BREAKING NEWS: Arena Manual Sighted! (June 25, 2007)

The pages we're seeing right now are scans from a printed manual - EA sent them to websites as a promo. We've been promised that an electronic version will be made available through the EA Arcade website in the near future.
 
This is so cool, I don't know where to start! I love that they put in a reference to the egg-chomping weirdoes.
 
I just read through some of the stuff and I must say that I realy like it. Great stuff, nice referances...even if didn't got all of them.
I just hope that the manual will be speratatly available for non 360 or vista users...or that the game will get a port for PC without the need for Vista.
I might buy the game for the manual but not for the game...its just not my type of game...but the manual..if the rest is as nice as the few selected pieces...well. ^_^

Edit: I missed Loafs commend above about the EA Arcade thing....does that mean that I can just go to their website and download the manual?
 
From the sounds of it the manual is going to be "free" for everyone, although I'm not 100% sure.
 
My understanding (from what Sean said on IRC last night) is that the manual will be given away electronically for all fans, not just the ones who buy the new game.
 
I love all the references shown in the images shown above. It reminds me of all the fun little bits packed into the Kilrathi Saga manual. Little pieces of information that fleshed out the universe or just teased you and made you think about the Wing Commander universe beyond what was actually taking place in the game.

My favorite is the ad for Maniac's book..... I wish i could really purchase it and read about his take on the events and see how it differs from the events we've all seen more through Blair's point of view.
 
If it's downloadable, I'll print it out in the finest quality I can get, that's for sure. It's just so exciting. The manual alone is worth the 800 MSP!

Well, then, it's an even better deal than that, because you don't have to have the game to have the manual, it will be available from the EA Arcade page.

(But, of course, if you don't have the game you're a scum-sucking utak. :D )
 
I love all the references shown in the images shown above. It reminds me of all the fun little bits packed into the Kilrathi Saga manual. Little pieces of information that fleshed out the universe or just teased you and made you think about the Wing Commander universe beyond what was actually taking place in the game.

My favorite is the ad for Maniac's book..... I wish i could really purchase it and read about his take on the events and see how it differs from the events we've all seen more through Blair's point of view.

What's even greater is that this manual is BIGGER than the entire KS fiction section (which combines 3 games manuals!) and it's for an arcade game. I don't think it's really possible now for anyone (although idiots do find ways to do everything) now not to say that Arena is truly a WC title. I can't wait to see the rest of it.
 
I think it's really great how EA is throwing nods to Fan Mods- it shows that the dedication and ingenuity of a few fans can have a real impact on the revival of a series.
 
What we’ve seen of the manual so far looks great. I just wish I could really buy Maniac’s book.
 
Oh God, if anyone pulls this off and make it just half as funny as Wing Commander 4.123106 that'll be something really cool :)
 
Sweet! :D

I'll be waiting for Maniac's book he he

Now, for real... I'll be waiting to get my hands on this manual:D
 
Just noticed that, on the acheivements page, there is a silhouette of a Dralthi showing through from the other side of the page... and it isn't an arena dralthi either. It's too rounded. I must be either a WC1 or Privateer dralthi!

Also, the top of the Advanced fighter maneuvers page says something to the effect of "The Enemy Can Appear..."

I saw the dralthi... Good eyes :)
 
There went my hopes that the Kilrathi had done WC humanity a favor and pasted Professor Torg when they bombed Luna or Earth.
 
* A Privateer 2 reference! Isaac System is one of the Tri-Systems and Titan Alloys and Pleasure Borgs are two of the games commodities. Hopper Drives are a precursor to jump drives which don't function around jump points - this all helps to explain exactly how the Tri-System relates to the rest of the Wing Commander universe geographically...

Yeah, the call for "three to five year" hopper flight crews to go to Isaac - which, if memory serves, is one of the three systems in P2 - really stood out for me, too. The implication seems to me to be that the systems in P2 are not, for some reason, connected by jump points, at least to the rest of the galaxy. Meaning the only way to reach them is through "long haul" missions using old style hopper drives.

This raises many questions. Among them:

~Are the humans in the Tri-system descendants of settlers from earth, who traveled there a long time ago and developed a differing culture? I realize that in game fiction establishes them as having "originated" on one of the tri-system planets, but you'd be surprised how local cultures and/or governments can "re-write" history or establish their own creation myths.

~At what point did the Confederation make contact with the Tri-system government? How much of a relationship do the two governments have today, especially in terms of population movement and/or transfer of technology?

~Obviously, the Tri-system would have been isolated enough to be spared damage from most of the Kilrathi war. If the Confed had contact with the Tri-system during the war, wouldn't there be a strong incentive on the part of many people to relocate there, and avoid all of the risks that come with living near an active and nasty war?

In any event, the manual is awesome. One simple document will put to rest arguments that P2 and the WC movie are not "canon."
 
must mention the ad listing navy surplus ships for sale. it's very useful for fan projects based on Privateer, for it lets civilian pilots buy military ships.
 
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