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Notes -
Reading game manuals in middle school is such a unique time period. It think it was really only the mid 90's where the manuals had enough heft and fluff to make that an interesting exercise, and also they were still actually printed and shipped with games. I poured over the manuals for Diablo, WarCraft 1 & 2, StarCraft, etc in middleschool. It really built up the anticipation to run home from school off the bus and boot them up again.
I remember the manual for Red Baron was about 1/3 game , 2/3 history, planes, and pilot profiles. And that the BG1&2 manuals were basically the D&D rulebooks, but with some added character commentary.
See also the gigantic wirebound manual for Jane's Fighters Anthology.
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I’d highlight the old Homeworld manual as another great strong point. The game’s mechanics were okay, if a little easily solved, but the universe it drew and the bounds of what it left to the imagination were fantastic.
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