Noobie with some possible insight... (Operation Manuals)

[themonk3y]

Hey everyone, this is my first post here and I'm hoping to make it a good one. I've seen a lot of topics around here about DK restores and things like that and noticed that there are some discrepancies in where cables and such should be plugged in. I was looking through my dads collection recently and stumbled across some operation manuals from the games.

So far I've found...
-Donkey Kong
-Frogger
-Track and Field (with what looks like full schematics and track ball "upgrade")
-And a couple pinball manuals

If anyone thinks these would be a help to them, I'd be willing to take the time and scan them all and host them somewhere so they are freely available. Let me know what you guys think before I go and spend with the good old scanner.

[SavannahLion]

Besides eBay, the only consistent resource I know of for manuals and schematics is http://www.crazykong.com/

I think there was one other source, but (s)he recently removed the entire collection. The links are still there, but every single one goes nowhere. 

You have Donkey Kong, which isn't listed at CrazyKong's. Frogger is there already but you might have something that might not be that collection. I didn't check the rest.

If you can get better scans than what's out there already, I would do it... unless those crap scans really are representative of the quality of manuals.

[CheffoJeffo]

Welcome !

There are a number of online resources for manuals, so I don't know if it is worth your time to scan (although that T&F manual sounds interesting).

I have listed the sources that I know of in the Restoration page of the BYOAC wiki.

 

[RayB]

Look up what is already online and see if you can do a better job. If so, do it. It really annoys me when sometimes I look up a "manual" on CrazyKong and it turns out to be only the schematics.

[themonk3y]

All my manuals are in pretty good condition. A lot of them were in manila envelopes so they weren't even directly exposed to anything in the cab I scanned the Donkey Kong one and have a bunch of jpegs laying around now. Once I figure how to convert them to a PDF I think I'll submit them. I may scan the Track and Field one as well.

I also found another one today. Its for a game called Pit & Run and was made by Taito. I haven't really been able to find ANY information on this game. Anyone have any info about it?

[polaris]

All my manuals are in pretty good condition. A lot of them were in manila envelopes so they weren't even directly exposed to anything in the cab I scanned the Donkey Kong one and have a bunch of jpegs laying around now. Once I figure how to convert them to a PDF I think I'll submit them. I may scan the Track and Field one as well.

I also found another one today. Its for a game called Pit & Run and was made by Taito. I haven't really been able to find ANY information on this game. Anyone have any info about it?

link

[themonk3y]

Hm... I think I'll have to try and get Pit & Run working once again.

[mrclean]

if anyone needs any in pdf format i have the following.. see txt attachment.

[Ken Layton]

bombjack.org handles the arcarc.xmission.com manuals collection. I have submitted my scans in Paperport file format and he converts them to pdf's.

[themonk3y]

I found another manual today. This one is actually really neat IMO. Its a Wells-Gardner Electronics Corporation manual. It covers a bunch of different model screens and a bunch of other things.

What oscilloscope readouts should look like, pinouts and schematics, a replacement parts list and a guide on how to maintain and adjust screen settings.

Would this be worth scanning and uploading somewhere?

[SavannahLion]

I found another manual today. This one is actually really neat IMO. Its a Wells-Gardner Electronics Corporation manual. It covers a bunch of different model screens and a bunch of other things.

What oscilloscope readouts should look like, pinouts and schematics, a replacement parts list and a guide on how to maintain and adjust screen settings.

Would this be worth scanning and uploading somewhere?

Really? I might be interested in that. Come to think of it, I have an Atari Vector monitor manual. It's got a tiny bit of mold on it. I wonder if it's available as a pdf already?

[themonk3y]

Thats the thing, there are A LOT of different resources all out there, but not all of them have the same thing. Its a big pain to scour every single resource to see if there is a manual available for it.

[SavannahLion]

Thats the thing, there are A LOT of different resources all out there, but not all of them have the same thing. Its a big pain to scour every single resource to see if there is a manual available for it.

The worst ones is when they watermark the PDF. And the watermark is dark enough or crappy enough to obscure the schematic at that one spot where you really needed the information.

In any case, it seems the manual archivers seem to be in competition with each other, not really helpful to each other. That kind of hurts us a little bit. For instance I gathered better board identification information from MAWS and their IC markings than I ever have trying to sort through all the different, half-assed or even incomplete manuals out there.

I get the manual archivers want to top each other, but frankly, I don't give a rats ass about that. I want my manual. 

Any ideas towards a Wikipediaish style Manual/schematic/etc archival site? Register with an account, upload your PDF, put it through peer review and have it available for download. Not sure how one would prevent those damn resellers from printing them and selling them on eBay though.

[CheffoJeffo]

Other than Basement Arcade, who is watermarking ?

IMO, most of the folks are doing a good job. I always head to ArcArc first, but also use textfiles and Mike's from time to time.

[themonk3y]

The collective wiki site would be ideal but I have a feeling the main guide sites out there wouldn't be too fond of another site "taking" their guides even if we were to give them credit.

And its not that the other sites are doing a bad job its that everything is so spread out on the internet. Sometime its hard to find what you are looking for. A crawler designed specifically for guide sites might be the best way to dod it.

[RayB]

I'm not sure why there even is competition. The archive sites aren't running advertising on their sites, and the manuals are free. Where's the need to protect their content??

[CheffoJeffo]

The collective wiki site would be ideal but I have a feeling the main guide sites out there wouldn't be too fond of another site "taking" their guides even if we were to give them credit.

Yeah, 'coz people always refer to the wiki, readily contribute and maintain things ...    

And then somebody would have to pay for the bandwidth to host the stuff. And some of these files are going to be BIG because you need the resolution in the underlying schematics scans.

Let's stop kidding ourselves about there being evil competition between FREE DOWNLOAD sites ... (most of) these people are doing it for the love of the hobby and spending their own dollars to do it. How many people have donated to support them ? I would guess about the same as do here. Not too many.

I actually don't see how the situation is so terrible-- and it could be just me being old -- there are about 10 sites, of which 3 or 4 seem to have 95+% coverage of the total. I don't think I have ever come across a manual that I needed that wasn't on one of my top 4 sites, but was available somewhere else.

I am actually rather pleased that the stuff is available and wish that people who have manuals would provide them to folks like ArcArc.

[themonk3y]

Could I get a list of the sites you use then?

I just hate hunting the internet for things like these. They don't show up in google searches and if they did they are probably 100 pages in.

[CheffoJeffo]

Thank you for so clearly making my point about people not using the wiki ...

[themonk3y]

My "mistake" for being around for three days and not knowing everything there is to know about byoac.com.

[CheffoJeffo]

Sorry -- that was a rather smartassed comment. 

BUT I did post a link to the wiki AND mentioned the 3 sites that I use most in this very thread.

I really do like the idea of you offering to scan manuals and definitely applaud your efforts.   

It just seems to me that the situation out there is not nearly as dire as has been portrayed here and that people are ignoring the resources that are available.

 

[shardian]

bombjack.org handles the arcarc.xmission.com manuals collection. I have submitted my scans in Paperport file format and he converts them to pdf's.

This is the go-to place for manuals. I can comfirm it is actively maintained. I sent the guy a manual last week and he had it posted same day.

[SavannahLion]

Other than Basement Arcade, who is watermarking ?

IMO, most of the folks are doing a good job. I always head to ArcArc first, but also use textfiles and Mike's from time to time.

You know, when I wrote that, I was thinking KrazyKong, BA and at least one other were watermarking them. I went to double check a random manual at KK and it wasn't watermarked. BA is blocked, go figure. I remember being annoyed at having to visit a bunch of sites before I found one that didn't watermark the manual.

I had completely forgotton about ArcArc (I remember now how frustrated I was when they removed their Gottlieb stuff).

[themonk3y]

Just curious. Why'd they remove their Gottlieb stuff?

Seems like something weird to just go and remove.

[shardian]

Just curious. Why'd they remove their Gottlieb stuff?

Seems like something weird to just go and remove.

The Gottlieb license is owned and enforced. www.pbresource.com is the licensed Gottlieb dealer.