What's with the smaller packaged version of MSTS??

[JimStrenk]

Anybody got a heads-up on the smaller packaging and lower price for MSTS? }>

I found a smaller box at about 1/2 price at the local Best Buy a few weeks ago.

[pwillard]

They had already reduced the price a while ago.

The small box is... well... a small box.

Retailers are pleased... no doubt.

All the software companies have been converting to a small box since they don't include standard size manuals and such anymore. If all you need is something to hold a CDROM, you don't need a big box. I was hoping they would standardize on DVD cases... Oh well.

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Pete Willard

[CPR_Malice_96th]

Take alook at your local PC gaming shops.....

99% of the games now are coming out with smaller boxes... When you think about it, How big of boxes do you actually need to put a couple of CD's and a manual in ??

Saves on material, therefore more profits made on the game !!

Tim Kent
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"Power for You"

[calr]

I agree. The smaller boxes use less raw materials (fewer trees killed!). However, the suggestion of going to just a cd case is not practical for retailers--to easy to steal. If you look in any music store, today, you will find most cd's packaged in cases or plastic holders twice the size of a jewel case. This is to deter theft. It is easy to hide a cd case in your shirt or jacket; not so with a larger package.

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Cal Rasmussen
Beaverton, OR

Columbia Gorge Route (15% done, The Dalles yard and dam(40%) in progress)

[CNfavorite]

I don't know, I kinda like the big boxes? Sure, they're an exigent waste at first opening, an elaborate cardboard tray to hold a CD and a little booklet pretty much saying 'See Online Help Files for further info'. But something like MSTS, I use the box to hold downloaded CD's I've burned, my KHP CD, printouts of tips and instructions I commonly refer to, etc. So the box is pretty hefty now, and I'd hate to imagine the clutter around my computer without it? It's bad enough with my other work scattered all around! ;-) And I'm sure it can be argued that there's more polution that goes into the air to make 100 plastic CD 'slim' jewel cases than there is to chop down a tree and make 1000 cardboard boxes from it. And we all know that a new tree doesn't grow so good in a 'plastic landfill' at the end of the day? ;-)

Keep organizational skills and John Deere going - cut down those trees and make big gratifying boxes! If GreenPeace don't like it, tell 'em to look at another corner of California, Oregon, Washington, or even British Columbia. The day when Bigfoots got no place to hide, that's the day our CD's should be packaged like a plastic Japanese bento box lunch. :)

[Bing]

Manuals? What manuals? Hah-hah-hah-hah - and hah!

I buy a lot of games and haven't seen a decent game manual - since BCT Commander (Brigade Combat Team) and that is nothing to rave about, much of the material is non-essential, the photos are dark B&W of screen shots, there is entirely too much space devoted to "multi-player" as if that were the answer to everything - at the expense of material the authors and publsihers COULD have included. Oh, sure, there is a "Fast Start" section - these guys all go to the same school, remember.

But a real manual for a game in general release? Not since Falcon 4.0 - now that is a REAL manual. Naturally, after the initial release the followup CD was just that. A CD and nothing more.

I love the MS TS "manual" Options: Set them. Click on them. Gee, thanks, guys. Yes, there is plenty of help out there, the idea is: A manual it isn't, even if it is "online", as if that solved everything.

You would first have to find a decent editor - if you find one, let me know.

Bing

[CNfavorite]

I hear ya Bing. Actually it is a shame that many trees are dying for less than talented underwriters these days. Manuals from 10-20 years ago were so well laid out and explanatory, and great troubleshooting tips in the back. Nowadays, it's a 10 to 88 page printout (if you're lucky?), and every section says 'For more info, see pg. XX' or 'see diagram in first chapter'. I've seen a page for one item describing 'power on' once. It simply said at the top. 'Locate Power Button and press. You're set!' and then this full page illustration of a hand with pointed finger going to the power button on front of unit. DUH! ;-)

But one thing I must reccommend are manuals done in .PDF format.
Visually, they turn out very nice even on the most modest printer. But they are somewhat rare to come by for something like MSTS et al? And if only these underwriters and translators could put some more 'panache' back into their work, I'd think we'd all be more educated with our gear for the future. :)

[pwillard]

I understand about the theft and size issue. Too bad.

I'll digress a bit, sorry in advance...

I miss the manuals. Sure, it saves money, but...

Personally, I'm not a screen reader. When I want to read something, my first thought is to find a comfortable place to "recline" and just READ.

When I read a book, or a manual I don't absorb it as well from the screen. I'm distracted by the fact that most PDF and WEB page documentation is wasteful of screen space and hard to read unless you "full screen" it. If you "full screen" it, you are not really looking at a whole page (or pages) at once.

What I'm getting at is that I like the manuals that "used" to come with games. I can read them on the front porch with iced tea... Doing so I can be sitting comfortably, well away from other distractions like incoming email... etc.

Regarding Online Compressed HTML files for help (like in-game with MSTS). Does anyone find that item useful?

I like to read a manual while in a game, but not on the game screen... That information is a victim of the screen's current resolution. I really want to read a printed page.

The (Brady) book on MSTS should have been included with every copy sold.

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Pete Willard

[Boweavel]

Yeah.. I mean going by the manuals size, It could of been a simple leaflet :P

Catchya

[phillyrails]

>
>Personally, I'm not a screen reader. When I want to read >somthing, my first thought is to find a comfortable place >to "recline" and just READ.

Greetings, Pete,

I agree whole-heartedly about not being a screen reader.
Could it be an old-fart thing...growing up reading books?

>When I read a book, or a manual I don't absorb it as well from >the screen.

Again, I agree...perhaps this will have to be a new, learned
"skill".

Bill W.

[asmith46]

Yeah, a friend of mine gave me his old DOS copy of the original Flight Simulator after he said he had "Mastered it" about 10 years ago. This included the great manual that came with it. About 2 years ago I found a CD with a Windows version of the exact same sim, improved somewhat, in a jewel case on the discount rack at Office Depot or Wal-Mart or somewhere like that. $6.99 + tax. No printed manual. I could have never learned to fly that sim with any competence without that book. I'm willing to pay extra for good stuff like that printed and excellent manual. BTW, he later admitted he could never land the Lear without crashing. Neither can I heeheeheehee.
Al

[Bing]

CNfavorite -An underwriter is a person who makes his living in the insurance business. I don't think you really mean "underwriter", I think you mean "writer", pure and simple. I was an inusraqnce underwriter for 40+ years. Life sentence, time off for good behavior.

Trees do not die for paper production. If you feel that way you had better not eat corn flakes or bread, because trees for pulp produciton are raised as a crop, same as wheat. The process does not deplete forests, it ensures the bona fide ancient stands will have a chance to remain that way. Paper producers own millions of acres in Canada - there used to be a fair amount in the US South not sure of now however - the trees grown there you would not want on your acreage, they are specialized species developed to produce a plant that can be harvested about every three or four years. Reforestation is as much as part of the process as anything else - it has to be from a common sense standpoint.

BTW, I grew up in a sawmill, thus this topic is close to me. We had nothing to do with pulp production, certainly people we knew did. My father was very active in forest conservation. Most of the logging and sawmill people (two entirely different groups) were and are.

Bing

[TrirailF40PHL]

I found Auran Trainz and bought the Auran MSTS add-on in the small box....

Kurt