Hello. I looked around for this a bit but couldn't find it, so if this question already exists somewhere then I apologize.

Does anyone know if there's a list of all the games on GoG that require the game manual for in-game copy protection? For example, King's Quest VI still supposedly has a point where you need something from the manual to get passed it. I generally don't download the extras for every game in my GoG library, but if there are game manuals I will need then I'd like to make sure I download them to make a backup (I make backup copies of everything).

Maybe KQ6 is the only one that has this requirement, but it would be cool if it were listed on the actual game page somewhere, or as a note under it in the game library once it's been purchased and is on your account. Just so someone isn't caught off guard when they realize they need it, and maybe don't have access to the internet at that current time or something.

Thanks in advance!

from personal experience, i know Police Quest 2 requires the manual. there are more however, that i cant think of right now.
btw, i make backups of everything as well, i just bought a 2TB external harddrive and downloaded almost the entire gog catalog onto it ;)

Yeah I figured there were going to be more games than just KQ6, but I was hoping not. I'd just much rather know specifically which of my 80 - 90 games (and the future games that I purchase) need the manual, rather than having to make backups of them all unnecessarily.

This is obviously something that GoG would be aware of when they're putting their games up for sale initially, so I'll toss a suggestion their way and see if maybe they can start putting a note either on the store game page, or in the game library somewhere once you own the game, letting users know that the manual will be required.

Appreciate the responses!

does it later on in the game? i can start playing the game without problem. it has a check later on? i hate those! ;)

Well, personally I download and store the manuals anyway, because they help learning to play the game. Lots of GOG games were written at a time when the user was _supposed_ to read the manual, and when in-game tutorials were a rarity. Often, manuals from this time contain a lot of useful information, even though they might not be technically required.

I wouldn't have thought that there are people who, when they store the games, don't actually store the manuals as well. I don't know if the number of people who'd go through the effort to check up information and then download manuals selectively is large enough to justify pinning such information to the store page. To me, the much easier solution seems to be to simply download the manual if the game has one.

While I certainly respect your opinion, I've been gaming since the 80's and have rarely had to use game manuals. I usually like to dive in and figure things out for myself, and that applies to just about everything I do and not just gaming. There are some games where that's certainly not possible. I had to use the manuals when I played the Neverwinter Nights games, since I knew nothing about D&D before that. That game came with a pretty nice manual, and I believe I actually still have the physical copy of the manual even though I repurchased it on GoG a while back.

I have a pretty modest GoG library (around 90 games I beileve) and I intend to buy many more, so I'd rather not back up 90 game manuals that I don't really need and may never use. I back up A LOT of stuff, so I like to keep it as neat and orderly and clutter free as possible. I have my entire Steam library backed up also, and it's a behemoth. Well over 400 games and 1 terabyte of data, just for those. Also, I use two hard drives mirrored for my backup storage, and I do the mirroring manually as I just have them in a standard external enclosure and not a RAID. So, the process of keeping track of about 4 terrabytes of backup data total (across 4 hard drives total) can be time consuming.

If I didn't have so much to keep track of with my backups already, I'd probably just do as you said and make backups of all of the GoG extras, regardless of whether or not I needed them. You're probably right though that there may not be enough people to warrant the interest for GoG to do it, but really it would take very little effort for them to actually do it. I mean they know right from the get-go whether or not a game they are adding to the site will require the manual, so all they'd realistically have to add anywhere on the game page is "*Note: this game requires the manual to play" or something along those lines.

It's also possible that we (we as in anyone else interested) could just start our own community list...

Last time I checked all GOGs come with manuals included in their installers (to be found in each game's main folder). Some of those even come with their necessary quick cheat sheets for these old codes. This may not be the case for some of these newer indie-types, but it is for all the oldies. Anyway, that's why I always found it odd that GOG also puts manuals in the 'extras' section.

on a side note, 90 games is a lot i think. i have 110 and i think thats huge! ;)

Hehe, well, I haven't been a member here for very long, so I just assumed that at this point most people have a lot more games than I do. I know my Steam library is (sadly, since they aren't all DRM free) impressive, but I've seen people with 900 - 1200 Steam titles, which makes me look like I just stopped in for coffee.

Ah, well that is awesome if that's the case! May also explain why they don't bother to mention it anywhere when a game requires the manual. I'll have to go through and install some of my games when I get time just to double check, but hopefully you're correct!

We're probably on opposite sides of the spectrum with regard to this question. :) I've been gaming since the early 80s as well, and to me, opening the box and reading the manual on my way home was always an enjoyable part of the experience. I can see where you're coming from, figuring things out on one's can be very rewarding as well.

However, I think your Neverwinter Nights example shows pretty well why it would be difficult to maintain a list. For some games, a manual is required to pass the copy protection. For other games, the manual is technically not required, but provides valuable background information, and contributes to the atmosphere. For other games, the manual is not required, but helps greatly in understanding the game. For other games again, this effect depends greatly on the user's previous knowledge - e.g. whether he knows D&D (for Neverwinter Nights), or "The Dark Eye RPG" (for Realms of Arkania). Collecting a list that has all that information seems like a lot of work to me, while collecting a list that only lists the "definitely required" manuals would be of little use (imho). Interestingly, my setup is pretty similar to yours, except that my collection is several times larger (not boasting here, just stating the fact, to illustrate the point I'm going to make now). And _because_ this collection is so large and takes up so much space already, I see no point in not storing the manuals as well. Clicking on a download link that's right next to the game download seems easier to me than looking up information about the importance of the manual first.

However, it seems that the whole discussion might be moot with regard to GOG titles, because ... (see next post)

I didn't know that, but I just checked about two dozen GOG games I have installed, and you seem to be correct. :)

Maybe they include the manuals as extra downloads for people like me, who like to have the manuals available even when they don't have the game installed. (I actually always extract the manuals so that I can open them directly).

But in any case, this seems to solve Qwertyman's predicament. :)

I don't usually download manuals, because most games don't need it. I only download it when i need it, and this has only happened to me to a few old GOG games. Call me lazy or whatever, but i don't like reading manuals.

The Woman Of My Dreams (tm), who currently snuggles in my arms while I'm typing, just called out "lazy" and "whatever", but I'll instead take the opportunity to restate that I absolutely understand people who prefer to avoid manuals. My point was rather that when you're devoting a lot of time and disk space to store whole game installers, there's not much point in not storing the manual as well, because a) the manual might be required or at least very helpful, and b) storing it requires very little additional time and space on top of that which you're already devoting to the operation. :)