The term they used is "liebevoll aufpäppeln". That´s a rather common term in gaming journalism. It is something you do, when you find a hurt animal. You "coddle it up" lovingly until it becomes strong again. I never liked that term in that context.

nurse lovingly...

There are typos in the new sections of the file:

foreward, forewards,opinion instead of opinions, missing comma after the introductory however, put effort into (not in)


I would also remove both "that"s and capitalize the first letter after the colon: Let the....

liebevoll aufpäppeln... I'd say "careful coddling"

Wow, you guys are awesome!

Special thanks to Oddeus for getting things started and also to rtcvb32, paladin181, toxicTom, jamotide for their valuable input, This restore is by no means perfect but hopefully it improves on what currently exists. I searched for hours for a source for the missing text without success. The GOG community came through as usual. =)

Although I'm satisfied with this version I will be open to any suggestions to improve the file . . . for a while anyway. I left existing text as it was in the original manual and hope the final translation of the foreword is close to the original. I believe the original images were B&W so I hope to be forgiven for using color replacements.

The two warning are invalid for today's OS's but I wanted something close to the original rather than leaving them blank. The other "Important" notices were readable so they are as intended.

GOG feel free to add this file to the game extras if it meets your standards.

Final version - https://www.dropbox.com/s/eo4uq14eo1ix577/AlbionManual.pdf?dl=0

The first section:

Prologue
Nobody likes to read long prologues. Especially if they don't bring any benefit for the user, but simply are meant as a means to deliver an opinion, which the reader/listener/player is actually supposed to form on its own.
This prologue however is supposed to be of use for you. It may help you with playing Albion, if you are aware with which goals we designed our game.
Albion is a RPG, and as such it contains a lot of fights, logical puzzles in dark dungeons, and the fondly leveling up of - to begin of the game - rather weak characters.
That's all part of a good RPG and makes for a big part of the fun of playing.

The thing that is present in abundance in Albion, often gets pushed into the background in today's RPG's, in favour of effortless understandable action: in Albion, a story gets told, that progresses through your actions as the player.

What also differantiates Albion from most other RPG's, is the fact that we tried to let the cultures in the game appear as lively as possible. You can talk to a lot of people, and not everything you learn will have directly to do with the task you're trying to accomplish. You can question a lot of persons over details about their culture, without learning anything that will help you solve your problems. So you don't have to memorize or write down every sentence or conversation you have. If you want to learn what our thoughts and intentions behind the creation of the world, and its cultures were, you can find out via conversations.
However - you can also just concentrate on the informations given to you, which help you to progress in game.
----------
The second red-rimmed section reads:

Attention!
There is a file on the game-CD called README.TXT.
It contains important points, which couldn't get included into the manual.
Please read this file carefully, first.
----------
The third red section:

Attention!
Please take care, that your soundcard is correctly installed under Win95.
Instructions on how to do this can be found in the online-help of Win95.

I own this game and have never played it. This post has made me want to do that. Thank you for giving me a good reason.


EDIT: Also interesting to note that the company's American address was in Schaumburg, IL ( a German sounding city if ever I heard of it) and the building they once held an office in is now completely occupied by a temp service.

Do you have the manual? Printed or as a file?

Thanks, but I´m asking, because he might have the original manual, that is still readable. So we could restore the missing text in the pdf.

Well, the OP posted a picture of the German manual
(https://www.gog.com/upload/forum/2019/02/1b8f33c05b97898170b82fa3f858221d7cffc838.jpg), and that text got translated already - so...

Edit: wrong link

Thanks BreOl72 for the translation. Along with the other inputs it has been very helpful.

The first couple of paragraphs are visible on the old pdf file but I was not able to find the "hidden" text ANY WHERE. You guys/gals provided me with a good, usable translation for the missing text.

I'm a little worn out from the project as I didn't really mean to start it. I had never played the game and the sale price was what prompted me to give Albion a try. Finding the manual somewhat lacking I started the restore which turned into hours of work..

It's an enjoyable old school RPG. I did manage to leave the mothership with a gun after a lot of effort but have not had time to play since I started the restore. Hope the manual restore will be useful for other community members. =)

No... I mean I have it here on GOG.

You're welcome. :)

It sure will - I downloaded it already.
Great work!

The link BreO172 posted is the same one I have. It seems to be the ONLY english manual on the net for the game.. Hence my quest to restore it to a usable state

There were a couple of German manuals that were clear so that's what prompted my request for help since I can't speak/read a word of German. . =)

@Stuff and paladin181

I was hoping that paladin181 might have an original manual, so that we could use the English text instead of the translation, for the most authentic experience :) It was worth a try.