Never saw this Golden Axe manual before
I bought a copy of Golden Axe in a U.S. "Sega Classics" case, and inside was a (European?) Mega Drive cartridge and a manual I've never seen before. It's solid black with no grid pattern on the front or back covers. It says "Genesis" on it, so it must be from North America, but I've owned every U.S. variation and I've never seen a manual with this cover. The manual is entirely in English and matches up word for word and page for page with a grid pattern manual I have, except this one has the "epilepsy" and "owners of projection TV's" warnings on the inner front cover, while the grid pattern manual is blank on the inner front cover.
http://i66.tinypic.com/2hfo321.jpg