I thought Sierra value games, released by Sierra, all had color manuals and inserts.
The difference is in the sticker on the shrinkwrap. Some said "Tech Support Provided Thru..." and some just said "No Tech Support Provided"
I'm sure the ones with "No tech support" and photocopied manuals are actually "slash" --- there's a difference between just black & white docs and actual photocopies on plain paper (I've seen both on a KQ5 release)
It's easy to distinguish between a Slash and an authentic Sierra re-release with the thin AGI/SCI boxes, but with the big boxes and CDs it's much harder to tell.
I have two QFG4's on CD, same box art but slightly different sizes of fonts and graphics. There is NO indication that EITHER of them are Value-Priced, (all include the same materials) except the one with the slightly different font size has a "Slash Corporation" registration card instead of one for Sierra.
Of course, this is just information I've discovered on my own based on the copies I've come across. It's very difficult to tell what Sierra's release pattern was. I've seen 6 different Space Quest 4 packages, all with different contents in them (manual styles, disk labels, catalogs, etc).
Here's a couple more I found on ebay:
One with Black & White Playspy, but color manual & Aerodork:
One with photocopied materials, but color manual:
notice BOTH have the blue Ega/Vga sticker on the front, but the Boxes don't look glossy. First Editions of LSL5 are glossy and have the old style, text-only system requirements sticker, or one with the text folded over the front:
First Editions have the rainbow Sierra Game Manual, and the "Larry's First Time" insert. Later issues have the manual with the computer on it and no insert.
And then there's the variations in the PlaySpy magazines! I'll save all that for another time...
-Tom.