Aces of the Deep game manual question
 

From a quick look on auction sites, it seems that the game originally came packaged in many ways, with different contents.

My question is - is there a "large" hardcopy of the manual, containing both the gameplay instrucitons and the historical and tactical data (there's at least 120 pages of that) ? And, if so, which version of the game did it come with ?

So far I've seen an AOD red ring binder, but this seems to be only the game instructions, the Expansion Disk booklet, and COAD stuff. Also a read booklet that has a normal rather than a ring binding.

I have the PDF versions, but would like a hardcopy of the full manual, because the historical background and research is so good and very interesting.

Many thanks.

Welcome back!
 

Yep - it's been a while - still play AOD/COAD, not much of the Silent Hunter series. I've still been lurking and usually check in a couple of times a month.

The game manual had me wondering - the PDF has 104 pages and is laid out side by side in booklet form, which would give 200+ pages, but the hard copy I have is the ring binder version which is 95 pages, and only covers the game play and interface, not the historical background.

And PDFs would not have been common with DOS games in 93/93 due to their size....

My DOS version of AOD shipped for "MS DOS 5.0 or better" with 3 1/2" floppy disks has the 208-page ring-bound manual and the update came with a single disk and 32-page stapled manual. Most of the main manual is taken up with history and the actual game play instructions do not even begin until Page-123.

I still have the boxes but cannot seem to be able to find the disks. Both manuals have extensive historical copy included with the latter having one section on the U-Boat war in the Med and a second on the development and deployment of the Type XXI.

-C

Thanks for the info - yes, I have the second stapled expansion disk manual with the sections on the Med and XXI.

So, there seems to be a larger ring bound manual for the earlier DOS versions, that's what I am trying to source.

Hi kkreische you have a PM with download link to Aces of the Deep Manual


104 Pages if its the same as what you already have no worries


https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=5601


below download link to AOD Atlantic Map


https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/dow...o=file&id=5603

:Kaleun_Salute:

Thanks for all this - I now have good quality PDFs of the long manual, and the hard copy shorter one, ring bound.

That came from a COAD "big box" slipcover edition that also had the expansion disk booklet, a short cut reference sheet and a stapled COAD getting started guide.

I've ordered an early DOS diskette version - will be interesting to see what comes with that. On-line I've seen references to big boxes and normal ones, CD versions and have seen examples of a soft bound long maual and also a ring bound one - but trying to figure out what came with what is tricky.

Many thanks for all you help guys - and good hunting.

The mystery is solved - my purchase arrived yesterday, and I can confirm rhat the earlier five floppy DOS version comes with the map, shortcut quick reference and the full version of the ring bound manual that includes the historical sections as well as game play - 208 pages, so twice as long as just the gameplay manual that came with the CD version.

This was probably to do with the fact that the CD version had an onlinee manual included whereas the diskettes did not have enough space.

I've also seen a non rung bound version, but this may have been just for non-english versions.

In any case I'm happy, with plenty of new reading material!