Holy smokes, everyone can now access all U.S. 4K PlayStation 2 game manuals
If 1920×1080 doesn’t suffice, you can now enter a free digital library of 4K PlayStation 2 game manuals. Even if you don’t recall playing more than half of these games, it’s definitely a fun way to rewind back to the golden age of Sony video games and indulge in countless open source offerings of video game art.
We might be called a boomer for saying this, but there once was a time when gamers actually used the instruction manuals that came with the physical copies of their video game purchases. What better time to be alive than now, when a random game preservationist named “Kirkland” has uploaded 4K PlayStation 2 game manuals for everyone in the world to enjoy. Truly a work of a God.
One of the most popular consoles to date was the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), which debuted in the United States in October 2000 and Japan in March 2000. Nearly everyone owned a PS2 (I personally didn’t), as it sold roughly 158 million overall units with over 4,000 games in its existence.
Ever heard of Kingdom Hearts? Yes, that franchise debuted on PS2. God of War? Yup, also PS2. Prequel to Knack? There’s no shot, sorry. You get what I mean.
While digging up the 4K PlayStation 2 game manuals, a majority of the ones we came across included a perfect colored ultra high definition scan of its original, retaining all the details visible to the naked eye. Not all are perfectly done, but we would say they all retain at least 90% clarity.
The process of scanning is no easy task. Even the one behind the scenes explained how rough it was. “My process is horrible,” stated Kirkland. “I pull the staples and run most everything through my Epson DS-870 sheetfed scanner. As a die hard perfectionist, using a document scanner is disappointing for quality, but a necessity due to volume.”
Kirkland utilized Adobe Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, Textpad, and PDF Combiner Pro to bring the 4K PlayStation 2 game manuals up to par for upload. “I’ve spent entire summer vacations scanning manuals, only to discard them as I’ve gotten better equipment, or better processed,” he continued. “Lots of late nights.”
According to an article by Kotaku, Kirkland spent $40,000 on his U.S. PS2 collection when purchasing every U.S. PS2 game release. “I grabbed new releases when they got down to $20 for about the first 800 releases, then I started picking up used sports games in good condition, then it was hunting down the odd variants (which is never-ending).”
See for yourself here, it’s remarkable what this person has done. We applaud you, Kirkland.