104 thoughts on “Downloads”

1. Thank you SO MUCH for scanning and uploading all of these. I love the 90s!

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2. Muchas gracias por compartir esto con los fanáticos de la mejor compañía de juegos de todos los tiempos…

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3. Once again, thank you very much for the time and effort you are putting into making all these extra books available.

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   • You’re welcome. It’s not all that much effort now I’ve got the book scanner. There should be something like another 20 books before I run out of them.

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     • I have a couple of somewhat rare hint book scans if you would be interested: The Dig Official Guide and Full Throttle Official Guide (although this one is not the full book, just the walkthrough section).

       Also, you may or may not know, but almost all of the original Sierra On-Line hint books are available for download at http://www.sierragamers.com, which is Ken Williams official website.

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       • Thanks, I didn’t know about all those Sierra hint books actually. I didn’t need to do GK1 then, but I didn’t waste my time on GK3 at least. Sierra must have redone all the older guides as I remember many of these using invisible ink that you had to colour over using a marker.

         Alternating pages with the red stripped out is a good idea. I ought to do that with Monkey Island 2.

         There is a Full Throttle walkthrough already on replacementdocs but I’d be very interested in The Dig. I can’t promise they will ever approve it but you ought to chuck it on replacementdocs. I’d be happy to host it on here as well if you like.

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     • I’ve uploaded The Dig guide here: http://www.mediafire.com/?68boqlnagz7anql feel free to host it on here too if you’d like.

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4. Quick question – are the X-Wing and TIE Fighter guides for the original releases, or the CD-ROM versions with all the extra material? Thanks.

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   • They are both for the original release.

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5. I love Origin’s games, Great job! Thank you very much!

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6. I’ve been looking for the X-wing and TIE Fighter guides for so many years. Thanks for sharing them!

   Any chance you can find the Collector’s CD-ROM versions of the guides?

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   • I’m sure I’ll get them sooner or later but they aren’t too high up the list at the moment.

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7. The Dig guide has 78, 79, 116 and 117 pages missing.

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   • That’s another of the ones that wasn’t scanned by me. I didn’t own a copy at the time but I’ve picked one up since so I’ve added the missing pages in now.

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8. More Avatar Adventures guide is still missing the original pages 237, 238.
   You have mistakenly scanned pages 237 + 238 from the original “The Avatar Adventures” guide and incorrectly added them to the wrong guide named “More Avatar Adventures”.
   Please correct this, if possible. Thanks.

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   • More haste, less speed…. It should be correct this time.

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9. Thanks for the extra TIE Fighter Defender guide. Been wondering about that one for years, since the full Collector’s CD-ROM edition of the original hint book seems so hard to find.

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   • You’re welcome. I’ve got the collectors CD guide here to scan in next so you will probably see that later in the week.

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     • That’s good news. Your efforts are appreciated 🙂

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10. Looking at the Giant Upload List over at Replacement Docs, it seems that you have uploaded the guides for Freelancer and Dungeon Keeper there.
    Guides over at RD can take months, sometimes years until they are available for download there. I wonder if you could upload these 2 guides here. I’ll greatly appreciate it.

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    • I know all too well how long replacementdocs can take. I’ll put those two up here at some point.

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11. Hi!

    Just a little question. Do you have the Player Reference Card of the IBM version of Ultima I? I keep looking for it and can’t find it anywhere.

    Thanks in advance!

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    • Sorry, I don’t have that one as my copy is for the C64. The nearest I’ve got is the reference guide for the IBM version of the Ultima Trilogy.

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      • Hi!

        Could you please add the C64 version of the Ultima 1 (the remake) Player Reference Card?

        Thanks!

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        • I can but not tonight. I’m getting snowed under with requests for one thing or another this week but I’ll do my best to get it done within the next week.

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12. Thank you very much for making the effort to upload these game guids. I am a big fan of the old ultima series. i was looking for the avatar adventures. i am glad that i can read them now.
    thanx
    leo

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13. awesome work. i absolutely adored syndicate american revolt! and the wing commander 4 guide brings back v v fond memories!

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14. Thank You so much for this.

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15. Hey Pix, I have a little request if you don’t mind. After checking the ultima 4 5 & 6 from GOG I noticed that the u5 spellbook doesn’t have any pictures at all (replacementdocs got the same one), so if you could scan that one it would be great. I suppose I never noticed it because I have the help files from my Ultima Collection and the spellbook there had pictures on it.

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    • There are several issues with the Ultima manuals on GOG from what I remember. I’ll have a look at getting this scanned when I get the chance.

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16. Pix, don’t worry about scanning the book of spells of u5. I noticed that it’s included inside the book of lore.

    btw I found this site yesterday: http://mocagh.org/

    If you check the origin part of the site you can find a lot of scans of manuals and references from the Ultima games. That includes the original manual for Akalabeth. I think some of the scans may be yours, but I haven’t checked all of them.

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    • That explains why I couldn’t remember there being a spellbook. I’ve seen the Adventure Game Museum site before, although the document scans are new. It has to be one of the world’s largest game collections, I’d love to get my hands on some of that stuff. I can’t say I’m too worried if he is borrowing scans, I might borrow some the other way if it saves me any scanning.

      I’ve never thought of calling myself a museum, but my hoard is growing to the sort of size where I could possibly justify it. I wonder if I’d be able to get tax relief on buying games…

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      • Re: Mocagh. I am pretty sure the only use their own scans and only of the items they actually own. Yours and their sites complement each other beautifully 🙂

        Also, I owe you a huge Thank You for scanning the “Quest for Clues” series and the RPG Companion book. I had just about resigned myself to scanning my own copies and you saved me hours of work!

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17. Dear Pix:

    Both X-Wing and TIE Fighter’s Collector’s guide seem to not open in PDF viewers. Curiously enough, both have a size of 199 MB.

    Perhaps that’s the limit of your host? They might have been cut beyond 199 MB, rendering them unopenable.

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    • I knew my new host was too cheap not to have a catch. At least it’s nothing I can’t live with as these are are only two files on the whole site over 200Mb.

      I’ve reduced the DPI slightly for both of these and reuploaded if you want to try again.

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      • Now it works perfectly.

        Thanks, Pix! ^^

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18. Thank you for making and hosting these. Absolutely awesome stuff here. I’m into adventure games and love these old books and guides. Very useful.

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19. Great work man!
    I wonder if there’s any chance we’ll se guides for some fantastic strategy games:
    Sid Meier’s Civilization or Rome on 640K a Day
    Master of Orion official strategy guide
    X-com terror from the deep official strategy guide?

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    • I was never that into strategy games so theres not too much chance of me paying money for any of those unless you can come up with an Origin connection. If anyone wanted to send me copies on the other hand, I’ll gladly scan them in.

      There were a couple of Sid Meier games which were tested at Origin (Gettysburg and Alpha Centauri) so you may see guides for them eventually.

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      • Sorry to disturb you but I noticed Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2 and Lemmings Companion in your collection
        https://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120601_164454.jpg
        Any chance to see them here?

        Also Ultima 3 & 6 Cluebooks quality at replacementdocs is crap, have you got the original scans?

        Regards
        Alex

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        • I don’t have any of those ready to upload or anything but will probably do some new scans eventually. I can’t see it being in the new few weeks though.

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20. Happy to hear that 🙂
    Oh, and you’ve also got Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within guide on the same shelf.
    Will be glad to see them here when you’ll get enoght time to do it. Thanks again.

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21. Thank you so much for your great work! I played most of the Origin games in the 90’s and found them now on gog and still enjoying them.

    Great that you make all of the cluebooks available!!

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22. Pix,

    thanks for all the work you’ve down. Unfortunately Ultima Patcher v1.52 does not seem to work properly with the GOG release of Ultima IV. I’ve done a clean install and created a party, then left the game and used your patcher. Switching to VGA and music works, but now the game runs way too fast which is immediately recognizable from the intro screen where the U4 logo pops up rather than gets slowly animated.

    I’m still using the original desktop link created by the GOG installer so I don’t get how the patch could change gameplay speed that drastically. Any suggestions? Thx.

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    • The music only patch sets Dosbox cycles to max to get around a problem with timing in Dosbox. However this doesn’t appear to be installing correctly on the Ultima 4 standalone version even though it works on the second trilogy version. I think what has happened is that you tried to install the music patch at some point and it’s got halfway and botched your Dosbox config leaving the cycles at max. I’ll look into why that’s happening and get it fixed. I notice that the patcher isn’t even finding the default U4 directory automatically which must mean that this is a different GOG installer to the last one I tested it with so it definitely needs checking.

      In the meanwhile, if you do a clean U4 install and just install the VGA patch it appeared to be working.

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      • Unfortunately it doesn’t for me. I’ve done a clean install of the current GOG version, created my player and saved on first move. Then I exited the game and started your patch and clicked on the VGA patch right away which then openend the sound card selection window where I selected the MPU401-General.

        Now when I start the game, the logo animation is there but still is way to fast. Also, how come the midi sound sucks compared to that used in the SDL version (http://xu4.sourceforge.net/)? And shouldn’t the GOG version already have sound from a clean install? I’m not familiar with DOSBox but since they created a profile to run on faster systems wouldn’t they also have a “standard” soundcard defined. The shortcuts from the start menu have Graphic Mode Setup but no sound setup. Thx.

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      • Dang, the above post was a bit premature. Logo animation is too fast compared to the C64 version but is slower than the one mentioned in my initial posting. Ingame speed when applying only the VGA patch (that also includes music) is also too fast which becomes obvious from monster animations in fights. Two things I noticed: on a German keyboard Z and Y are switched and there’s no sound effects. Even when I turn off the music and press ‘V’.

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        • Ultima 4 predates soundcards and the game only had music on other systems at the time hence the fan patches. It will play fine at the speed it is but if you want to slow it down just use control-F10 control-F11 while in the game to change the dosbox speed. This may affect music speed since it adds overhead to the original game. You can also alter the cycle count manually in the dosbox config – look for cycles = 8000 (or some other number) and reduce it.

          Dosbox usually uses your default midi device whatever that is although it can have a mind of it’s own – not sure what XU4 does these days. Setting it up in DOSBox is different on every machine and beyond the scope of the patcher but it’s another setting in your config file. I’d expect it to work ok without changing this though unless your sound setup is unusual.

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      • Reinstalled, used your new patcher and set cycles to 500. Everything looks good, thx.

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23. Just a quick note: I’ve been LOVING your downloads… great job mate!

    FYI: The Indy Last Crusade (clues revealed version) seems to be offline at the moment! Just thought I’d let you know.

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    • That’s fixed now. Let me know if you spot any more.

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24. Thanks, that worked! I’ve finally grabbed all your guides and added them to my (now awesome) game manuals and documents folder. Once again, thanks for your amazing work on providing all these docs. It’s a massive effort to have scanned and uploaded these, and I’m sure I’m just one of many that appreciate your efforts!!!

    Have a great holidays my friend!

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25. THX, impressive work and collection

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26. Incredible job and very very informative!!!

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27. Whoever you are, thank you SO MUCH for uploading these out-of-print game guides. I’ve been looking for some of them for months on ebay (like the F-15 or Longbow 2 guide). They’re impossible to find anymore and you’re absolutely awesome for making them available. Prima offers no support for their out of print guides and that’s a damn shame. no market i suppose. I also have three strategy guides not listed here (hexen 2, quake 1 and sacrifice). But the real gems in your collection are impossible to find on paper. Email me if you’d like my guides in digital format. thanks again!

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    • Thanks for the offer. I’d be more than happy to add any/all of those guides on here if you have them.

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28. Sure. I’ll first need to scan them using someone else’s scanner (mine is broke). Will link to download in a couple of weeks.
    Also, i’ve seen many old 90s strategy guides in pdf at freegamemanuals. Most are for consoles but i’ve found a bunch for pc games as well, like the entire myst or C&C series. Pretty useful, especially for myst.

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29. Pingback: Ultima Underworld: Japanese Cluebook Artwork

30. Pingback: Pix’s Origin Adventures: Ultima Underworld Japanese Cluebook Art

31. Pingback: Game Manuals - CoverGalaxy.com Forums

32. I tried to download your PDF for the LeChuck’s Revenge Hint Book, but there’s this watermark that covers most of the two hints sections. The words “Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s revenge” covers all the answers in the Q&A section. Can something be done? Please let me know, and thanks in advance.

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    • The hint books came with a viewer which was a bit of transparent red plastic you could use to see the hints. This will work straight off the screen if you have anything red and transparent to look through.

      As it happens I’d already done a version with the red filtered out to make the answers readable which I must have never uploaded. You can download that also now. The text isn’t all that clear filtering out the red like that but it’s legible.

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33. That would be great. And, thanks for the explanation. Please let me know when that version goes up, and thanks again.

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    • It’s already up – underneath the old one on the downloads page.

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34. Thanks much. I’ve been looking for this in print, but have had no luck. And, the job you did on the revealing is impeccable. Thanks again.

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35. Hi – I cant seem to download the UP stuff?

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36. I mean the UO stuff…..

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    • It looks like an update broke the download plugin I’m using and half the downloads weren’t linking correctly. It should be fixed now if you want to give it another go.

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37. Great great!!!

    Love it So much.

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38. Hey Pix, thanks for this site; it’s a great resource for retro-gaming! I just got Crusader No Remorse off Origin and your guide scan is a big help.

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39. Thank you for saving these manuals! Some of us remember these games fondly, and thanks to emulators, we can now play them again.

    You are the best!

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40. Here are a few 90s PC guides that I scrapped together if anyone is interested, all in PDF. Feel free to verify the downloads or upload them if you wish. I hope your ok with the posting

    Fallout 2 Strategy Guide – http://cloudstor.es/file/Qs_4cD/
    Myth – Fallen Lords Strategy Guide – http://cloudstor.es/file/Qs_4cE/
    Myth 2 Soulblighter Strategy Guide – http://cloudstor.es/file/Qs_4cF/
    Icewind Dale – http://cloudstor.es/f/gdi/
    Icewind Dale Heart of Winter – http://cloudstor.es/f/gdj/

    Also, I found a large number of sample gaming guides from Sybex, but I can’t find the page anymore. I’ve also seen on ebay a CD version of the C&C Tiberian Sun and Age of Empires 2 official strategy guides (maybe these e-books too are floating around somewhere). Darn i wish these companies would just sell their vintage books online in PDF already

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41. Awesome collection of PDFs! I first found your website when I was looking for the Jane’s AH-64D Longbow and Longbow 2 strategy guides.

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42. Thanks for uploading all the classic books…

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43. Looks like the link to Zak McKracken (hints revealed) is broken.

    “Warning: is_file() expects parameter 1 to be a valid path, string given in /var/www/wp-content/plugins/download-protect/filedownloader.php on line 73
    File does not exist. Make sure you specified correct file name.”

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    • It’s fixed now.

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      • It sure is, thanks so much!

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44. Wow, a complete pdf version of the Noctropolis comic book.
    I searched for that thing for ages. Amazing, thanks!

    Hopefully gog.com will include Noctropolis in their library someday.
    Sadly, my copy of the game came with neither the comic nor the soundtrack.

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45. Thanks mate, this is truly awesome!! I came here for the WC books and these are a fine read!
    Thanks for all your work and keep it up 🙂

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46. was directed here need music (preferrably the commodore music) for my ultima 4 game…. said 1.35 in miscellaneous but i dont see that. any help would be greatly appreciated… i downloaded the game from gog.com

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    • If you have the latest version from GOG, just use the latest version of the patcher. Provided you don’t object to updated graphics, you are best off with the VGA patch which also adds music. There is a music only patch on there you can try also but it doesn’t work too well with DOSBox and there are some speed issues.

      It’s the same music as the C64 but it will sound a bit different in MIDI as opposed to the SID chip.

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47. Truly appreciate you sharing this treasure trove here.

    Just wondering how do we know when this list is updated since the stuff are arranged in alphabetical order. And finally do you have the following:

    a. The Neverhood: Inside Movies
    b. SimCity 2000: Power Politics and Planning
    c. Syndicate strategy guides (the original Bullfrog Syndicate/Syndicate Wars)

    and just curious: what are your favorite strategy guides for reading pleasure.

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    • I’d usually mention it in a post on the front page if there is anything new. It doesn’t happen very often these days though. The intention is to pick things up on here at some point but I have no idea when that will happen.

      I don’t have any of those guides you list but wouldn’t mind picking any of them up if the opportunity arises. As for my favourites, I’d have to say the older Ultima guides. I love the way they are done in universe with the “antique” look paper. Other than that, I like something that offers more than you can get in the game, whether it’s extra story, interviews, etc… If I was actually going to sit down and read one cover to cover, it would probably be one of the Avatar Adventures books which make a valiant attempt to turn RPG walkthroughs into novels.

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      • Thanks so much for the heads up.

        I love your uploads and think you very much for preserving them for posterity – a forgotten era where games were actually better with designers and programmers not subject to over-competition.

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48. I’d like to thank you wholeheartedly and let you know I’ve OCR’d and proofread 1 and 2 of the Technocrat war (will do the third as well) since it’s been extremely hard to get my hands on paperbacks, and there really weren’t any ebooks floating around.

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    • You’re very welcome. Any chance I could put those OCR’d versions on the site?

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      • We’ll talk soon.

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49. Thank you for all the effort you have put into scanning these book! What scanner do you use?

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    • It’s an Opticbook 3600. It’s not the greatest quality scanner ever but it will scan quite close to the spine of books without having to break the binding + the software crops and rotates the pages automatically so there is no editing needed after.

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50. This is incredible! Thank you so much for this!. I used to live in Origins worlds for years. I am still amazed at the level of detail , effort and love that went into making these games. Especially Ultima 6. This is an amazing tribute. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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51. This link not working

    Ultima 1 Remake – Reference Card (C64)

    Page report error message

    File does not exist. Make sure you specified correct file name.

    Please fix link.

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    • The anti-leeching plugin didn’t appear to want to work with that file for no obvious reason. I’ve renamed it which looks to have got the link working again.

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52. Thank you thank you thank you! I mostly downloaded the guides as these 90’s are tough! 🙂 What a great service you have provided – you’re the man!

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53. VERY NICE. Thanks all of those, especially Les manley in search for the king, I always curious about what is the parts price question. And real scan of spec is awesome.
    And most of all, thank you very much for ultima stuffs (including clue book of underworld series, sadly no clue book for stygian abyss 😉 ).

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54. those are some awesome ultima uploads! thanks for all your hardwork my friend 🙂

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55. Official Book of Ultima (1st Edition) Link isn’t working right now. It’s a shame. I used to have the physical copy of it I bought at an EB Games before it basically fell apart from being read too much.

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    • These downloads have a mind of their own at times. It should work now.

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      • Thanks, much appreciated! It’s great to be able to read this again, years after my original physical copy fell apart. I can’t thank you enough for making these wonderful books available again online!

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56. Hey there Pix! Thanks so much for uploading these books. I just wanted to let you know ‘Ultima Collection – Prima’s Official Guide (pdf)’ doesn’t seem to be working at the moment. Cheers!

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    • It looks like everything over 100Mb or so got broken in a WordPress update. I’ve tweaked the PHP settings to allow up to 512Mb through so you should be OK now.

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57. I only just found this site, but this is all absolutely incredible. Just another “thank you very much!” for your work and kindness in providing all this.

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58. Believe it or not, it is 2020, we’re easing out of lockdown, and my old Mac has been revived to run some of the old games I’d bought of GOG.com for such an event (well, actually they were for my retirement, but lockdown worked just as well).

    Thus, on digging out ZakMcKraken from my GOG library, there, tucked away with the manual, was this amazing link.

    Thank you for such an amazing resource, and thank you for keeping it alive.

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59. Thanks a lot for keeping alive this incredible site!!
    Cheers!

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60. Hey Pix – Not sure if you’re still alive (around) but its been a few years since you spoken up. Just wanted to send a quick thanks for this page!

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