designers pulled off all those nifty tricks with the Build engine: moving subways, reflective mirrors, destructible walls, swimming pools, sector-over-sector placement, you'll learn how to do it all with this book at your side!
Also included are full appendixes which break down the ins and outs of CON file editing, a listing of all the sound effects from the game with their appropriate reference data, and full breakdown of the commands build into the DukeC scripting language. Finally, the CD-ROM gives out a plethora of new art assets, fifty ready-to-play levels from other designers, shareware versions of Duke 3D and a bunch of other Apogee and 3D Realms titles, and a utility allowing you to convert maps from Doom, Heretic, and Hexen to play within Duke Nukem 3D. 😵
And I, your beloved Retromags Goddess, has included the CD-ROM (as a bin/cue file combo) right within the download so you can extract it and play to your heart's content! Holy cow, it's a New Year's Eve holiday miracle! ❤️
Thanks to all of you Retro-maniacs for encouraging me to continue radically downsizing my personal library. No thanks to whomever assembled my copy of this book for pasting the CD-ROM sleeve on the inside back cover upside down, which is why it looks that way in the scan. Sure, I could have flipped it, but I'm preserving these things as I found them.
*huggles*
Areala

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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! ❤️
 

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. ❤️

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! ❤️

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! ❤️

Prima's official guide to making the Empire look like a bunch of scruffy-looking Nerf-herders (at least until the sequel) makes its Retromags debut!
Probably what's most impressive about this book is the amount of artwork taken from the movies which is packed between the covers. There are sidebars galore, with all kinds of info on the major players from A New Hope, sprite rips of all the various enemies you will face in the game, and some huge, multiple-page-spanning composite maps of each level. Oh, and the cheat codes. Because, trust me, you're going to need those to get anywhere in this merciless game.
All in all, this is a pretty cool book which can be expensive to find in good condition. Even if you don't care for the game itself, it's something every fan of the Original Trilogy can flip through for a little nostalgia hit.
As Old Ben Kenobi might put it: "An elegant guide from a more civilized, pre-Special-Edition age."
Enjoy! ❤️

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! ❤️

Much like the previous Super Star Wars Official Game Secrets, only for the second game in the trilogy. Prima didn't get the rights to do the guide for Super Return of the Jedi, so the series for them ended here. Tons of black-and-white sprite artwork, along with preliminary sketches, movie poster reproductions from around the world, and a slew of stills pulled straight from the movie and promotional materials.
While it does contain full stage maps and walkthroughs for every area, it does not include any of the cheat codes. So if you're looking for those, keep looking, sucker! Otherwise, this is about as comprehensive as you could have hoped for back in the day. And, naturally, any Original Trilogy fans should have this in their collection just for the extra nerd cred.
Enjoy! ❤️

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! ❤️

Back in the pre-Internet days, Shay Addams ran an adventure gaming newsletter, later magazine, called "QuestBusters" which specialized in hints and solutions for computer RPG and adventure games. Shay parlayed his experience in the CRPG community into writing books which collected the hints and tips for a number of popular games. This, as far as I'm aware, is the second of three such books in the QuestBusters series, published in 1994.
All text, no screenshots, only the occasional piece of pen-and-ink artwork or hand-drawn map. But before GameFAQs, especially if you didn't have access to an online portal like CompuServe, this was the best you could do.
Enjoy! ❤️

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: