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Comment by Dwedit | Hacker News Reader

The zapper goes into port 2, and a standard controller goes into port 1.

The game manual says that you can control the duck with the control pad (which is in player 1's controller port), which would usually be controlled by a second player. This isn't a secret to anyone who bothered to read the manual.

https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Nintendo_NES/manu...

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A bit harsh. I didn't know this. I mean, it could be that some people were not able to read english. I was too young to read english and it wasnt my native tongue. Also, my dad used to let us rent a NES and some games at our local video rental shop, so it just didn't come with a manual to read in the first place.

Who’d have figured a bunch of people who didn’t read the docs would go on to become software developers

It’s not like we need to write docs

I don't remember reading any of the manuals of any of the games I played as a kid in the 80s. I don't even remember seeing them. I just remember putting the game in the console as quickly as possible and figuring it out.

I remember getting charged $3 every time I returned a rented game without the manual.

Haha. I completely forgot that game rentals came with a manual. I remember them always being absolutely beat up, and near shredded, but usually there!

Some games weren't intuitive, or had various power-ups and items that weren't obvious. Most of the manuals for the Sega Master System and Genesis games were just a few pages, so it only took a minute to read them. (And then there were the RPGs...)

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