We just kept the manuals for our most frequently played games on our computer desk. I don’t remember it being particularly burdensome, especially compared to the copy protection many games employ today. Plus, several games were designed to rely upon the manuals as part of their game play, like the Carmen Sandiego series.

Still a problem in the console age. It was annoying as hell that I had Halo Wars 2 installed on my XBOX ONE but couldn't play it for the nine months that the disc was lost.

I personally didn't mind it, usually, for most games it was better to have the manual in front in any case