Video game manuals have gone the way of the dodo; what was once very common in early gaming eras is virtually extinct in the ninth console generation, but one PlayStation 2 preservationist has dedicated more than two decades to ensuring that these beloved booklets and past-their-prime pamphlets aren’t forgotten. It was undoubtedly a daunting undertaking, but Reddit user u/K1rkl4nd recently submitted to archive.org a complete collection of every PlayStation 2 instruction manual from every game released in the United States.
“The goal is to raise awareness for game preservation efforts,” K1rkl4nd stated in an interview with Kotaku. “In a perfect world, companies would step up and release their original artwork sent to the presses for preservation. But so many of those have been lost to history and hard drives over time.” Having sunk a total of 22 years and more than $40,000 into the effort, K1rkl4nd’s work serves as a boon to both dedicated collectors who may be missing some rare PS2 manuals or nostalgic fans of the system looking to relive the revelries of a bygone medium. Plus, while PlayStation higher-ups have confirmed interest in preservation efforts, official conservation measures might not be quite this enterprising.
Uploaded on October 24, 2022, “Kirkland’s Manual Labor,” as it’s called on archive.org, is a collection of more than 1900 4K scans of official PS2 game manuals. Totaling 17 GBs in total size—well in excess of 200 GB before compression—K1rkl4nd’s compilation of PlayStation pamphlets is as comprehensive as could be, and it also serves to underline the fact that these primarily solo efforts from fans represent the only real chance of gaming’s most obscure odds and ends being preserved. Industry heavyweights like Phil Spencer occasionally make calls to bring preservation to the industry forefront, but, without the oft-unsung efforts of DIY preservationists, extras such as game manuals would be doomed to decay.
K1rkl4nd has dabbled in preserving extras from releases on other consoles, as well; they’ve already gone through more than 300 original PlayStation manuals, and work is slowly beginning on games in the SNES, Atari 2600, and original Game Boy libraries. Work on Nintendo releases is doubly important at the moment given the publisher's notorious devil-may-care approach to legacy content. Retro offerings for the Nintendo Switch Online service are few and far between, and, given that Nintendo will soon be completely axing access to the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShops, there’s quite a lot of company history destined for destruction in the not-too-distant future.
Plenty of classic outings from Sony’s beloved second console are making a comeback; Remedy Entertainment’s Max Payne and Konami’s Silent Hill 2 will soon be receiving remakes, but that doesn’t mean the originals should be forgotten. To many, video game manuals may seem totally superfluous, but gamers may soon long for the days of the instruction manual, and, fortunately, proud preservationists such as K1rkl4nd will keep that interest from ever dying out.
Source: Kotaku
