When I was a kid my grandparents would sometimes get me a computer game when I visited. But they had no computer! This meant I could spend the weekend poring over the manual in anticipation.

My favorite was SimEarth (200+ pages and spiral bound as I recall!) but TIE Fighter was great too, since the manual was in the form of a novella.

I was able to identify most military vehicles for years thanks to the MicroProse copy protection, it used to spook my friends.

I'd also go to the local library and look up the latest Jane's publications.

Back in the days I and others made an end of junior high school year project on military planes and we had a monitor playing clips of F-16 Falcon, F-29 Retaliator and Fighter Bomber. I did however use the F-19 Stealth Fighter game manual as an inspiration to write texts on the improvised stand we were using. We also had some model kits on display.

One of the spiritual successors to MicroProse is Eagle Dynamics, the developer of the DCS World system. If you like that manual, you'll love this one https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/upload/iblock/8e7/24m...

And those ones: https://publicintelligence.net/u-s-navy-f-18-natops-flight-m.... It's one of the rare cases of manuals for the real thing being applicable to a computer game.

+1 for DCS, the F/A-18C is totally worth it, best simulation accessible to the civilian. I love every second of it.

Wow, never heard of them, will check them out, thanks!

Check Growling Sidewinder for lots of DCS videos (a lot of them guns-only dogfights, but still): https://www.youtube.com/c/GrowlingSidewinder

I've been looking at DCS recently, considering the AV-8B...

Tutorials have also become much better, sometimes with incredible immersion, making manuals less necessary.