A game conservationist named Kirkland has done a great service to the world of video games – he has created a complete set of US PS2 game manuals online in 4K. can be viewed for free at any time. Oh, and it cost $40,000 to complete.
According to the report of Kotaku, Kirkland has kept more than 1,900 PS2 game manuals, variations, art books, mini-guides, and comics by upload them to Archive.org in 4K, and doing so has forever opened the door to a pre-digital renaissance.
Kirkland PS2 Game Collection (Image Credit: Kirkland and Kotaku)
These game manuals used to be part of the fun of buying a new game, and you’ll read them to learn how to play the game, see special artwork and other surprises, etc. these guides are mostly obsolete and either online or completely gone, but Kirkland has helped ensure that they are never forgotten.
The whole package is about 17GB (230GB before compression!) and is arranged in alphabetical order so you can jump to your favorite game easily. For example, you can instantly view the game’s manual for Final Fantasy X and learn about controls, individual characters, combat system, abilities, Aeons, etc. There are also merchandise commercials, DVD Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and even an advertisement for Final Fantasy X-2.
As for why Kirkland chose to do the project that took him nearly 22 years to complete, he said it was all about preserving that piece of history and that he wanted “our kids to be able to enjoy it.” enjoy what we did.”
“The goal is to raise awareness for game conservation efforts,” says Kirkland. “A lot of games growing up have shaped the way we see and experience the world. Of course as we get older we move on to other things but there are a lot of us who are nostalgic for these things and want our kids to be able to enjoy what we did. The whole deal ‘read the books your dad read’. And there have been great efforts to preserve the games: VGHF, Strong Museum, and grassroots efforts like MAME, redump.org, No-Intro, and Cowering’s Good Tools before that. Which I always thought, ‘This is great! We will protect everything. But without the manuals, we wouldn’t know how to play them. ‘”
Kirkland had to pull out the staples of each manual and scan each page through the Epson DS-870 sheetfed scanner. He then used various apps to clean them up before uploading them in 2K and 4K resolutions.
