So, in keeping with my philosophy of a small yet deeply classy Nintendo collection I’ve found a few more manuals for some of my games. As expected some game manuals come with a large price tag but surprisingly a lot of good titles are fairly fordable. Of the 11 game manuals below (ordered from DKOldies.com) the prices ranged from $4 USD to $18 USD. Of course as a Canadian shopper the exchange rate is still hitting hard and it’s why this order was a lot smaller than it could have been. The grand total after shipping and exchange was $150 CAD. Putting the average cost per manual at about $13.60 CAD each. After spending some time checking out prices for loose manuals at retro video gaming conventions I think I did OK. I have yet to find a manual for sale for less than $10 CAD and I bet a bunch of the below would sell for $20 or more locally.
Here are the actual prices (in USD) that I paid for each:
Adventure Island $10
Metroid $12
Double Dragon II $7
Mystic Quest $11
Final Fantasy $12
Super R-Type $4
Zelda $18
Final Fight $8
Castlevania $18
Faxanadu $6
Dr. Mario $3
What I dislike about buying retro gaming manuals online from stores like DKOldies.com and Lukiegames.com is that you don’t get to see the manual before you buy it. So some dude out there in the world is making decisions on what they hope I’m going to be OK with.
And for $18 USD I think I would not have purchased the Zelda manual that I received from DKOldies.com. The cover has a few wrinkles and has general wear/rub on the front and back. $18 should have gotten me something better.
But it did come with a map. I had either long since forgotten or didn’t know that Zelda came with a world map. So this was a nice unexpected surprise.
Inside the manual every page is in excellent condition. So despite my grievances with the cover it is a good manual. However (and surprisingly) after doing a quick price check on eBay I found that this manual very regularly sells for a lot less money than what DKOldies.com sold it to me for. I suppose I wont be able to snag the best deal every time but it shows that it’s important to always be diligent.
The Zelda map has a lot of tape holding it together. The upside is the tape was very carefully and neatly applied. So it’s not in great condition but it is good and I’m pleased to have it.
Pouring over the Zelda manual and map has spark a lot of interest in playing this game again. I did play it a lot back in the day but I never beat the game. Maybe it’s time 🙂
Despite a few boxed SNES games that have come my way by chance I’m not really trying for complete games. But I find that I really do enjoy having both a Stone Age Gamer BitBox and manual for each of my NES and SNES games.
Retro Megabit 
You should totally play Zelda again! It’s a great game and reasonably challenging. I remember beating it back in the day and having to rely on the dude at the game store for advice… He was kind enough to give it to me. Anyways I hope you have as much fun playing it as I did!
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I think I just might. I finally have my NES and SNES hooked-up to my CRT TV along with my Sega Master System and Sega Genesis. So I now have a comfortable place to re-visit the Legend of Zelda!
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