Berzerk Enhanced Manual?

[Draugr]

Hi.

 

I could swear I read somewhere in these forums that Berzerk Enhanced which currently comes as a box with cart but no manual would have a manual included in future releases. Am I correct or is it something I imagined? I can't seem to find that thread no matter how hard I looked. Anyhow, I want to pick up the new Berzerk Enhanced but wanted to know if it will be possible to get a manual if one is eventually released? For example, if I showed a receipt for my purchase would a manual be able to be sent to me if I paid for shipping, etc? If not it's not a problem I'd just hold off until the version with the manual is released. I don't want to buy the game now and then have to buy it again down the road just to get the manual.

 

Thanks,

John

 

Edited February 6 by Draugr

[Glorkbot]

I’m pretty sure what they said was that future releases for the Atari 2600+ might have manuals. That came true…Food Fight, Ninja Golf, and Fatal Run 7800 are all going to have manuals. I don’t think they ever said they’d do 2nd printings of the other games with manuals.

 

….and it doesn’t sound like something they would say since then people would stop buying the games now and wait for the second printing, (like you say you would do.)

Edited February 7 by Glorkbot

[+LS650]

11 minutes ago, Glorkbot said:

I’m pretty sure what they said was that future releases for the Atari 2600+ might have manuals. That came true…Food Fight, Ninja Golf, and Fatal Run 7800 are all going to have manuals. I don’t think they ever said they’d do 2nd printings of the other games with manuals.

I think that is correct: Ben said future release would include instructions manuals of some sort - I have seen no such comment about the current releases.

[Draugr]

Thanks for the info. I guess I can always do the next best thing as someone else mentioned in another thread. I'll just grab an old 2600 Berzerk manual from my spare manual collection and put it in the box.

 

John

Edited February 7 by Draugr

[Thran]

On 2/6/2024 at 8:13 PM, Draugr said:

Thanks for the info. I guess I can always do the next best thing as someone else mentioned in another thread. I'll just grab an old 2600 Berzerk manual from my spare manual collection and put it in the box.

 

John

I read through my old Berzerk manual when looking up the game grid.

 

I thought it was funny that one of the tips for survival was to shoot the robots diagonally instead of head on. If they ever reprint the manuals it will need an edit. 😁

[Video]

Why? I thought you could shoot diagonally, its the robots who could only shoot straight.

 

Ill have to dig a berserk out and try it, I can totally be wrong in memory (once I got it I mostly played ve)

[Thran]

The updated Berzerk enhanced cartridge added diagonal shooting and voice to the robots. 

[+Living Room Arcade]

On 2/6/2024 at 6:36 PM, Draugr said:

Hi.

 

I could swear I read somewhere in these forums that Berzerk Enhanced which currently comes as a box with cart but no manual would have a manual included in future releases. Am I correct or is it something I imagined? I can't seem to find that thread no matter how hard I looked. Anyhow, I want to pick up the new Berzerk Enhanced but wanted to know if it will be possible to get a manual if one is eventually released? For example, if I showed a receipt for my purchase would a manual be able to be sent to me if I paid for shipping, etc? If not it's not a problem I'd just hold off until the version with the manual is released. I don't want to buy the game now and then have to buy it again down the road just to get the manual.

 

Thanks,

John

 

Hey @Draugr, did you see?  They have an online manual for Berzerk Enhanced at Atari.com!

Link

Here's a PDF I made

Berzerk Enhanced - online manual.pdf

You could print this out yourself - not quite the same, I realize, but still it's another option until the real printed manual comes along.  

[Draugr]

@Living Room Arcade Thanks. I'll definitely print that out for now on nice glossy paper. Should hold over until/if an official manual is printed.

[Sean_1970]

7 hours ago, Living Room Arcade said:

Hey @Draugr, did you see?  They have an online manual for Berzerk Enhanced at Atari.com!

Link

Here's a PDF I made

Berzerk Enhanced - online manual.pdf 538.48 kB · 9 downloads

You could print this out yourself - not quite the same, I realize, but still it's another option until the real printed manual comes along.  

Cheers for the PDF 👍

 

The lack of a game list is pretty glaring - Ben said he planned on creating ones for this and Mr Run and Jump in another thread, so hopefully those will be better than two pages 😉
 

 

Edited February 23 by Sean_1970

[+Living Room Arcade]

I wanted to mention something on this topic.  The value of manuals.  Recently, I was playing Asteroids Attack by 3rd party developer Game Select @Ricardo Pim.   The game includes the ROM and a PDF manual.   

 

Here is the backstory to the game provided in the manual: 

Quote

The year is 2600 and the recently discovered X Planet in its first passage through the Solar System, disturbs the harmony of the asteroid belt, hurling thousands of asteroids towards Earth.

 

Humanity, with full mastery of space technology, created the Star Defence star fleet, designed for exploration and defense.

 

Upon knowing of the destructive power of the event, a fleet of 9 space ships was dispatched with the aim of destroying all asteroids that threaten the planet while the Earth mission remains on alert.  But during the stellar mission, something terrible is discovered, and the horde of asteroids become the least of the problems.

 

The star fleet discovers that the attack was not an event of natural causes , but something carefully planned by the no longer unknown inhabitants of X Planet, who for reasons still unknown, plan the total destruction of Earth.

I love this backstory.  We have all seen sci-fi movies with special effects.  Can't you just imagine this?  A stray planet passes through our solar system, pulling with it thousands of asteroids from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.  These asteroids are now headed toward Earth, OMG!  This is a movie I'd like to see!  Even better, we get to grab an Atari 2600 joystick and jump into the cockpit of a starship from the Star Defence Star Fleet and do the job ourselves!  

 

Modern consoles like the Playstation can devote as much time as they need to developing the backstories of their games with narration and cut scenes and so forth.  But as we all know, the hardware limitations of the Atari 2600 pretty much rule that possibility out.  So for Atari 2600 games, the manual becomes pretty much the the only place where the author can tell us the backstory.  Well, there were also the Atari Force mini-comics back in the day.  But you get the idea.  

 

The game provides the action.  The manual provides the backstory.  Together, they make a complete game, like a modern Playstation game with the backstory built in.    

 

I enjoyed playing Asteroids Attack a lot more after I knew the backstory.  The manual, for me, made the game better.

 

I just think this is also true of a lot of Atari 2600 games.  I'm sorry to hear that recently Atari has been shipping games without a printed manual.  Playstation can do that.  IMO Atari 2600 can't/shouldn't.  

Edited February 23 by Living Room Arcade

[shane857]

On 2/7/2024 at 2:13 AM, Draugr said:

Thanks for the info. I guess I can always do the next best thing as someone else mentioned in another thread. I'll just grab an old 2600 Berzerk manual from my spare manual collection and put it in the box.

 

John

Yes, I did the same. 😂

[NicodemusLegend]

2 hours ago, Sean_1970 said:

Cheers for the PDF 👍

 

The lack of a game list is pretty glaring - Ben said he planned on creating ones for this and Mr Run and Jump in another thread, so hopefully those will be better than two pages 😉
 

 

Even if they don't want to spend money on manuals, they should put a game selection grid on the back of the packaging, so folks don't have to go searching for those options.

[Sean_1970]

On 2/23/2024 at 10:59 PM, NicodemusLegend said:

Even if they don't want to spend money on manuals, they should put a game selection grid on the back of the packaging, so folks don't have to go searching for those options.

Pretty important for Berzerk given Evil Otto isn’t even in the first couple of game modes; most games you can play game one and you’re getting the “full” experience, but this is one of the exceptions where game 1&2 are kinda easy versions.