Just a word of warning, it seems that when you buy EA/Jane's title,
such as USAF or Fighters Anthology (I know, these are older titles),
you get no manual. These titles now parade under the same name as
tehir predecessors, but have no manual in the box and the bottom of
the box has a yellow stripe with a word "CLASSIC" in it.
You can send a request for manual, but don't hold your breath. Not
only will you get no manual, not even a reason why not...
I feel thoroughly cheated by this company (EA). I promise NEVER to
EVER buy any product from EA.
Take care out there,
Some companies do not care.
Mimes
Canuck,
"Mimes" <mi...@picknowl.com.au> wrote in message
news:3ace7198...@news.dingoblue.net.au...
>Hi there,
>
>Just a word of warning, it seems that when you buy EA/Jane's title,
>such as USAF or Fighters Anthology (I know, these are older titles),
>you get no manual. These titles now parade under the same name as
>tehir predecessors, but have no manual in the box and the bottom of
>the box has a yellow stripe with a word "CLASSIC" in it.
That's why the Classic editions are cheap compared to the original
versions. You can tell there is no manual by the weight of the box.
The manual is on the cdrom in .pdf format. That's the way all EA
Classic editions are.
Also, the words "Documentation is provided on disc" are printed at
the bottom of the box in the system requirements area. This seems
to suggest that there is no printed manual inside.
These classics versions are not a bad deal, I got FA18, USAF, and
NFS:High Stakes for $30 total.
Also have you tried to fly on 1 PC and having a *.pdf manual on
another PC, maybe second monitor sitting on your lap...anyhow, USAF
was a waste of money, not worth printing any manual for it. Time to
fly Flanker 2 again!
Mimes
On Sat, 07 Apr 2001 21:54:16 GMT, Liang Yin <l....@worldnet.att.net>
Mimes
On Sat, 07 Apr 2001 01:53:20 GMT, mi...@picknowl.com.au (Mimes) wrote:
>You should be pissed at Chips and Bits (or Chumps and Bitches, as I
>prefer to call them), a EA "classic" should be about $10. Maybe the
>high cost was due to the shipping charges for the barrel of vaseline!
>
I just checked C&B and the price is $18.95, so that means he paid
$40.00 for shipping/taxes etc. Seems rather high for shipping, even to
AUS. One thing though is that they show a picture of the original F18
box and not an EA Classic. Could be a case of false representation of
a product and he should be able to get his money back if he complains
loud enough.
You know this is/was a new trick by EA with regards to Jane's. They knew
Jane's was going out of business so they pull this trick. When EA used to
market it's "classic" games, they had "classic" on the box or the box had no
fold out cover. When USAF and F18 went to classic they kept the fold out
cover so you wouldn't know at first glance that it was a classic package.
You had to read the fine print on the bottom of the box. I found this out by
buying Janes F18 and USAF together when they just went "classic". I got the
F18 package for $15 and it had the full printed manual. The USAF box didn't
have the manual. It was also $15. I was pretty pissed but I realized that on
the nomenclature on the bottom of the box, in very very tiny print at the
bottom, it said "Documentation is on disc. Printer required to print on-disk
manual." I can only guess that EA has gotten a lot of flak over this slimey
behavior thus they put the games in a box clearly marked "classic" later on.
In retrospect, the games are worth the money. I just wish EA had not stooped
so low. I would hope that since EA's license period of the Jane's label is
over, Jane's could start producing it's own simulations or lisence it's name
to someone else.
John
But "Janes" is a well known brand name - as a maker of military nerd books,
and geopolitical examinations of situations. EA had a bunch of different
simulation products going on from a bunch of different companies, so they
licensed the name to offer a "unifed" brand name. They probably paid Janes
well to use their aircraft data and scenario data.
Janes probably won't repeat this. I doubt it was much use to them, other
than get a few simmers interested in buying their books (check out the At
the Controls Series, by the way - those are COOL).
It's kinda sad. I liked the brand name. I liked the little articles in the
manuals.
Gavin