alt Hacker News> if you read the manual (which I guess most kids didn't).
Most kids did't read the manual? I would rtfm for every game I got my hands on during the car ride home from toysrus or blockbuster. If Mom had several errands to run, I may rtfm a dozen times before I finally got home with the game.
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I rented the vast majority of NES games I played back in the day, getting a manual was uncommon, sometimes they came with a xeroxed copy.
For me, half the fun was trying to figure out how to play the game.
I would read the manual too on the ride home. But I think that was only for new games? I seem to remember that rentals didn't come with manuals. The best memory was my grandma picking me up to spend the summer at her house. We stopped by wal-mart and I grabbed the first release of Gran Turismo for psx. It came with a fairly giant manual. Had a three hour drive to her house. I read it over and over!
The people working hint hotlines apparently memorized some information from manuals, as so many kids without access to the manuals called with the same questions. The famous code from Star Tropics, for example.
I certainly read the manual when I was asked to enter the 15th word from page 47 in order to keep playing Chessmaster 2000...
I don't even remember seeing the manual as a kid.
I've been on a bit of a retro bender and have intentionally limited myself to nothing but the manuals and games and it's been so fun to rediscover how much thought people used to put into the manuals including the presentation and art. Extreme shame half of the time now even if you go and grab a physical copy you basically just get a key in a box.
In my experience used games were often traded or passed around as bare cartridges. And that's how I got most of my games.