Back in October 2020, I made a feature on a project that was trying to find every Super Nintendo guide out there, scan it and upload it online. I am pleased to report that, as of July 2022, the project is now a significant milestone – and for many of you, this is key.
When this feature was publishedthe team (including Arachness, BuffaloJoe, Timber, SNES Central, and Grant Kirkhart) is working on the project—Led streamer and archive Bibs—About 600 scans uploaded, only about 100 manuals left until the instructions for every game released in the West during the console’s lifetime were scanned.
This was good progress, but also, the deeper they delved into the SNES library, the more difficult it was to find manuals for the strangest and rarest games in the collection. Then last week:
This means that the project archives now contain an English-language guide for every Super Nintendo game officially released in the language. Sometimes it’s the North American version, sometimes it’s the PAL (European/Australian) version, sometimes it’s both if there are differences beyond just the artwork for the cover, spelling and postal addresses on the back (like the way Contra 3 It was called Super Protector in PAL regions).
Not every game has ever been released in the Westsince some games can have different unique versions depending on the language market, but since this is an English language website, I thought this was a milestone readers should know!
and still very close. The team is just one game shy of accomplishing “every western proof” in one edition: an original survey of the unique German version of Amazed before Christmas (Although they do have a translated version of the rare Mega Drive in English in case anyone needs the info.)
After that, it seems their work is never finished. Even when every clue is scanned and loaded, some games – including many RPGs – have important information written elsewhere, such as separate maps/labels, so they look to load and scan them where possible as well. They also have Super Famicom guide section to get rid of it too.
If you’d like to take a look at the full library, or bookmark it for a time of need in the future, It’s available herealthough you can also Find a specific game in the Internet Archive It will appear there as well. And to have something full of excitement, in addition to collecting their brochures 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 to go!)