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The 140 pages that followed were, at their core, an in-depth guide in how to play SimCity 2000 – but they extended far beyond simple rote descriptions of the gameplay mechanics. The Rasmussen quotation at the beginning was a statement of intent – as was the fact that the manual’s author, Michael Bremer, was actually named in the credits. It’s interesting enough that the instructions themselves were so lengthy – emphasising just how unusual the growing simulation and resource management genre was to players at that point – but even moreso that the book was practically a work of art in itself. SimCity 2000’s manual, however, was something else entirely.
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As realistic a simulation as Crammond’s game offered, this was surely almost entirely useless information – races in the game could be won quite easily without it – but it did help to make players feel like they were in some way training to become a ‘real’ F1 driver.Īs detailed as Grand Prix 2’s manual was, however, it was still somewhat dry – still more of a technical reference manual than anything.

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Aside from detailed descriptions of the various tracks, and driver and team biographies (even the addresses of the teams’ headquarters!), it even included a detailed guide of how exactly to brake and overtake in every kind of corner a race track could offer. Geoff Crammond’s F1 simulator Grand Prix 2, for example, came with a 150 page book which, beyond the installation and gameplay instructions, actually served as an all-purpose guide to F1 in general. And in a few select instances, the books contained in those boxes would contain content that was only tangentially or conceptually linked to the games. In many cases, of course, publishers were simply filling out space in a book which, if it ran to enough pages, could serve as a handy form of copy protection – ‘Key in the the third word on the fifth row of page 42’ and so on – but for some games, the manual was a genuine opportunity to creatively expand upon the games’ narratives, filling in character and plot backstory and immersing the player in their worlds before they even booted up. It wasn’t enough simply to offer half an hour’s worth of ‘tutorial’ gameplay, or to label the game’s interface according to a particular controller – in many instances, you actually had to read an entire book before you were sufficiently equipped to fire up a particular game on your creaking 486. Younger readers may not be aware of this, but back in The Good Old Days of gaming, when PC games used to come in gigantic exciting cardboard boxes, they also came with these things called ‘manuals’. As introductions to a game go, it certainly beats ‘Press Start’, doesn’t it? The above quotation, by noted Danish architect Steen Eiler Rasumussen, appears at the beginning of the manual for SimCity 2000, released in 1994.

In fact, the concept is obsolete there is no such thing. Thus to look for the ideal city is not only a waste of time but may be seriously detrimental. As long as the city lives, these aspects continue to change. Each one has its own spirit, its own problems, and its own pattern of life. To search for the ideal city today is useless.
