Where there ever offical monochrome famicom disk manuals?

[Rosser]

I was just wondering because there is a Dracula II Complete on Ebay that has a monochrome manual but the title is in red I'm not planning on purchasing it or anything I was just wondered if they had official titles with a black and white manuals or is a just reproduction one

[lobdale]

That's really strange, since the covers of the games themselves are the manuals.

Best I could think is that maybe the thing was left in the sun and the title's red ink was a different type than the rest of the label and it sunfaded out?  But that's kinda silly.  It's not a disk-writer one, those were fold out papers.  And it seems strange someone would make a stapled reproduction but still print that red.  Weird.

[Rosser]

I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure its a repro they have two of them for sale with monochrome maybe the injet only had black and red available at the time and they thought it may look more unique with a red title

[JessicaWolf]

I believe, from what I know of FDS games and the few that I own, that the manual in question is a reprint/copy.

I was also able to dig up this image (albeit a little blurry), which seems to be the best proof that the original was a color manual. 

http://i.imgur.com/W4pHxWA.jpg

[VinylDracula]

Disk Writer games came with monochrome manuals. Was Dracula II available via Disk Writer? Ive never seen one like that before.

[lobdale]

Drac II was available via Disk Writer.  I have a boxed CIB one with the real color manual, and have also seen officially stickered ones on re-written blue disks.  The monochrome manuals for DW games weren't "manuals" though, they were folded up pieces of paper, not stapled, as you can see the one in the OP has.

The official Drac II manual is not stapled, it's large enough to have a binding, so something is definitely up with it.  Could be homemade, you wouldn't have been able to buy it new with that manual in the box since the manual faces front and it wouldn't be packaged like that.

[Issun]

Here's another one, for Doki Doki Panic...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DOKI-DOKI-PANIC-YUME-KOJO-Nintendo-Famicom-Disk-Japan-Video-Game-0188-dk-/360515995824

My guess... could it be that Nintendo printed them later in the life of the FDS in bw/red to save some money? Doesn't look home made to me.

[JessicaWolf]

Here's another one, for Doki Doki Panic...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DOKI-DOKI-PANIC-YUME-KOJO-Nintendo-Famicom-Disk-Japan-Video-Game-0188-dk-/360515995824

My guess... could it be that Nintendo printed them later in the life of the FDS in bw/red to save some money? Doesn't look home made to me.

Honestly, that sounds the most plausible. I have bought many items from that seller and I have always gotten quality items from them, no bootlegs or home made manuals.

[lobdale]

On my trip to a few game stores last night I also spotted a few other "CIB" Konami games with the black and white manuals/one color.  Exciting Basketball was one of them.  I guess it's possible that after the first printing of a game they sometimes switched to these lower-colored ones?  Someone should take a look at the back cover of one of them and see if they're first or second or third printings or what.

[Rosser]

That one looks a little more legit the manual has the back image not sure about the DII one

[L___E___T]

Just to add to this - there are/were some Japanese shops that used to print the manuals themselves unofficially, if the games didn't have them.  Could just be an example of that, though I don't know they wouldn't be monochrome as is usually the case.

[VinylDracula]

Here's another one, for Doki Doki Panic...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DOKI-DOKI-PANIC-YUME-KOJO-Nintendo-Famicom-Disk-Japan-Video-Game-0188-dk-/360515995824

My guess... could it be that Nintendo printed them later in the life of the FDS in bw/red to save some money? Doesn't look home made to me.

I highly doubt it. That would be well documented if that was the case. Chances are, as mentioned above, that these came from a chain store that printed their own replacement manuals.

[L___E___T]

Also, historically Nintendo do that in reverse - with black and white or 2-colour manuals (and disks) early on in the console's lifecycle, then adding more vibrance later on as costs go down.

[L___E___T]

So I think we solved the msytery to this - looks like a reproduction Disk Writer manual.  

The Disk Writer manual for this game is indeed red and black ink only - but as you may know cam as one big folded sheet, not stapled as this one was (picture link dead).  

I don't think the seller was looking to dress it up as a Disk Writer game - it would have been easier to just photocopy the whole sheet than make a stapled version.  

[P]

Make sense that it's from the Disk Writer manual. I have one that is in blue and black and one that is red and black.
But I'm not sure what you mean? They copied the folded sheet and made a stapled manual out of it?