In October 2020 I did a feature on a project I was trying to find all existing Super Nintendo manuals, scan them, and upload them to the Internet. I’m pleased to report that as of July 2022, the project has completed a major milestone, and for many reading this, it’s a major one.
When I published that featurethe team (including Arachness, BuffaloJoe, Timber, SNES Central, and Grant Kirkhart) working on the project:Directed by streamer and archivist Peebs— had uploaded about 600 scans, and only had about 100 manuals left until they scanned the instructions for every game released in the West over the life of the console.
That was good progress, but also, the deeper they delved into the SNES library, the harder it would be to find booklets for the weirder and rarer games in the collection. So last week:
That means the project files now have an English manual for every Super Nintendo game officially released in the language. Sometimes it’s the North American version, sometimes it’s the PAL (European/Australasian) version, sometimes it’s both if there are differences beyond cover design, spelling, and mailing addresses on the back (such as the shape Against 3 was called Super Protector in PAL regions).
Not all games released in the WestSince some games may get different unique releases depending on the language market, but since this is an English website, I thought this was an important milestone to let our readers know.
and it still is very close. The team is just one game away from that “every western manual” achievement with a single release: an original scan of the single German version of daze before christmas (although they do have a translated version of the rare English Mega Drive release in case anyone needs the info).
After that, however, it seems his work is never done. Even when all the manuals were scanned and uploaded, some games, including many RPGs, had important information written elsewhere, like on separate maps or posters, so they’re looking to upload and scan those whenever possible as well. also have a section of the Super Famicom manual to remove as well.
If you want to take a look at the entire library, or just bookmark it for a future time when you need it, is available herethough you can just search for a particular game on the Internet Archive and it will also go up there. And for something more exciting, in addition to collecting your manuals Peebs is also working his way through the SNES library and trying to beat every game on Twitch. (At last count he only had 47 left!)
