The revenge of the video game manual

Instruction manuals died out as video games introduced tutorials instead. But now games such as Tunic and The Banished Vault are bringing them back

Players of a certain age will no doubt have fond memories of the paper instruction manuals that once came with every video game. Dan Marshall, creator of The Swindle and Lair of the Clockwork God, certainly does. He remembers the ritual of poring over the manual for a new game on the bus ride home from the shops, trying to absorb all of its information in preparation for playing the game itself.

He vividly recalls receiving Bullfrog's 1993 game Syndicate via mail order early one morning, then impatiently waiting hours for his brother to wake up so he could play it on the PC in his room. And for that solid time I did nothing but read the manual over and over and over again," Marshall says.