I usually use the manuals extensively, if I have them. I'm always flipping through them looking something up. Secretly, I'm hoping some of the awesome pinball knowledge gets rubbed off on my fingers and absorbed through the skin to get get a fast track through the blood stream and go strait to the brain. But seriously, manuals are for reading. And their is no substitute for being able to flip to look something up. On scans, it would take my computer forever to load up all the pics and trying to look for something.
On the flip side, if I had a Gottlieb manual and the ability to scan it in with a good OCR (object character recognition) software and scan that file into an adobe document, it would be super beneficial to pinballers in general. Unfortunately, its my understanding that Gottlieb in particular guard their copyrights with an iron fist. If you posted said document, you would promptly get a cease and desist letter with threat of law suit from their lawyer from what I hear. While they may be out of business, the corporation still exists and they still make money by licensing and selling their rights to reproduce and sell pinball parts through people like Steve Young. And as long as he's in business, you can probably get a new manual for your Gottlieb if you just pick up the phone. So its not really like you won't be able to get a replacement.
