I spent $800 Translating Retro Manuals & Building a Game Database

[Water]

Edit: For anyone who wants to contribute, I've started a Patreon which you can view here due to the amount of requests I've had for donations. VGCompletes finances are completely public: VGComplete Finances

I feel like all retro game databases are kind of boring, so I wanted to prototype my own so I made one based on Sega Genesis that lets you browse game by Boxart & Screenshots. Right now only numeric games and the letter A works

Home | VGComplete

www.vgcomplete.com

I also noticed there's a bunch retro games that have been translated but the manuals for the games haven't been. So I've been hiring a translater and doing it myself & also finding translated docs scanning them and backing them up if they already exist.

Home | VGComplete

www.vgcomplete.com

It's all Sega Genesis games at the moment. It's just a little hobby I've been working on and there's no monetization behind it. It's taken a lot of time to get it in its current state, but if people think it's useful I'd love to keep adding games to it and eventually complete it.

Edit: There's now a functional mobile version as it seems that majority of users were on mobile!

Edit 2 (8/1): All existing manuals for the letter A are now uploaded!

Edit 3(8/6): Added gameplays videos as a test, this will be the new standard moving forward as I feel like it really brings each games page alive.

Edit 4 (8/10): The letter A is now 100% COMPLETE! Letter B coming soon!!

Edit 5: (8/15): The letter B is now implemented! We're only missing 3 manuals and working on finding them now!

Edit 6: (8/22): The letter C is live. We're missing a bit more manuals here but we've made some headway on this already.

 

[Speevy]

That's cool. Preserving anything relating to gaming's past is not insane. It's vital.

 

[itsrealfood]

This is really neat and any efforts toward preservation are worthwhile!

 

[MinerArcaniner]

 

[thetrin]

This is a really cool project, dude. I've been meaning to go through my whole connection and database the whole thing myself. Hats off to anyone who goes through with this kind of work.

 

[DarkplaceGarth]

Awesome work so far! Would definitely use something like this to research and read up on old games before my time

 

[kubev]

Sanity check here.

I feel like all retro game databases are kind of boring, so I wanted to prototype my own so I made one based on Sega Genesis that lets you browse game by Boxart & Screenshots. Right now only the letter A works.

Home | VGComplete

www.vgcomplete.com

I also noticed there's a bunch retro games that have been translated but the manuals for the games haven't been. So I started doing it myself & finding translated docs scanning them and backing them up

Home | VGComplete

www.vgcomplete.com

It's all Sega Genesis games at the moment. It's just a little hobby I've been working on and there's no monetization behind it. It's taken a lot of time to get it in its current state, but if people think it's useful I'd love to keep adding games to it and eventually complete it.

Click to shrink...

Sega Genesis AND the letter A, eh? Where were you in December?

I recently learned about Aerobiz and its sequel Aerobiz Supersonic, and I figured I'd give the series a shot. I figured I'd start with the less complicated of the two games, so I started playing Aerobiz on Genesis and quickly found myself feeling completely lost. Could anyone here who's familiar with the Aerobiz games give me any pointers on how to play? Better yet, does anyone here happen to know where I can find a copy of the manual that isn't missing pages and doesn't cost $40 by itself on eBay?

Click to shrink...

Seriously, thanks! XD

EDIT: Oh, bummer. No Aerobiz manuals. The search continues...

 

[Rika]

Love this project! Keep up the good work on it.

 

[Anth0ny]

I love the look, very clean. Keep it up!

 

[Deleted member 32822]

This website is really cool!

 

[Water]

Awesome work so far! Would definitely use something like this to research and read up on old games before my time

Click to shrink...

My idea was to make it fun to find an new retro games to play like you would when you go into a store by checking them out by boxart. Of course I've got other methods of browsing and way to filter them. Within the next couple weeks I should have all the manuals (that are available online) for every game that start's with A.

I also have a bunch of games I'm translating now. Alien Soldier & Golden Axe III are almost done and I have a ton of other translated game documents I've waiting on shipments of so I can back them up. I've been in my own world working on this for a bit so it's so awesome to hear you guys like this!!

 

[Sonic and Knuckles]

Awesome work!

 

[FinFunnels]

Love this idea, OP! I appreciate the back of box and cartridge pics, too. But the idea of being able to browse old game manuals is especially exciting!

 

[kubev]

By the way, OP, I don't know the sources for your manuals, but I wanted to let you know that Sega has manuals for the games on the Genesis Mini available here:

SEGA Genesis Mini - Webmanuals

manuals.sega.com

 

[shoptroll]

Dude, you are doing the lord's work. Get yourself a Patreon ASAP.

 

[Cow Mengde]

That's a very cool project!

 

[demi]

The manual translations are pretty damn useful and impressive - thanks for your efforts for that alone

 

[Cantaim]

Yo this is dope!

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

I'm speechless, incredible effort! There's so much content and art that are lost forever in manuals, which itself is a lost art. This database is a treasure.

 

[Look over there]

Cool project!

 

[The Spoony Hou]

Self-promotion much, uh?

I kid, this is awesome. Really cool of you to do it. I love the manual scans and especially the translated ones. I often have a really hard time just trying to find Jp scans, so this is really handy.

Thanks for your work.

 

[Water]

Self-promotion much, uh?

I kid, this is awesome. Really cool of you to do it. I love the manual scans and especially the translated ones. I often have a really hard time just trying to find Jp scans, so this is really handy.

Thanks for your work.

Click to shrink...

SegaRetro is a great resource and has a ton of JP manuals if you're looking for them. I actually encourge anyone who wants to add any missing content to the archive of Sega info to add it there. I'm just translating some of them and trying to find ones that are already translated + presenting the data in a new way.

 

[Sheng Long]

This is very cool.

 

[horkrux]

very nice

 

[Water]

Looks like almost half the people who checked out the database were on mobile, which I had not made yet. Just added a fully functional mobile version!

I can't tell you how happy I am to see how positive the response here is!!

 

[Deleted member 2317]

FUCKING AWESOME!!!

 

[Deleted member 8752]

Siiiick…

Can't wait to see how this evolves. Let me know how I can support the site.

 

[Deleted member 8752]

Self-promotion much, uh?

I kid, this is awesome. Really cool of you to do it. I love the manual scans and especially the translated ones. I often have a really hard time just trying to find Jp scans, so this is really handy.

Thanks for your work.

Click to shrink...

The rule against self promotion for content like this shouldn't exist. Op is doing the community a service and only asking for feedback in return. Hopefully, the mods can see that.

 

[OhSatan]

Thanks a lot for your money and passion.

Just this past July I searched for 2 manuals a Genesis and Snes, they later was a pain but it was there and usable but damn if I suffered for the Sega stuff in the end I did not find it.

 

[digreyfox]

Really cool project. Not much interest to me personally but I fully appreciate your effort, the clean layout, and got a kick out of leafing through 688 attack sub's manual. Haven't thought about that game since I was a kid.

A patreon could be a great idea for you.

 

[AlanOC91]

Great work OP! I always love neat little projects like this!

What is your stack like? Any fun little tidbits about techniques you used in creating the website? (Caching, lazy loading, etc etc).

I'm always super interested in how different developers approach things. I'm interested in your method to swap between list view, gallery view etc etc. I did a handy method of loading it all into the local storage for the web browser on the page load and then smeamlessly swapping between them on button click for some of the websites I run. In typical fashion I got the idea from another website 🤣

Edit: Also, what was the 800 spent on?

 

[Water]

All manuals are now uploaded!

Sega Genesis AND the letter A, eh? Where were you in December?


Seriously, thanks! XD

EDIT: Oh, bummer. No Aerobiz manuals. The search continues...

Click to shrink...

Good news! As soon as I get this one in the mail it'll be uploaded! Right now we're only missing 5 manuals with Aerobiz soon to be complete:
3 Ninjas Kick Back
A Dinosaur's Tale
Aerobiz
Art of Fighting
Atomic Runner

Before moving onto the next letter I'm dead set on completing these. I've reached out to people that I know have them in their collections but they've all be unresponsive sadly so far.

Great work OP! I always love neat little projects like this!

What is your stack like? Any fun little tidbits about techniques you used in creating the website? (Caching, lazy loading, etc etc).

I'm always super interested in how different developers approach things. I'm interested in your method to swap between list view, gallery view etc etc. I did a handy method of loading it all into the local storage for the web browser on the page load and then smeamlessly swapping between them on button click for some of the websites I run. In typical fashion I got the idea from another website 🤣

Edit: Also, what was the 800 spent on?

Click to shrink...

Right now I built the prototype with just a Figma / Drag and Drop Website builder with a small amount of code. I want to convert everything over React / NodeJS / a SQL database but I'd have to hire someone to do it. Sadly just not an investment I'm ready for yet.

It looks like I spent actually over $1000 so far actually.

 

[kubev]

Good news! As soon as I get this one in the mail it'll be uploaded! Right now we're only missing 5 manuals with Aerobiz soon to be complete:
3 Ninjas Kick Back
A Dinosaur's Tale
Aerobiz
Art of Fighting
Atomic Runner

Before moving onto the next letter I'm dead set on completing these. I've reached out to people that I know have them in their collections but they've all be unresponsive sadly so far.

Click to shrink...

Nice. Thanks!

 

[CheapJi]

Incredible work!

 

[Kientin]

This is freaking great! Good work.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

SegaRetro is a great resource and has a ton of JP manuals if you're looking for them. I actually encourge anyone who wants to add any missing content to the archive of Sega info to add it there. I'm just translating some of them and trying to find ones that are already translated + presenting the data in a new way.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for that! While I'd like more than Sega resources, this already is a great help. And thanks for adding mobile functionality to your site.

The rule against self promotion for content like this shouldn't exist. Op is doing the community a service and only asking for feedback in return. Hopefully, the mods can see that.

Click to shrink...

Well, I made the joke because I don't think the rule applies here. Indeed, this site only helps the community, so it's not harmful self promotion.

 

[Yunyo]

Hey, this is pretty sick. The Addams Family manual is cute, heh.

 

[RedSwirl]

Pretty cool.

In my experience Archive.org tends to have lots of old game manuals. If you're looking for old PC game manuals GOG.com has them for every game once you buy them, and a surprising number of Steam pages for old (and new) games have a "view manual" link somewhere on the side that'll bring you to a PDF of the original manual without your having to buy the game.

 

[Brofield]

I am so excited for when you get through B.

I got Battletoads Double Dragon on Genesis after playing it for years on a friend's SNES, and I even got the cartridge in the box, but no manual (and the game itself is fickle to start here and there 🙃). Genuinely curious to know what's inside and if there are specific button controls I need to know about for different combos haha

 

[Ifrit]

Really nice project, the manuals specially look great, good work

 

[Water]

Crushed a ton of small bugs, and added gameplay videos as a test, and now that they're in place, there's no going back.

I feel like it adds so much to each games page so it'll be the new standard moving forward!

Also added a roadmap in the about section, and opened up a discord for anyone who want's to connect about the website.

 

[EVIL]

This is fantastic. Any preservation efforts should be encouraged and you seem to be doing a great job. Bookmarked, and be hoping to see it flourish over the coming years.

 

[shadowman16]

Awesome idea for a project. I've been on a retro gaming spree lately (mainly more obscure Capcom releases), and thumbing through the manuals makes me miss having manuals for modern games (GTA and RGG always did such a great job with them back in the day). Keep up the good work :)

 

[Nabbit]

This is incredibly cool Water! Thanks so much for your hard work and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop further!

 

[ReBirFh]

Love the idea, specially the fact it focus on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.

 

[Alec]

Oh my, these translated manuals are top-quality. It's going to make for some amazing reproductions in the future. Set up a Patreon, stat!

 

[Glimlocker]

Wow, this is truly wonderful stuff here.
Thank you for contributing this to the retro games scene!

It probably wouldn't hurt to start a patreon, just to see if you can get anything from it.

Not that you should focus at all on this, but I've noticed some Japanese manuals tend to be far more detailed than the US counterparts.
Which ones, I couldn't tell you off the top of my head, but I can try to look into that.

 

[Water]

The letter A is now 100% COMPLETE!!!!

This is a small milestone in a much larger picture, but is awesome to be able to say.

I've been getting a lot of request for donations, so I started a Patreon Here
To be completely transparent, I'll be making every $ earned and spent public here: VGComplete Finances

If this breaks any rules I'm happy to remove it.

 

[Corrupt]

Great work and good site design

 

[kubev]

The letter A is now 100% COMPLETE!!!!

This is a small milestone in a much larger picture, but is awesome to be able to say.

I've been getting a lot of request for donations, so I started a Patreon Here
To be completely transparent, I'll be making every $ earned and spent public here: VGComplete Finances

If this breaks any rules I'm happy to remove it.

Click to shrink...

Thanks again for uploading the Aerobiz series manuals! I've pledged to your Patreon and look forward to seeing this project expand. By the way, if you're scanning these manuals yourself, then I'm curious as to whether you've experimented with using black construction paper or something against the back of each page so the content on the other side doesn't bleed through. It's not a major detail, but I figured I'd suggest it at this early stage in case you're interested in trying it.