Do all DS games have an in-game manual like the 3DS?

[susbaconhairman]

I recently purchased a Chuck E. Cheese game from the 3DS eShop (why not?) and I noticed when I click the help button in the game, it brings me to a manual page that looks like it could be a manual format for the whole system like with the 3DS (I mean all manuals kind of have the same look), so I am wondering if all DS games have this, or if it's only DSiWare, or if it's just a few games with this.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

I think it's just a feature in a few games. Most DS-native games won't have it because they are from an era when every game still came with one in print.

 

[Pk11]

It's common – though I don't think universal – in DSiWare, I've never seen it in a cart game though as that woulda just had a paper manual.

 

[RocketRobz]

Almost all DSiWare titles contain an in-game manual featuring the DSi's GUI.
Cartridge-based titles (DS & DSi) do not contain them, due to the inability to access TWLNAND files.

 

[DanTheManMS]

DS games themselves have no "help button" or information guide. That was not something they predicted would ever be a thing back when the system was released in 2004.

Certain older DS carts like the Supercard DS One and DS One(i) featured an in-game guide function, but only with a special button combination that interrupted and froze the DS game while you scrolled through the text file named the same as the ROM in the same folder. It wasn't exactly ideal. Plus the Supercard version at least didn't word-wrap properly so I had to find a tool to pre-format the text file first.

 

[Fel]

DS games themselves have no "help button" or information guide. That was not something they predicted would ever be a thing back when the system was released in 2004.

Certain older DS carts like the Supercard DS One and DS One(i) featured an in-game guide function, but only with a special button combination that interrupted and froze the DS game while you scrolled through the text file named the same as the ROM in the same folder. It wasn't exactly ideal. Plus the Supercard version at least didn't word-wrap properly so I had to find a tool to pre-format the text file first.

The M3 DS Real also added the in-game guide fuction to its RTS menu later. It was really cool, but given how hard it was to scroll if the file was big, and you couldn't use hotlinks, you needed to edit the text to make it shorter, so you could easily find the info you wanted.

What was the Supercard menu like, was it the same? So just a notepad file that you could scroll through, with no hotlinks?

 

[Pk11]

nds-bootstrap also has an in-game manual feature, it's also a little hard to use given it lacks links or searching and they need to be wrapped to 32 columns to work properly (though it will work with any size)

There's some properly formatted manuals in the twlmenu-extras repo, they're all just autoconversions using this Python script from 80 column manuals so a lot of the ASCII art is messed up and such, other than that they're pretty usable though.

I've been meaning to clean them up, organize them, and add an easy way to download them, but haven't gotten around to it...

 

[DanTheManMS]

The M3 DS Real also added the in-game guide fuction to its RTS menu later. It was really cool, but given how hard it was to scroll if the file was big, and you couldn't use hotlinks, you needed to edit the text to make it shorter, so you could easily find the info you wanted.

What was the Supercard menu like, was it the same? So just a notepad file that you could scroll through, with no hotlinks?

I believe it was, yes. At best it might remember where you last left off, but I don't really remember very well. I didn't use it too much.

nds-bootstrap also has an in-game manual feature, it's also a little hard to use given it lacks links or searching and they need to be wrapped to 32 columns to work properly (though it will work with any size)

There's some properly formatted manuals in the twlmenu-extras repo, they're all just autoconversions using this Python script from 80 column manuals so a lot of the ASCII art is messed up and such, other than that they're pretty usable though.

I've been meaning to clean them up, organize them, and add an easy way to download them, but haven't gotten around to it...

Interesting. That's a lot more complicated than the Perl script I used for word wrapping (which I actually ended up doing directly in DSLinux because I didn't have Perl installed on my Windows computer heh): https://pastebin.com/CSpbfn6n

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

During the time of Nintendo ds, manuals was included with the purchase of a retail cartridge. Then DSI came out and DSIWare was a thing. Since you can't Physically purchase manuals, they came included with those downloads. Ever since around... I forget 2014... they tried to abolish manuals to "Save the trees" & paper cause you know, paper is made from trees I guess (And they say money don't grow on trees) So even retail games came included with manuals. Especially on wii u disc and such. Either that or they was posted online and the game had some links to lead you to them from the built in web browser the console uses.

It's a complicated mess but I guess the same reason why we now have to bring our own shopping bags to the grocery stores or we have to purchase one on checkout. Still remember magazine subscriptions being emailed links to view online instead of just sending me a booklet every month. EVERYTHINGS CHANGING TOO MUCH! O_O