Armada: The Lost Manual

Wing Commander Armada comes with one of the greatest game manuals in history, an all-the-more impressive achievement given Origin prided themselves on producing wonderful lore material. That manual is Voices of War, a fascinating and evocative look at both sides of the Terran-Kilrathi conflict. For a game with very little internal narrative it's impressive that Armada's lore manual has been so massively influential on the rest of the Wing Commander universe. But Armada had TWO similarly sized manuals! Voices of War is dedicated only to world building while a second Play Guide offered all the details on how to actually interface with the game. It was only ever available digitally in an ancient 'VEBE' format which does not open with any kind of modern viewer. For whatever reason, GOG did not bother to include a copy with their release. Not having access to a copy hasn't been a huge problem for Wing Commander fans since we know how to play Wing Commander's most unique spinoff... but what about new players just discovering the series today who might not even know what a modem is? We've created a quick-and-dirty scan of the booklet in case anyone needs to learn how to play some of Armada's unusual game modes! So whether you're looking to connect with a wingmate to take on the Gauntlet or you're ready for eleven sectors of Campaign action, the Armada Play Guide is ready for action! You can access a copy here (62 MB PDF).

Bonus: eagle-eyed readers will notice that it includes yet another reprinting of the Wing Commander I radar charts that we chronicled recently.