Simon the Sorcerer I manual - question

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:50 pm

Hi,

I have most of the Simon the Sorcerers (well, all apart from 4) in a variety of formats.

When I first bought the big box releases of 1 & 2, I noticed at the time that I didn't get a manual for 1 whereas Simon 2 came with a CD inlay one. I suspect they ran out of inlay manuals and/or cases and just omitted to include them to save cash (and the manual was in PDF on the CD as well).

Anyway, in a bizarre sense of completeness, I bought a CD and inlay copy of Simon 1 from eBay, just for the manual but whilst I think the manual is genuine, it does look a bit different to what I was expecting.

The picture on the front is entirely grey and there's no colour in the entire manual. The text is made up of English, German and French translations.

I suspect this is because the CD itself is older than my big box Windows & DOS version. The eBay CD is DOS-only and I think might have come from the original purple box DOS version, rather than the later black Win/DOS big box I have.

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had bought a copy of the Windows & DOS big box Simon and had the inlay manual. Is your later version coloured at all? Also, does the plastic cd case have an inlay on the back? Again, my newer Win/DOS Simon 2 does (full colour) but the DOS Simon 1 I picked up doesn't.

Cheers,

Sam.

Arantor · Post by **Arantor** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:59 pm

I bought the big box (black Win & DOS) releases from AS's website a couple of years ago and neither came with inlays, both relied on PDFs on the disk, so I'm not sure exactly what the policy is.

It does seem as though they're avoiding printing inlays though.

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:35 pm

Yes, that's what I'd expect.

The Simon games don't sell well enough for them to justify spending a lot on a new print-run, I suspect. So when it came round again, they already had the PDFs on the disk (they have done since they released the Windows versions, I think, so that they didn't have to re-print the manuals which only refer to the DOS versions) so it was cheaper just to not include them.

Basically, I think I know of three manuals for the PC versions of StS 1&2:

StS1 First floppy release (big box with purple edges?), 30-page manual included the copy protection compass codes. Never seen this myself.

StS1 later CD release (StS2-style black big box)?
B&W cover, 3 languages, CD inlay manual. I've got one of these but without the rest of the packaging so not sure what it came with. No CD case rear cover?

StS2 CD release (black big box).
Coloured cover, multi-language, CD inlay manual. I've got one of these. Includes colour rear cover on CD case.

I'm wondering if there were any more variants of the manual. For the first CD-ROM version of StS1? Or was there ever a colour version of the StS1 CD inlay manual?

If anyone can describe what manuals they received with which style of packaging for StS 1 or 2, that might prove interesting.

Sam.

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:57 pm

Bad form to reply to one's own post, but this site seems to be remarkably helpful, and has a scan of the English parts of the big DOS floppy manual ...

http://www.game-nostalgia.com/simon/sim ... cerer.html

So it seems the original CD and inlay I bought is from the original CD-ROM release (tho I dunno if there was supposed to be a rear CD jewel case cover). I guess they continued to use those in the big black box releases until they ran out, and then just pointed to the PDF manuals on the disc.

And as there was a floppy version of StS II, there was probably an equivalent big box manual for that (with copy protection codes?), I assume ...

Sam.

spookypeanut · Post by **spookypeanut** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:30 pm

I picked up StS 1 DOS CD at a boot sale, with the b&w manual, and it has a jewel case back inlay (in colour, no less). Just to complete your knowledge

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:16 pm

Ah, I suspected such a thing might exist.

I've also discovered that there was a colour jewel case inlay (possibly a manual) ...

Sam.

spookypeanut · Post by **spookypeanut** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:54 pm

Having now got home and had a look, mine has a colour front inlay, but just a single sheet of paper, along with the b&w manual.

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:47 pm

Perhaps that's the pic I've just spotted ... will find out more about it, if I can.

Is your version the first big box cd-rom release, then? As pictured at the link above, with purple edges to the box?

StS has been repackaged so often I think the first editions are quite hard to get hold of now.

Sam.

spookypeanut · Post by **spookypeanut** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:00 pm

Yup, that's the one. Also has a hint book in the box, but as I say, I got it from a car boot sale so they probably just chucked that in because they had no use for it.

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 8:15 pm

The hint book here?

http://www.adventuresoft.com/acatalog/Hint_Books.html

It's still for sale from Adventure Soft and I think has always been sold separately.

Sam.

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:52 am

OK,

Yes, I now have the original release CD jewel case in front of me.

It has the colour inlay, B&W manual and colour rear inlay (with a bizarre picture of Chipper looking suspiciously more like a sheep than a dog, IMHO!) that says the package was designed and mastered by Creative Consultants, Birmingham.

So, I think I'm correct in summarising ...

1993 - StS1 First floppy release (big box with purple edges)
Big 30-page manual included the copy protection compass codes. Scan of English section here: http://www.game-nostalgia.com/simon/sim ... cerer.html

1995 - StS1 CD-ROM release (big box with purple edges)
B&W cover, 3 languages, CD inlay manual. With colour jewel case inlays, front and rear.

1995 - StS2 Floppy release (black big box?)
No idea what type of manual? Did StS2 floppy have copy protection?

1995 - StS2 CD-ROM release (black big box)
Coloured, multi-language, CD inlay manual. Includes colour rear jewel case inlay.

Then, when they Windows versions were developed, they started putting the manuals in PDF form on the discs and slapped small stickers on the front of the old DOS manuals with a note about the new Windows compatibility, until they ran out.

Since then, AdventureSoft have just updated the big boxes to matching black and, more recently, allowed Idigicon to publish them with DVD-style cases (also with PDF manuals).

So the only one I don't know about is StS2 floppy (I think).

Sam.

willemg · Post by **willemg** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:29 pm

"Then, when they Windows versions were developed, they started putting the manuals in PDF form on the discs and slapped small stickers on the front of the old DOS manuals with a note about the new Windows compatibility, until they ran out."

They started with putting stickers on the old boxes I believe. I have e.g. a purple box of StS1 with two yellow stickers (talkie and Windows sticker) which contains the CD-ROM in a sleeve, the B&W manual (jc format) and a note about Windows compatibility.
And with regard to StS2 they also put a Windows sticker on the original box (bottom front states the company name instead of "the Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe."), with CD-ROM in sleeve, jc manual and Windows note. The one I have with the subtitle has indeed a pdf manual and a poster (but copyright date on the back of that box is 1998).

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:18 pm

Poster, eh?

Not heard of that before ...

It's like opening a Christmas Cracker, buying a copy of StS, eh?

Sam.

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:21 pm

The main thing I'd be interested to hear now is what the StS2 floppy version was made up of.

Presumably a black box (I think only StS1 early releases had purple edges) but did it have a full-size manual and were the discs copy protected?

Curious ...

Sam.

clem · Post by **clem** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:25 pm

samwise wrote:Presumably a black box (I think only StS1 early releases had purple edges) but did it have a full-size manual and were the discs copy protected?

As far as I remember Simon2 had a doc-check copyprotection, similar to that in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis ("click the right symbol").