There's nothing quite like the smell of a fresh videogame. Better than a new car. Better than a sweet-smelling girl. Better than a fragrant cake.

greets you when that folded cardboard comes undone, other than a mess of discs, is an instruction manual.

Or it used to.

Somewhere between 2D and 3D and MMO, instruction manuals began to lose their luster. Once they were as thick as novels, full-color affairs with illustrations and endless pages of backstory. Now, most are relegated to the inside of DVD covers, thin little leaflets on par with mail-in order forms, both in appearance and in content.

I'll give you that spending money on a quality manual makes little sense from the publisher's point of view, considering that they have little marketing value. I'll accept that in-game tutorials and control tooltips have made dense manuals somewhat unnecessary. And yes, this new minimalist approach saves on precious paper resources, which the environmentalist in me appreciates. But if I were playing a hardcore RPG from 15 years ago, I would choose to kill that environmentalist for being lame.

In addition to actually providing instruction, manuals used to be an important part of a game's presentation--and presentation is everything. Before you play the game, the manual is there, serving as your introduction to the world. It sets the mood and the expectation for the experience to come. It provides the very best in bathroom reading material.

The following is a look at a few stand-out manuals from games of yester-year, selections that reflect the one-time importance of this waning format, and illustrate the current drought of quality booklets.

Fallout, 1997

Mixing humor with a dark, post-apocalyptic setting, Interplay's masterpiece RPG Fallout stands the test of time--and its manual is no different. Titled "Vault Dweller's Survival Guide," the book begins with extraneous statistics of the underground vault your character has inhabited since the nuclear holocaust, listing everything from budgetary sums to typical power requirements. This is followed by a detailed, multi-page synopsis of the effects of a nuclear blast. These cold facts effectively introduce the heavy, lead-laden atmosphere that pervades Fallout.

The humor comes in later. A few pages after the nuclear holocaust bonanza, the guide suggests additional publications, such as "How To Eat Rat--15 five-minute Recipes," and "Coping with Mr. Virus! Featuring the latest Super Ebola Quarantine Techniques!" The classic Vault Boy character is used as a model for many instructions, such as illustrating the skill of paper latrine building, which resides alongside less useful combat techniques. Actual cooking recipes, for treats such as the delectable "Mushroom Clouds," round out the package.

Throughout the manual, certain paragraphs are obscured by notes left by the ominously named "Overseer." We don't know who he is yet, but the manual presents him as a shrewd, focused character, who seems intent on your success. Instead of beating you over the head with a dull cast list, Fallout's survival guide is a perfect example of how to pull off a subtle introduction to the story in a non-traditional medium.

Homeworld, 1999

From its slick cutscenes comprised of static illustrations, to its awe-inspiring in-game encounters with alien races, Relic's groundbreaking RTS Homeworld had a surprisingly rich story. Rather than creating a rag full of technical requirements, or a 6-step guide on how to use a mouse, Relic punctuated their storytelling with a "Historical and Technical Briefing." The manual is anything but brief, leading off with 39 pages of historical backstory, all told before a single hotkey is mentioned. The massive Mothership, your mobile home base in the game, is introduced with a section explaining its construction challenges and technical specifications. When you finally load up the game and witness the first undocking of the capital ship, it all feels that much more believable.

Instead of explicitly telling the player when to use which ships in battle, Relic introduces your options through clever story-based elements. The section titled "Excerpts from Fleet Tactical Debate 7.12.1302" recounts an argument between two of Homeworld's fictional Admirals, where each tactic is carefully explained and weighed with a corresponding counterpoint. It's simultaneously entertaining and interesting, a perfect embodiment of the game itself.

Civilization, 1991

Some manual authors have it harder than others. Every Civilization game has come with an extensive set of rules and tips, but the first one must have been particularly challenging. How do you introduce players to a game that attempts to simulate global leadership? The answer: 157 pages of pure documentation.

Every concept and command is listed and given its own descriptive paragraph. It's an exhaustive effort, all capped off by a note from Firaxis' Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley, who justify and explain their design decisions. For instance, several cut features are listed, such as alcoholic beverages, "proposed by some as a major impetus for the first permanent settlements." Unfortunate!

Turn the page for a look at manual tie-ins, the decline of console manuals, and more.