Civilization IV - the manual.

[Imaus]

Anyone else still have their manual? The nice physical one, that feels perfect in your hands, 224 pages of information and nostalgia. I can still remember the smell of it when it was new.

I still have my copy. I wonder if it could be scanned up? The pages are alright, though the cover and back are broken and faded.

I notice, too, that the screenshots within have different icons for a few things, like a red frown emoji that isn't present in my copy of Civ IV. Patched out?

"Thanks, Jeff and Sid. I hope Civ IV will inspire another ten year old out there somewhere who likes to dream big. Real big.

Soren Johnson,

September 5 2005."

 

[Qactus]

...
I still have my copy. I wonder if it could be scanned up?
...

You can find the pdf files of the manuals (also Warlords & BTS) here in the downloads section:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/categories/civ4-tutorials-reference-guides.11/

Also, the Afterword from Soren Johnson you quoted from is definitely worth a read for every Civ4 player. For example, it reveals instead of golden ages they originally planned dark ages with opposite effects. Glad they changed their minds in time...

 

[Verrucosus]

Civ4 was the last version to have a printed manual. At the time I was pretty disappointed because in terms of format and content it was already a step down from what we were used from the manuals of Civ1, Civ 2 and Civ3. The afterword is an excellent read, with good insights into the thinking behind some of the changes. The main body of the manual could have done with a few more revisions. The obsolete discussion of "corruption" in the section about the capital city is fun to read against the backdrop of Johnson's claim that corruption and waste were never coded to begin with. When they changed to electronic manuals in Civ5 there was a suggestion that this way of doing it allowed the manual keep step with the patches. Whatever happened to that idea? These days we are lucky that the Civilization series has not abandoned manuals at all. When it comes to documentation, customer expectations have been lowered dramatically since Civ4 was published and Paradox and Total War seem to get away with little or no documentation at all. My favourite manual remains Bruce Shelley's for Civ1.

 

[Imaus]

You can find the pdf files of the manuals (also Warlords & BTS) here in the downloads section:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/categories/civ4-tutorials-reference-guides.11/

Also, the Afterword from Soren Johnson you quoted from is definitely worth a read for every Civ4 player. For example, it reveals instead of golden ages they originally planned dark ages with opposite effects. Glad they changed their minds in time...

Well that was a rabbit hole I glad I undertook. I'm glad its been digitalized in some form.