Here’s a couple of examples Keep talking and nobody explodes — The most popular in the list I think
Uncle Chop’s rocket shop — the game where you are repairing your client’s rockets by following the in-game guidebook
Tin can — here you are also repairing the spaceshp but this time you are it’s capitan and you are in space in the middle of nowhere
Not quite as strictly as what you’ve cited, but some of the older Sierra point-and-clicks relied on maps/pamphlets/etc that were packed in with the game. Most just used them as low-budget and thematically in-universe anti-piracy gating (the Dagger of Amon Ra), but some stretched beyond that. Conquests of the Longbow: the Legend of Robin Hood had royal family crests, language keys, and (of I remember correctly) a catalog of gems that were all perused outside of the game interface.
GOG has PDFs of all those documents if you buy the games there, so you can still experience it fully. Might be worth checking out, since it’s usually less than $5.
The DS version of Ni no Kuni included a physical spellbook you’re meant to consult. JP-only, but the fantranslation made it into a PDF.
Tunic?
Tunic!
Tunic!!
Keep talking and nobody explodes.
One player(s) has the bomb disposal manual and the other has the game controls to defuse the bomb.
I already know about this game, and I even mentioned it in the post
https://store.steampowered.com/app/370360/TIS100/
The instructions for this game come in the form is PDF written in an in-universe style.
Highly recommend. It’s a great puzzle game. No coding knowledge is needed, but familiarity with assembly is helpful
Edit: Whoops, I was thinking of Shenzen I/O. Same developer though
EXAPUNKS!
It’s the dialup 70s, your body is turning into computer parts, and medicine costs 300 dollars a day.
Read the zines, learn to hack. Hack a restaurant. Hack a bank. Hack your body. Hack the planet!
Also other games from zachtronics: TIS-100 and Shenzhen IO
If by “in-game manual” you mean one that’s part of the game world (not necessarily displayed on a computer screen) check out the classic Infocom adventures. For example, Border Zone came with a printed terrain map and tourist guide, and Sherlock and The Witness came with newspapers, among other things.
By in-game manual I meant a manual which built directly into the game and a main character could read it, not just a player who opened a PDF outside the game. And also usually those manuals are stylized, like in papers please (which I forgot to mention in the post btw) or like in Uncle Chop’s rocket shop
Ostranauts?
Its a space salvage game with a good atmosphere
Still There
Iron Nest? You drive a turret and you have to read instruction on how to operate it and where to shoot. Not yet come out though.
- Tunic — You need to figure out the game’s manual to know how to play. Souls-style exploration and combat.
- Papers, Please — If you liked Rocket Shop, you’ll like this. You are a border guard, checking people’s documents and choosing if they can enter. The rules change every day as international tensions grow. Great plot with multiple endings, expressed with just your green and red stamps.
- Hypnospace Outlaw (kind of) — You are a moderator in a fictional version of GeoCities in the last months of 1999. Your training is web pages and crusty point and click CD-ROM slideshows. It’s heartfelt story about the impact of technology on society and a loving funeral for that era of the world wide web.
As even further stretches, there is TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O, both Zachtronics games that have you do programming. The tutorial for TIS-100 just opens a PDF that looks like a crusty scan of an ancient computer manual, like you were learning to program on a C64 or something.
I loved Hypnospace Outlaw. Its so nostalgic and yet the surreal aspect of it gives it its own flavor that is separate from the nostalgia.
Tis-100 is like learning new programming language and do some quiz with it. If you want similar experience, learn assembly languages, and do some exercise :)))
I love Zachtronics games that have been recommended a few times already. But for a different genre…
Ni no kuni is a RPG that was kind of that, with a big (originally physical) book of magic. But since it’s been remade on many platforms as a digital download, the book is there in a rather boring (but useable) pdf reader-like UI and has been made a bit less useful.
It’s still rather charming having this in-universe codex-like book listing gameplay elements, items, recipes, bestiary, and bits of lore about the world (and some pages just telling random fables about whatever). Nowhere near required reading for the game though, just occasionally useful.
Tunic
The first one that came to my mind !
Not really a manual, but more of a 4th wall derailment into a fever dream of sorts? With a lot of reading while navigating a mystery? And some match 3 tower defence action in between?
Titanium court.
For more of a game with an actual manual focus, try - King of the Bridge. It’s a game about chess. Mostly.
Oh! I’m absolutely loving Titanium Court, I’ve been playing it on and off for a couple of weeks, now. I’ve only recently gotten to Chapter 2!
