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Prima Guides

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Mega Man X Official Game Secrets (1994)

By Argus

Mega Man X Official Game Secrets (1994)

427 downloads

2 comments

Submitted October 14, 2023
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 - Prima's Unauthorized Strategy Guide (1999)

By Argus

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 - Prima's Unauthorized Strategy Guide (1999)

142 downloads

0 comments

Submitted August 13, 2023
Mission Impossible - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

By E-Day

Mission Impossible - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

420 downloads

0 comments

Submitted May 9, 2020
Nightmare Creatures - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

By E-Day

Nightmare Creatures - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

646 downloads

1 comment

Submitted May 13, 2020
Ninja Shadow of Darkness - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

By E-Day

Ninja Shadow of Darkness - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

397 downloads

0 comments

Submitted May 14, 2020
Ninja Shadow of Darkness Hint Book

By E-Day

Pages 15 and 16 in this hint book are the same. This is not an error; this is how the actual hint book is.

216 downloads

0 comments

Submitted February 28, 2021
Nintendo Game Boy Secrets

By Areala

You know what this is. I know what this is. You know you're going to download it. I know you're going to download it.
Volume 1 of Prima's Nintendo Game Boy Secrets is Rusel DeMaria and Zach Meston doing the thing they did for Nintendo NES games, Super NES games, and Sega Genesis games, only for (wait for it) the Nintendo Game Boy!
See? I didn't even have to write that. You didn't have to read it. But I did. And you did. Now, download the file, pay your tribute to your Retromags Goddess by smacking that 'Thanks' button like you're trying to smack the batteries out of your portable system, and prepare for the next release in the "Secrets of the Game" series, coming soon from my bookshelves.

355 downloads

1 comment

Submitted January 26
Nintendo Games Secrets

By Areala

Nintendo Games Secrets is a historical landmark in the world of video game publishing, being the first title produced by Prima for their newly-birthed "Secrets of the Games" imprint in 1990. From the humble roots of this black-and-white, mostly-text guide written by then-GamePro staff writer Rusel DeMaria, Prima rose to become one of the preeminent publishers of gaming strategy guides, eventually acquiring their closest rival, BradyGames, in 2015.
Prima's "Secrets of the Games" imprint played an enormous role in the company's success throughout the 90's, with multiple volumes covering NES, Genesis, Game Boy, TurboGrafx-16, and Super NES games in this format, as well as stand-alone guides for specific games like Secret of Mana, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
If you browsed a bookstore in the early 90s, and you were into video games, chances are good you drooled over one of these Prima books and tried to convince your parents to buy one for you. Maybe you succeeded, maybe you didn't, but either way, I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. I have thirteen more of these in my collection, so expect to see more in the future.

881 downloads

8 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
Nintendo Games Secrets, Volume 2

By Areala

After the original Nintendo Games Secrets became a best-selling success, a sequel was all but assured. Sure enough, one year later, Prima released this book onto store shelves, giving kids a reason to do their chores and accumulate the $10 US (or 14 so-called Canadian "dollars") necessary for its purchase.
More of the same, but also a little less of the same. This volume omits Rusel DeMaria's "Introduction to Video Games" and "A Parents' Guide to Gaming" which were present in Volume 1. It also focuses only on software, so there are no previews of any upcoming peripherals. Added are some cartoon segments which combine over the course of the book to present an overall narrative which, we are assured, will be continued in Volume 3. (Spoiler alert: it is not.)
At 328 pages vs. the original book's 360, this feels like a step back. On the other hand, while there are plenty of other books out there which covered major titles like Castlevania III, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game, and Mega Man 3, there are nowhere near as many which covered the likes of The Immortal, Dungeon Magic, or Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, so you have to give it props on game selection at least.

766 downloads

5 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
Nintendo Games Secrets, Volume 3

By Areala

Third book in the series, which is shorter even than volume 2. Though that's not surprising, since volume 3 came out a whopping three months after volume two was already on store shelves. When on earth did DeMaria and Meston sleep?
In any case, this might be my favorite volume of the NES series, since it covers a whole slew of games you almost never see mentioned in other books of the day. Seriously, where else did you find coverage of Pirates!, Faria, Hillsfar, The Last Ninja, The Rocketeer, Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Beetlejuice, or The Uninvited?
Despite promising a continuation of the comic begun in the pages of volume 2, that never happens. I guess we'll never learn everyone's ultimate fate. Oh well. We bought these for the tips and strategies, not the fan fiction.
Enjoy! ❤️

765 downloads

3 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
O.D.T - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

By E-Day

O.D.T - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

293 downloads

0 comments

Submitted May 17, 2020
Official Sega Genesis Power Tips Book (New and Updated Edition)

By Areala

A great Sega Genesis compilation guide from Prima: full-colour, tons of excellent games, just an ultimate walk down nostalgia lane. For $15 back in the day, this was a solid book. As the name implies, this is a newer, more up-to-date version. I don't own the original release sadly, so I can't tell what all is new or updated about this version. Maybe someone else can provide that info?
My copy had a printing defect with the pages dedicated to Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, where the print portion pulled deeper into the gutter than on other pages. This means some of the text got cut off when the book was de-bound--it's still usable, and it affects only 2 out of the book's 112 pages, but I wanted to point it out, since this is a defect with the book itself, not my own scanning incompetence. I'm not a good enough graphical wizard to fix this, but if someone else out there wants to take the time, that would be awesome.
Enjoy! ❤️

850 downloads

2 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
Official Sega Genesis Power Tips Book, Volume 2

By Areala

Another awesome Genesis compilation book from Prima. Full-colour, just like the first, with a slew of new games, only a couple of which were looked at in the previous edition. Strategies and tactics for 35 games, with a bevy of cheats, passwords, and other goodies for 35 more. An excellent addition to your digital library, if I do say so myself.
Donated by ModernZorker.
Enjoy! ❤️

779 downloads

1 comment

Submitted February 20, 2022
Onimusha 2 Prima Official Guide (2002)

By E-Day

Onimusha 2 Prima Official Guide (2002)

320 downloads

0 comments

Submitted March 24, 2023
PlayStation Game Secrets - The Unauthorized Edition Volume 1

By E-Day

PlayStation Game Secrets - The Unauthorized Edition Volume 1

628 downloads

0 comments

Submitted April 17, 2020
Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

By E-Day

Pokémon Gold & Silver Versions - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

3,168 downloads

0 comments

Submitted September 23, 2020
Prima's GoldenEye 007 Unauthorized Game Secrets

By E-Day

Prima's GoldenEye 007 Unauthorized Game Secrets

555 downloads

3 comments

Submitted May 19, 2020
Prima's Official Guide to the Ultima Collection

By Areala

Promising to be a complete walkthrough for ten games set in or around the world of Ultima, this is slightly misleading. After all, the book is only 320 pages, and surely there's a Hellsteed of a lot more going on, especially in the later games, than could be encapsulated by even the best team of editors and writers in so small an area.
Your suspicions are correct. There's a lot going on in the first few titles, and the guide devotes a mere few pages at best to the first two Ultima games (five pages for Ultima I, seven for Ultima II), along with Akalabeth, the precursor to the Ultima series. Ultima III is where the guide ramps up, with 21 pages worth of maps, gameplay tips, and charts. Fully half the book is given to Ultima VII and Ultima VIII content.
This book also comes with a double-sided, fold-out color poster which shows the overworld maps for all the games. This poster is bound in between pages 145 and 146, but sadly my copy of this is missing, so I wasn't able to include it (and I'm not sure I have the skills necessary to stitch together a giant poster from multiple image files in any case). All apologies.
Update: user @Xuio has graciously provided a high resolution scan of both sides of this poster map for us. You can download it here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/2dksw4m9upihhtt/UCmaps.7z/file
Enjoy! ❤️

569 downloads

3 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
Quake for Nintendo 64 - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

By E-Day

Quake for Nintendo 64 - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

448 downloads

0 comments

Submitted May 21, 2020
Quake Game Secrets: Unauthorized Guide to the Shareware Levels

By Areala

Some guides are worth their weight in (metaphorical) gold.
Some are cash grabs so blatant you find it hard to believe anyone willingly paid money for them.
Quake Game Secrets falls so far into the latter camp that it pitched a tent, got a fire going, dug a field latrine, and is now roasting marshmallows. 🔥
It is a book rushed to market, specifically to cover only the levels of the game which the game makers are giving away, for free, as Shareware, by a publisher who expected people to pay $10 for said book. Read that again: this is not a guide to the full registered version of Quake. It only covers the maps, enemies, weapons, and artifacts found in the first episode.
It is so rushed and so much of a cash grab that rather than explaining the game's storyline, or controls, or anything else important, it instructs the reader (ie: the person who just gave them ten of their hard-earned dollars) to literally open the MANUAL.TXT file which accompanies the game software and read that. Part of your ten bucks goes to someone cheekily telling you to RTFM.
I cannot make this up.
Who, in 1996, was so desperate to get good at the shareware version of a game that they had to rush out and pay ten dollars for some hand-drawn maps and text-only explanations of how to beat each level and find the secrets? Identify yourselves. Show of hands. You, in the back: no slouching. Get out here and own your idiocy!
Now drop and give me twenty.
Do not download this.
It is 42MB of shame and disgrace being offered here solely so I didn't have to look at it any longer. You will improve nothing about your life by acquiring a copy of this book. After your demise, some poor unfortunate soul will be scrubbing your hard drive, find your copy of this download, and their respect for you will diminish by a statistically-significant fractional amount. Not as much as by what they'll find upon viewing your porn folder (you degenerate weasel!), but why make things worse for your family?
Eff this book from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea, from Land's End to John 'o Groats and back again.
Or, you know what? Screw it. Just hit the 'Thanks' button once you're done adding it to your digital hoards.
Whatever.

259 downloads

1 comment

Updated December 20, 2023
Quake II: The Unauthorized Guide

By Areala

What's more extreme than an unauthorized guide to the sequel to the biggest FPS on the planet?
NOTHING, THAT'S WHAT!
We've got black-and-white pages, we've got computer-drawn maps, we've got all the cheat codes, we've got an all-text walkthrough, we've got multiplayer strategies, and we've got an interview with John-F&@$ing-Romero's girlfriend-to-be-soon-to-be-ex-, the terror of the DeathMatch arena, Stevie 'KillCreek' Case herself! SHE IS A WOMAN, AND THIS TEXT IS AS CLOSE AS MOST OF YOU WILL EVER GET TO A GIRL, SO YOU HAD BETTER DOWNLOAD THIS GUIDE RIGHT NOW OR E-DAY WILL PERSONALLY DEFILE YOUR VERTICAL SMILE WITH A STEEL-WOOL-WRAPPED TOILET BRUSH!
*ahem*
Enjoy! ❤️

299 downloads

0 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
Quake III Arena Official Strategy Guide

By Areala

I'm not sure why Prima (or anybody, really) thought this game needed a strategy guide. I mean, Quake III Arena was literally nothing more than 'deathmatch-on-demand' with the possibility of fighting against AI bots if you didn't have any real-life friends. All the weapons and power-ups were culled from iD Software's previous Doom and Quake titles, and chances are if you bought Quake III you had already been playing deathmatch with your friends for five years and had a solid understanding of techniques like rocket jumping. The only thing really new for this game were the levels themselves. But, you know, props to Prima for managing to still get 200 pages' worth of content out of it somehow. Good on you, guys!
Unlike previous guides to Quake games, this one's also in full colour, so there's that...
Enjoy! ❤️

283 downloads

0 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
Quake Unauthorized Map Guide

By Areala

Sorry for the sticker and damage to the front cover. The book came this way when I bought it. Otherwise, the rest of the guide's in fine shape.
Except, wait a minute, I'm sorry..."Unofficial Map Guide"? I mean "Strategy Guide", right?
Nope. This is literally just a book of stage maps that point out where all the goodies and secrets are located. There aren't any hints for actually tackling the various areas or anything like that, just maps and how to access the secret areas. Prima put out an unofficial strategy guide for the game too (along with that abomination of a guide to the shareware version which I already inflicted upon you) which also sold well for them, meaning there were some lunatics who forked out over $50 for those three different books because they just loved Quake so much.
Well, you don't have to do that now, because I got yer "Unofficial Map Guide" right here, fanboys!
Download it, smack that 'Thanks' button, and pay me my tribute.
Enjoy! ❤️

247 downloads

0 comments

Updated December 20, 2023
Rayman 2 - The Great Escape - Prima's Official Strategy Guide (2000)

By Argus

Rayman 2 - The Great Escape - Prima's Official Strategy Guide (2000)

275 downloads

0 comments

Submitted February 10
Red Faction - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

By E-Day

Red Faction - Prima's Official Strategy Guide

429 downloads

0 comments

Updated May 22, 2020