If there's one thing that bothers me about GOG (besides the very occasional broken ports) is that they mostly recycle the manuals they find on the net (especially on replacementdocs.com). Since they have agreement with the publishers, couldn't they ask for copies of the original manuals and make a good scan of them? Or find (however hard it may be) an original copy of the retail game? I think they would offer a really excellent service if they did this. But now, in many cases it doesn't feel like buying an original copy at all.

I believe you'll often find that the publisher no longer has the original documents.

I think they'd really have to seek original copies of the old games for which good scanned manuals don't exist on the net. Not necessarily from the publishers.
Many manuals have already been scanned before and are good as they are. But for example, I bought Might & Magic collection and the manuals I found were the ones present on replacementdocs, that are also very poorly laid out. I mean, with the manuals they aren't providing anything at all since all of them can be found elsewhere. I know, to find a copy of the manual of Might & Magic I or II would be very difficult, but at least they could try. For Warlords Battlecry 3 the manual with the spells description was also missing, and it isn't an insanely old game. They could improve from this point of view, imo.

I'll have to play the devil's advocate here and say that I'm quite sure they did, and that what's presented here is what they came up with. Perhaps they may find a better version in the future - they have replaced manuals with better ones before (though don't ask me about which games got that treatment, I don't remember). I do know that Crusader: No Remorse got a manual and other documents after the game was added, but I don't remember whether it had a bad one before or simply none at all.

I wonder why GOG doesn't work with the GOG community to get good manual pdfs. The community is clearly made up of a lot of people who are interested in these old games. Many, myself included, already own the original media and manuals and re-buy to get copies of the games that work under modern day operating systems.

Since GOG is working with the publishers in the first place, making good copies of the copyrighted manuals, maps, and whatever else came with the games (i.e., "feelies") shouldn't be an issue.

Hey GOG! How about asking the community to help with producing good copies of the support materials? Maybe even offer some incentives (like a code for a game every once in a while). I, for one, would be happy to help...

I'll +1 that one. I suspect that for every game in the catalog, at least one frequent forum member has the original manuals from a retail copy. The aforementioned Crusader is a perfect example (kudos to Vagabond).

On the other hand, us owners could just start doing this on our own, within the respective subforums.

I think the problem there is that if you just run up to them with a PDF or some whatever, they can't prove where it came from, they can't tell if there's any danger in it if distributed, which is why they have to check everything themselves. Even if it's just going to them and showing them links to the sites, it may mean a bit of legal trouble if they don't have consent to the manual as well. And even if none of that's a problem.... really, I don't think they would actually have an incentive program for people looking for documents online.

It doesn't really bother me but I've never seen the original manuals for most of these games. Only ones I've owned are Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon(which I would if they were complete with expansions, or just cheaper) and since I never bought those here, I'm not sure they're original.

I suppose, then, that a GOG person of authority might find this thread and clear the air.

I certainly understand your point.

However, is it possible that GOG would have the rights to distribute the game but not the manual (I'm seriously asking)? I would assume they'd go together.

And, as was noted above, if some of the included documentation came from replacementdocs.com, then I'd further assume it would not matter where "clean and accurate" copies of the original stuff came from.

*shrugs*

Likely there's a copy of every transaction and contract between GOG and a developer with all sorts of fun legalese. The contracts are first and foremost for games. Anything extra probably has to be negotiated and worked out as well, that includes separate soundtracks, manuals, pictures, what have you, unless they have a check-list document that generally assumes digital copies of original packaged goods, meaning manuals and whatever extra they packed in. Then again, some companies may not care that much anyway, given that they are just paper and code, and not something they're going to make bounds of money on.

If they offer manuals as extras for download, it means they're authorized to do so. It wouldn't make any sense that they're allowed to offer previously scanned manuals but they can't do the same for manuals which aren't currently available or are incomplete.