You can now view every PlayStation 2 manual online

A games preservationist has released a collection of over 1,900 PlayStation 2 manuals for free.

A games preservationist, named Kirkland, released his collection of PlayStation 2 manuals, scanned and upscaled to 4k resolution, for free.

Manuals in games are, sadly, a relic of older gaming. Modern purchases, which are mostly digital, no longer carry instruction manuals — instead, putting instructions and hints into the tutorials of the game. Manuals offered small guides on controls, how to play, progression, and sometimes even unique key art.

In a report by Kotaku, Kirkland uploaded over 1,900 manuals, making it the largest collection of PlayStation 2 media collected in one place. “The goal is to raise some awareness for game preservation efforts. So many games growing up shaped how we looked at and experienced the world. Of course as we ‘grow up,’ we move to other things but there are a lot of us who have nostalgia for these things and want our kids to be able to enjoy what we did,” Kirkland told Kotaku.

An extremely popular series that originated on the PlayStation 2 is the Sly Cooper games, which haven’t been re-released for modern consoles. Picture: Sucker Punch

The total cost of this preservation? Approximately $63,000 AUD for the collection alone: “I grabbed new releases when they got down to $20 for about the first 800 releases, then I started picking up used sports games in good condition, then it was hunting down the odd variants (which is never-ending),” they state.

All of the manuals were painstakingly scanned, manually, one-by-one — something Kirkland views as a necessity since it may not be an option in the near future, as private collectors start hoarding their collections. “The internet has had 25 years to make it happen, and all we have are the same scanned manuals from 2004 that look like they came off a fax machine…it just doesn’t sit right with me that you have to pay $200 for the privilege of reading a Chrono Trigger manual that is actually legible.”

The PlayStation 2 was an extremely popular console, with a catalogue of at least 4,000 games, and selling almost 160 million units worldwide. Many popular series really hit their stride during the PS2 era, with famous series like Kingdom Hearts and Devil May Cry getting their start on the console. Popular series that experienced massive growth on the PS2 included Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, and Final Fantasy, but also niche games gained huge cult followings, such as .hack// and Ku-on.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.