Game Guide - Hosted

Southy · #1 September 28th, 2020, 02:38 AM

Hi All,

I have just started playing SPWW2 and had been finding the manual difficult to read while also in game and the PDF version linked in the sticky section doesn't render well on my iPad.
So I have hosted a copy of the manual on the web, which I am happy to share with anyone else that finds it useful.

There are 2 versions:

An exact copy of the manual from the game directory, for use on a desktop.
https://winspww2.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/spww2guide-desktop.htm

A slightly modified version, that I did for myself, that fits a bit better (not perfectly) on a landscape iPad.
https://winspww2.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/spww2guide.htm

Hopefully I am not stepping on any toes, or in breach of any copyright etc, I can see there is a PDF available that has been endorsed so hopefully this is ok as well.
If any developer or publisher on the forums has an issue with this let me know and I will remove public access to it.

hrfepo · #2 September 1st, 2025, 09:51 AM

Thank you! I have the same problem. I can't believe that the authors of this game are so shortsighted. I wish they published a manual like Matrix Games does for their version, which can be read anywhere.

mkr8683 · #3 September 2nd, 2025, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hrfepo

Thank you! I have the same problem. I can't believe that the authors of this game are so shortsighted. I wish they published a manual like Matrix Games does for their version, which can be read anywhere.

That's a bold statement to apply to two guys who have kept this game alive, on their own, for damn near thirty years.

'Shortsighted' is the last word I'd ever think to apply to Don and Andy.

DRG · #4 September 2nd, 2025, 01:28 PM

Matt
If you buy something on Amazon for example,and really like it then read all the reviews you will discover some people just don't like it at all

Same goes here

The game guide has constantly evolved and has had new info added every release we have made since we started doing this. It runs in HTML because HTML can be read in any browser. If I knew how to make it work scallable I would do it but we are near the end of a LONG road now. WYSIWYG

Mobhack · #5 September 2nd, 2025, 07:35 PM

HTML is already scalable in this Firefox browser thingy what I use. No idea about others - don’t use them.

If I want the text bigger then I press ctl and + and it goes larger, do it again and it goes yet larger. It remembers settings for each different website, so if the BBC site is best at 133%, and the Shrapnel site at 110 - so be it. This I have found since the 2 diabetic eye bleeds and resulting eye laser surgery needed a new approach to using computers, along with the usage of dark mode text mods since it is way easier on the eyes if cataract laser removal gets applied - default white background, black text is a bit of a pain now!

And its easy to have both the game and the guide open at the same time - both show on the task bar, click on one or the other to change focus.

Some folks like PDF, but I never ever did. Too clunky for me. The browser guys have addressed readability issues in a way PDF providers have not, IMHO. And with my now shot eyesight - i have been looking, and browsers for the win, IMHO!. (Windows magnifier was useful a little; but too rigid, as easy to use a physical magnifying glass as I did before finding about the Ctrl+ combo. easier to use a bigger (less resolution, bigger text) windows desktop size really than he windows magnifier tool)

Mobhack · #6 Yesterday, 05:36 PM

Oh yes - another reason for the HTML Game Guide is updates.

If you made it a PDF, then the entire document is a "binary blob" of huge size. Make an edit and then the update file needs a copy of the entire new mega-blob.

The HTML text part is quite small, and an edit is not a big hit to the relisting update file. The installer programme can zip up simple text files just fine - a PDF binary blob, probably less so. And if an image needs updating we simply replace that 1 image in the separate images sub-folder since images are stored external to the HTML text and loaded as the HTML browser needs them, not wrapped up in a great big binary data blob.

Also, back in the day we eventually had to split the HTML up into chapters when the text got "too big" for the HTML editor of the day, but a few years ago with a new edit tool, we tried putting it all back in one linear file again to see if it would work - and it ate that fine, so no more need to use chapters, and searching the entire document was enhanced as well.