A very dedicated PlayStation 2 fan archives every United States instruction manual. However, it comes at a great financial cost.
Sadly, video game instruction manuals are mostly a thing of the past partly due to the ever-growing digital age, not to mention that less glossy manual prints are more environmentally friendly.

We love the smell of a new game!
However, back in the day, there was something therapeutic about the fresh smell of a manual inside a brand-new video game case. Not to mention that it was also a handy guide detailing the game’s controls and in some cases, providing some helpful hints.
As the years progressed, physical manuals were gradually phased out. Thankfully, controls can now be found via an in-game menu and hints are often provided during a game loading screen.
Though we still get small pamphlets in video game cases often with digital codes or advertisements for upcoming releases.

Furthermore, if you were to buy a retro game second-hand, you’d be lucky if that purchase would come complete with a physical manual. After all, manuals can easily be misplaced over the years if they’re not returned to its game case.
1,900 PlayStation 2 Instruction manuals preserved
However, a very dedicated PlayStation fan has preserved every single PS2 manual that was ever released in the United States. In total, 1,900 manuals have been preserved.

Granted, these manuals are digital, not physical. That being said, the fact that these manuals exist digitally, means that you can at least print them out on glossy paper to replace physical manuals that may have been lost over time.
The 1,900 manuals come in at a mammoth 230GB (Call of Duty installations eat your heart out). Thankfully, the instruction manuals that were scanned in full 4K were compressed to a more reasonable 17GB.
It’s cost $40k to preserve the PlayStation 2 manuals so far

The individual that archived the PlayStation 2 instruction manuals is simply known as Kirkland. As expected, it took the individual thousands of hours to scan all the instruction manuals. Moreover, the financial cost is said to be around $40,000 USD (about £35k).
While this archive is incredibly impressive, Kirkland still hopes to improve on the work being done. The individual hopes to one day archive every manual in mint condition with no creases, or borders as well as having perfect text.
Kirkland, you are doing the gaming god’s work. Are you impressed by the efforts of the PlayStation 2 instruction manual archiver? Let us know across our social media channels.
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Featured Image Credit: Nikita Kostrykin via Unsplash/Source: Kotaku via archive.org