The possibility of repro Instruction Booklets?

[T2KFreeker]

Anyone do this? I know that there are some loose hueys I have that I would love to have instructions booklets with. Hell, even if it said "Repro" at the bottom of every pace. These aren't to sell, I just want them to be "Complete" on a shelf look so I don't have loose Hu Cards lying all over the place! I'd especially love to have one for Military Madness!

[chany60126]

Sparky does some repros, but he doesn't copy the entire manual. They are very good quality.
http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9393.0

[T2KFreeker]

Sparky does some repros, but he doesn't copy the entire manual. They are very good quality.
http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=9393.0

Yes, this is very cool. Sadly, none of the games I need.

[fragmare]

In creating the instruction booklet for Xymati in Photoshop, I pretty much got exact font/spacing/layout of the old TurboGrafx-16 booklets down to a science.  If I had scans of old booklets, I could easily reproduce them in super hi-res form.  Though, getting them commercially might cost a pretty penny...

[BlueBMW]

Some people have had manuals professionally copied.  Though they are a little pricey to have done, and its sometimes difficult to find a print shop that will even do it because of the copyright issues.

[Supremo_Lagarto]

Anyone do this? I know that there are some loose hueys I have that I would love to have instructions booklets with. Hell, even if it said "Repro" at the bottom of every pace. These aren't to sell, I just want them to be "Complete" on a shelf look so I don't have loose Hu Cards lying all over the place! I'd especially love to have one for Military Madness!

I've made reproduction instruction booklets to Bonk I, Bonk II, Air Zonk, Dungeon Explorer, and Cyber-Core.

There is simple trick to it.

I'll put up a link to video here in a second to show the quality.

The pages are exactly the same, except that because I'm using cheap paper I do not print the page on the back of the cover as it would bleed through.
For Dungeon Explorer (which has 13 pages) I create several images

Page_1_front (Cover and Back)
Page_1_back (Thank You Page and Page 13 Warranty)
    *one way to avoid bleed through is to print the "Thank You" and "Warranty" pages of the booklet at higher brightness, especially the colored bars at the top of the page.
    Alternatively, to avoid printing on the back of the cover and having text bleed through you can do this:
    Alternate_Page_0 (cover and back)
    Alternate_Page_1_front (Thank You & NEC 90 Day Limited Warranty with page number removed) - this is an extra page to avoid printing on the back of the cover
    Alternate_Page_1_back (Thank & NEC 90 D but with Warranty marked as page 13 & gray borders)
Page_2_front (page 12 and Page 1, with a faint gray border around and in the middle where the fold goes)
Page_2_back (Page 2 and Page 11, with no borders)
Page_3_front (Page 10 and Page 3, with faint gray border around and in middle)
Page_3_back (Page 4 and Page 9, with no borders)
Page_4_front (Page 8 and Page 5, with faint gray borders)
Page_4_back (Page 6 and Page 7, with no borders)

You print out Page 1 front, flip the paper over and print out Page 1 back on the back. You then cut along the gray border of the side of the page that has the gray border and fold along the gray line in the center.

After you have printed out all pages, you fold each page separately. Then put them in a book and open to the center most page (in this case containing Page 6 and Page 4). You poke two holes (with a thin sewing needle) for your bottom staple, then two holes for your top stable. You then take staples and insert them through the spine so that the poke through the book. Then fold the staples in.

You then have a reproduction of the instruction booklet.  If you did it carefully, everything should line up and the quality should be very decent.

Oh, and height of pages is 4.78 inches in photo shop under "print with preview". You will need to print as landscape.

For a 9 page instruction booklet it is like this:
Page_1_front - (cover and back)
Page_1_back - (Thank You and Page 9 Warranty)
    alternate Page_0_front (cover and back)    
    alternate Page_1_front (Thank You & NEC 90 Day Limited Warranty) - this is an extra page to avoid printing on back of cover
    alternate Page_1_back (Thank You & NEC Warranty page 9 & gray border) - this is an extra page to avoid printing on back cover
Page_2_front - (Page 1 & Page 8 with gray border)
Page_2_back - (Page 2 & Page 7 with no border)
Page_3_front - (Page 3 & Page 6 with gray border)
Page_3_back - (Page 4 & Page 5 with no border)

[Windy]

I saw somewhere that a guy was simply scanning the pages or found scans and was making his own decent looking booklets

[Supremo_Lagarto]

Here is a video of a duplication I made of the booklet and spine to Keith Courage.  The video compares it to the original instruction booklet.



With higher quality paper it would have been difficult to distinguish for the original.

[Necromancer]

After you have printed out all pages, you fold each page separately. Then put them in a book and open to the center most page (in this case containing Page 6 and Page 4). You poke two holes (with a thin sewing needle) for your bottom staple, then two holes for your top stable. You then take staples and insert them through the spine so that the poke through the book. Then fold the staples in.

Though obviously not worth the investment for a few manuals, you might want to look into getting a cheap brake (maybe $25 at Harbor Freight) to bend the pages and a long reach stapler ($10) if you're thinking of doing a bunch.

[T2KFreeker]

Here is a video of a duplication I made of the booklet and spine to Keith Courage.  The video compares it to the original instruction booklet.

With higher quality paper it would have been difficult to distinguish for the original.

That was cool looking. I also like the back panel you made for the Keith Courage case. Nice. I wish I had a printer!