FAQs

Frequently Asked
Questions

1) Is this legal?
2) I can't open/view any of the manuals!
3) What's so special about replacementdocs.com?
4) Why are all of your files so big?
5) What are your standards for how the scanned manuals should look?
6) What naming convention do you use for your documentation?
7) Hey! One of the manuals you have is missing something or is a different
version from what I have!
8) How can I make a contribution to your collection?
9) Why should I register for an account?
10) How long does it take for a submission to be approved?
11) Did Sleepy really scan/compile all 1000+ manuals that are credited to him?
12) What are Provisional docs?
13) What about Strategy Guides?

1) Is this legal?
Ah... the million-dollar question some would say... Technically, no, it's not legal. We have secured explicit permission to host manuals from some game publishers, however others have been less responsive to our requests. Read on if you really want to know our philosophy in this regard.

We believe that some game companies have shortchanged their customers by preventing them from getting documentation to re-released games that they have rightfully purchased. Some companies these days are re-releasing their old software in cheaper packaging. One way in which they can cut their costs is by not including a printed version of the manual. Some companies have been very good about including electronic documentation on their repackaged CDs whereas some other companies have not.

We also believe that it is far too common to find used software that is missing some of its original documentation. Most game companies (with the notable exceptions of Infocom and Origin in the 80's) do not put a list of box contents anywhere on their games, so it is impossible to know that you're missing some documentation when purchasing these used games.

Yes, we know that some companies say you can send $5 in to them to get a printed replacement manual, but what happens when a company goes out of business? What happens when they run out of manuals? What if you really should have gotten that manual to begin with? These types of problems come up very frequently with older games and leave the gamer little recourse. We hope to alleviate some of that frustration.

As for the piracy issue... What good is a manual without the software? None at all. What good is software without the manual? Plenty to most people. With this in mind we believe that the true problem of piracy is the copying and distributing of the software itself not the documentation. If you stop the software piracy then having documentation online will no longer be an issue. However, If you stop the distribution of electronic documentation, software piracy will still thrive. Besides, game companies are in the business of selling games, not selling replacement manuals for the games. And therefore, we believe this is not affecting their business. A testament to this is the increasing number of companies who freely distribute their documentation online already because they have realized that providing good customer service is more important than protecting ultimately supplemental materials. Some of these companies include Square Enix, Eidos, Global Star Software, Konami, and even Sony's and Microsoft's respective in-house game studios. But it is still woefully few compared to the available catalog of games.

In addition, many of the games listed herein are out of print and the game companies are not making money on them anymore if they even still exist. Yes, technically, they still own the copyrights to the games and manuals, but they aren't making money off of them and we're not making any money off of them. There is no profit to be lost and none to be gained. And if you're a company lawyer tracking down pirates, come on... it's really all about the money anyway, isn't it? Spend your time tracking down the software pirates that release stuff on the internet before the software hits the stores, they are the real problem.

We have created this repository as a service to people. We are not profiting from this documentation and we do not believe that by putting it online that we are promoting piracy. However, if after reading this you are a copyright holder and still want your works removed, we will gladly comply with your request. Simply send an e-mail to Sleepy and he will ensure that your works are promptly removed.

2) I can't open/view any of the manuals!
Most of the documents on this site require Adobe Acrobat 6.0 or higher to view the documents. If you have Acrobat 4.0, when you try and open the file it will say that the viewer cannot decrypt the document. But fear not! The Acrobat 6.0 Reader is a free download from Adobe.

Another problem may be that your browser is configured to open PDFs within the browser rather than with an external PDF reader. This can cause the browser to appear to be locked up or the server may appear to be not responding. We have a short tutorial that may help you resolve this particular issue.

3) What's so special about replacementdocs.com?
Yeah, we've seen several other websites out there with some documentation on them, but here's what makes replacementdocs.com special:

• We are a website devoted exclusively to electronic documentation
• We are a website devoted exclusively to documentation in a graphical format
• We have a staff of editors who hand-edit every submission to make sure that you are getting the highest quality documents available. This helps to catch a lot of problems like rotated pages, incorrect page sizes, left-over pre-press markings, etc.
• We have adopted a widely-used cross-platform format (Adobe Acrobat PDF) for the large majority of our documentation
• All of our documentation is, to the best of our knowledge, in its original format with all original artwork, fonts, and other graphical elements
• We try our best to use only high-quality (150 dpi or better) graphical scans in color or grayscale depending on the manual itself, but we never use monochrome scanning
• We do not host text-only documentation that has been typed in by hand or otherwise OCRed and stripped of all graphical elements
• You can help make replacementdocs.com better by contributing any manuals you have!
• We have none of those stupid pop-up ads that you see so often these days

4) Why are all of your files so big?
replacementdocs.com believes in only hosting high-quality graphical scans of manuals. Although we apply compression techniques to these graphics, our average file size is still about 4 MB. Some manuals are actually the full-quality PDFs directly from the company (i.e. - the file that they used to print the actual manual) and can be very large, as much as 40 MB or more. If you want smaller files, you'll have to settle for text-only documentation. There's plenty of that on the internet.

5) What are your standards for how the scanned manuals should look?
We strive for all of our manuals to meet certain criteria:

• High-resolution scan (150 dpi or better)
• If manual is originally in color, full-color scan
• If manual is originally in black and white, grayscale scan
• Never use a monochrome image
• Documents will never be OCR'ed. Although this enables such things as text searching, it introduces textual errors and removes the original font information when a substitution font is used. We are more concerned with faithfully reproducing every aspect of the original document.
• All pages should be upright and in order
• All documentation should be in Adobe Acrobat PDF format with a few exceptions

6) What naming convention do you use for your documentation?
We use our own naming convention which will hopefully make finding what you need as simple as possible. In general, the naming convention is "(game name)_-_(document type)_-_(platform code).pdf". If you want a more detailed description, read on...

In most cases the game name is simple. There are certain special situations where things get more complex. The special situations are when games are part of a series, when there is combined documentation for a compilation of games, when games have expansion packs, and when games have subtitles. The word "The" at the beginning of game titles will never be removed (e.g. - "The Elder Scrolls" will not be listed under "Elder Scrolls").

If a game is part of a series, the name depends on how the game is commonly known. Most games within a series have the series name, a number, and a subtitle. However, some games, like Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn are commonly referred to as Baldur's Gate II. Whereas others like The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall are simply known as Daggerfall. In these two examples the names would be "Baldur's Gate II" and "The Elder Scrolls II - Daggerfall". In other words, the series name will always be there, but the subtitle will only be listed if the game is commonly referred to by that subtitle.

For combined documentation of game compilations, it depends on the compilation. For example, the documentation for the Ultimate Wizardry Archives is all for games in the Wizardry series. Therefore, it is named "Wizardry - Ultimate Wizardry Archives" rather than forcing you to look under "U" if all you want is documentation for Wizardry III. However, documentation for the Infocom Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces collection is not all for a single series. So, it would be named simply "Infocom Classic Text Adventures".

When games have expansion packs or subtitles are similar situations. Expansion pack names will be listed after the main game's name, like "Ultima VII - Forge of Virtue". As described above, subtitles will only be listed when games are commonly referred to by the subtitle.

On occasion, the game title alone will be insufficient to identify which particular game is being referred to. In those situations it is necessary to add some extra information in parentheses to the game title. This extra information is not part of the title itself, but rather just useful for identification purposes. Some of the types of information that will be used here include: game format (e.g. cartridge or CD), publisher, and year of publication. For example, there are two Tetris cartridges for the NES. These are named "Tetris (Tengen)" and "Tetris (Nintendo)".

There are several "standard" document types. These are Manual, Map, Quick Reference Card, Strategy Guide, and Install Guide. Any documentation that falls into one of these five categories even if they technically have a different name will have the above document type. For example, if a document is titled "Installation Notes", it would still be named "Install Guide" here for consistency.

The "Manual" document type is the generic type for
whatever is the main game documentation. If a game only has one document, then it will be named "Manual" regardless of what the document is called. If a game has multiple documents, the largest one will most likely be named "Manual" unless it is a supplemental reference. All documents that do not fall into one of the five standard categories will be named whatever the title of the document is.

7) Hey! One of the manuals you have is missing something or is a different version from what I have!
We strive to keep accurate manuals online, but we're not always successful. If you know of an error or a different version of a manual, we'd love to see it. Drop us an email or upload the manual for us to look at.

8) How can I make a contribution to your collection?
First of all, make sure that we do not already have the manual you have. The exception to this is different versions of manuals. Sometimes when games are re-released or released in a different country, they have different manuals. We will accept different versions of manuals, just please specify what your manual is from.

If you are scanning the manual yourself please adhere to the guidelines in FAQ #4. If you can convert the file yourself into PDF format, that would be a great help. If not, then just scan each page in as a separate JPG file. Then, upload all of your JPGs with the page number at the end of the filename (e.g. Ultima III - Manual - 05.jpg) and I will convert them to PDF format. Please use leading zeroes on the page numbers as it makes them easier to sort. There is also a tutorial on how to scan a manual into a PDF file.

Your file will be automatically renamed to follow the naming convention in FAQ #5. So, you do not need to concern yourself with getting the appropriate file name. Just make sure you type in the Game Title correctly on the upload page

Once you have your manual(s) ready to upload, simply click on the "Upload Manuals" link in the sidebar. After you have uploaded your manual, please be patient until one of the editors is able to approve the upload and make it a live public download for everyone. Manuals which do not meet our standards will be deleted and an automatic email will be sent to the contributor notifying them of the rejection.

9) Why should I register for an account?
Oh, you mean besides the obvious cool points you get by claiming your ID on replacementdocs? Well...

• You can participate in our forums, a great place to request docs (and be notified by email when someone fills your request), make suggestions, or just chat in general.
  
• You can get a list of what new documents have been posted since your last visit to the site.
  
• You can give back to the community that gave to you! Yes, we all start coming here as leechers, but don't you want to have that warm, fuzzy feeling that comes when you fill another member's request?
  
• You can browse our list of manuals that are currently pending approval.
  

10) How long does it take for a submission to be approved?
Well, a lot of different things factor into this, but currently an unrequested submission is posted within a few weeks or less. Keep in mind that this is a completely volunteer project so things like editors' free time, volume of submissions, amount of editing required to bring submissions up to standards, etc. can change these timeframes.

With that said, we do try to give priority to requested submissions. If you ever see something you're looking for in the pending upload list, post a message in the forums. We can usually push these out for public upload within a day or so because there's not nearly as many of them.

Additionally, we are now offering users classified as Frequent Contributors (Defined as any user who has contributed 10 or more documents to the archive) early access to all of our uploads. What this means is that if you are a Frequent Contributor you don't have to wait on us to approve what you're looking for! Just search for the doc in the pending uploads and then click on the search result to download it immediately.

This Frequent Contributor system was created for two reasons. First, We really wanted to reward the people who have made this site what it is today. Second, we wanted to encourage more people to scan and upload what they have. So if you're sick of waiting on us to approve the doc you want, just start uploading yourself!

11) Did Sleepy really scan/compile all 1000+ manuals that are credited to him?
Let's attempt to be perfectly clear here. I am currently credited as the author for over 1000 of the manuals on this site. Contrary to what some would say, this is not an "ego trip", "blatant thievery", nor does it mean that I am claiming to be either the scanner or originator of all of these manuals. While I am a collector of both hard copy manuals and electronic manuals, and hundreds of those manuals are actually my scans or copied off of my CDs... it is still a far cry from the 1000 that are credited to me. I will attempt to explain the reasoning for this here. It should be obvious from our Contributor Stats section that I am committed to giving credit where credit is due. Make no mistakes that this site would not be what it is today without the help and kindness of countless visitors.

However, prior to April 2005, contributions to replacementdocs were allowed to be made without providing a contributor name. The "system" that was used was that people would upload files to the website, and then to be credited, they had to send an email to me with what they contributed and the name they wanted to be credited as. The lesson I learned from this was that people are inherently lazy and many don't really care about being credited, so this extra step was probably too much to ask. As a result only about 5-10% of the 1300 or so manuals on the site had contributor names attached to them.

So, when the site was relaunched in April 2005 with our new contributor tracking system (which would require all future contributions to have a contributor associated with it), I had to decide what to do with about 1000 manuals that had no contributor associated with them. Some suggested that I should just list them as an anonymous contribution rather than crediting them to myself. The problem with this idea was that I wanted to eventually track down who contributed each document if possible. Flagging docs as anonymous donations would make it too easy for just anyone to claim them as their own and I would have no way to prove or disprove it.

However, along with actively pursuing the original contributors (note the sticky post in the General Discussion forum), I decided the best course of action was to temporarily assign them to myself until the original contributor could be found. That way, people were free to come forward (as many have), and claim the docs that they scanned. Of the ones which are credited to me, I know which ones are really mine, so I can easily verify if this person is lying or not. If I know it wasn't from me, I can reassign the credit to the new person. I hope to one day be able to do this to all of the "anonymous" contributions that we still have, although I doubt this will ever realistically happen. It should be noted that about 800 of the manuals credited to Sleepy are PC manuals. And many of those 800 are just copied off of CDs rather than actually scanned. People are much less likely to claim credit for docs that they just got off CDs, and credit itself is much less meaningful, because there was practically no effort involved (unlike scanning) and they may not even remember doing it. Regardless, if you know of the origins of any of the manuals credited to Sleepy, please post a message in the forum thread linked above.

12) What are Provisional docs?
In general, we try to maintain a high standard of quality for all of the docs that we post on this site. In fact, in the past we have rejected many doc submissions because of poor quality.

However, we also realize that for some people, something is better than nothing. So we have started posting some manuals that are below our standard level of quality and flagging them as Provisional. If you are only looking for high quality reproductions, don't bother with provisional docs. If you just want to know what the buttons do, provisional docs may be all you need.

13) What about Strategy Guides?
Strategy guides are a tricky situation because they are often not supplemental parts of the actual game itself. In other words, you usually have to buy it separately. Strategy guides are produced by separate publishers whose business is selling these guides and we have no intention of interfering with their business.

With that said, we will consider posting strategy guides only if the following two restrictions are met: The guide must be out of print. The guide must be at least 5 years old. We feel that if these restrictions are adhered to we will not interfere with the business of selling strategy guides.

- Sleepy