Project To Digitize Every SNES Game Manual Now Complete
from the hold-on-to-your-butts dept
Nearly two years ago, we discussed a fascinating project spearheaded by one dedicated person, going by the moniker Peebs, to digitize every video game manual’s English version for the Super Nintendo system. For those of you not of a certain age, video games used to come in the form of cartridges that you would load into the console. Those cartridges came packaged with game manuals that did everything from tell you how to play the game, up to and including game lore and backstory. Again, if you were born at the right time like yours truly, reading the manual upon buying the game, sometimes in the back of your Mom’s Plymouth Voyager minivan on the way back from Toys ‘R Us, was part of the excitement.
But, for a variety of reasons including both the timespan since these games came out, the physical nature of the manuals, and Nintendo’s neglect when it comes to preservation, these bits of gaming culture were under threat of historical erasure. Where Peebs and his volunteers came in was in spending nearly a decade collecting and digitizing those manuals without collecting a dime in payment, donations, or ad revenue. Two years ago, the project had about 100 manuals to go to be complete.
Today, however, the project is done and Peebs’ group says it has digitized every single English language SNES game manual out there.
Whether or not you care about gaming culture such as this, the undertaking is undeniably impressive. And, frankly, fueled by an oft-villified internet. Peebs made the archive available publicly when he had managed to collect roughly half the English game manuals out there. From there, a community sprung up around the site, with enthusiasts putting the word out all over the internet that someone was archiving these manuals for preservation. The internet did its thing, Peebs and his volunteers got the remaining manuals, and here we are.
Which leaves us with two questions while we celebrate this achievement. First, thus far Nintendo has been entirely hands off with Peebs’ work. That’s despite plenty of publications from the gaming industry taking notice of the work. That seems to suggest that maybe Nintendo either knows that this is covered by fair use or tacitly supports the project… but it’s Nintendo, so you can never be sure. It should shock exactly nobody if the company suddenly swoops in and tries to shut the site down.
And, second, why the hell is it up to a bunch of fans and volunteers to do the work of archivists? Surely Nintendo could have marshalled more resources and gotten this all done more quickly, no? So why didn’t it? Why does it seem that the only people doing the work of preserving the art of video games are the fans?
Filed Under: archives, crowdsourcing, game manuals, history, peebs, snes, video games
Companies: nintendo
Comments on “Project To Digitize Every SNES Game Manual Now Complete”
At least until Nintendo commits copyright theft like they always do to steal Peebs’s hard work.
You understand upon reading the headline I assumed the project was complete because Nintendo nuked it.
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There’s a chance this one will stay up. Nintendo actually provides free PDF manuals for many of their own SNES games, and would presumably have no right or reason to take down third-party manuals.
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Nintendo might not have a reason to pull Peebs’ scans (although that won’t stop them), but they do have a right since it’s their content in the manuals.
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You mean because the manuals have a Nintendo logo, or what? Apart from small parts like that, Nintendo would presumably not be an author of anything in a third-party manual.
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All hail the AC that’s never heard of a work for hire, for he is the fount of knowledge regarding all things copyright! /s
Re: Re: Re:3
Do you not know what “third-party” means, or are you suggesting Nintendo hired those third parties? If the latter, that’s the first I’m hearing about it.
Re: Re: Re:4
Yes, the latter. Because they were third parties until Nintendo employed them, and then they created the manuals in their positions as Nintendo employees. Works for hire aren’t made only by outside contractors, you know.
Re: Re: Re:2
Nintendo employees aren’t third parties, and the company does hold the copyright in whatever they create, ignoramus. Google “work for hire”.
Re: Re: Re:3
Right… hence the specific statement that “third-party manuals” are the ones they’d have no right to take down. As opposed to the first-party manuals, which they totally could—but all the most popular ones are freely provided by Nintendo on Nintendo’s own site, which would make such an action petty even by their standards.
Re: Re: Re:4
Those “third-party manuals” you reference are the scans, which came from the manuals Nintendo took control over through one-sided licensing deals. If you don’t believe me, take a look at any non-Nintendo game on a Nintendo console, such as Biohazard: Revelations for the 3DS. It’s got “Licensed by Nintendo” right on the sticker on the front.
Its very likely fair use, Nintendo goes after game mods, sites that host roms, games based on Nintendo ip, sometimes YouTube video game play throughs, and it’s only English manuals, this is not taking money from Nintendo, it may actually encourage people to buy old snes games, the long term problem is many old games are just released on consoles, less popular games cannot be bought as a digital. Download , eventually those cartridges might stop working , unless someone turns the cartridge into a rom file.
There’s something special about reading a physical game manual. And each manual would tell a story and have pictures of the various characters .
And there,d be one page with a diagram of the controls
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That hasn’t stopped them before.
Re: Re: Nintendo sees the law as a game
I assume it’s because Nintendo’s legal acumen and draconian enforcement thereof is because they see the law as a game to them (as they have been making playthings since their birth in 1889). That would be why they rarely overclaim any rights they have while zealously enforcing the ones they have; they seem to know the rules of the “game”. This could also be why they left my scene–the chiptune scene–alone: they know they’d lose.
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I’d wager that the reasoning for the decision to leave chiptune musicians alone was partly about the legal game, but mostly about avoiding a potentially huge PR disaster.
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The problem with Nintendo being worried they’d avoid a huge PR disaster is that they’ve done countless number of those during the current Nintendo Switch commercial lifecycle but none of them are making any real dents in sales (unless anyone can show me evidence that they are).
First, thus far Nintendo has been entirely hands off with Peebs’ work.
Until now. Now that the work’s been done, I fully expect Nintendo to turn around and sue Peebs for ‘copyright infringement’, gaining the fruits of his labour for nothing and also getting some extra money into the bargain. “How dare that evil guy create renewed interest in great old games when we’re struggling to sell shitty modern ones!”
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Re: Getting worse
Spammers are getting smarter all the time.
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That sound you hear is Tero Pulkinnen wetting his pants in sheer dismay at this display of fair use.
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What are you talking about? Tero Pulkkinen’s not old enough to be out of nappies. 😄
Only 90s kids get it
The amount of early 90s in these three sentences is almost too much.
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As someone born in the early 1980s: That is blatant erasure of the late ’80s. 🙃
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And at least a couple decades prior. 😉
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No, it’s not.
“Why does it seem that the only people doing the work of preserving the art of video games are the fans?”
money!
Re: STEAL FROM WORK
People working on video games have also helped.
Devils advocate
While Nintendo and their elk may have a heavy-handed approach to intellectual-property enforcement you have to also remember emulator projects for recent consoles have managed to stay alive without any take-downs or legal issues so presumably by keeping themselves distanced away from piracy they are doing something right.
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While Nintendo and their elk…
Nintendo has a moose now? o_O
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