/vr/ - Retro Games

save states

>>10172830
Yeah.
Nintendo hotline.
Stuck on Super Metroid.
Yes, it was the glass tunnel.
You can go ahead and mock me now.

>>10172830
There's no way I would have been able to get my parents or legal guardians permission

>>10172830
I did, and I sent them letters too. Biggest one I remember was in the original Breath of Fire, there was a point shortly after you entered the underwater fish-people town that gave you nowhere obvious to go. I even had the Prima guide at the time and it didn't make the next step obvious either. So I wrote them a letter, and got one back six months later that basically told me the wrong thing. I can't remember what exactly they said, but it was clearly not right. So I said, "fuck it, I'll just walk north and see if I can find a dungeon or something," and that ended up being the correct solution.

>>10172830
Yes, I called the Nintendo line many times. Once was to ask how to get through the boat in Jurassic Park SNES and the guy couldn't really do much to help because it's a weird ass maze so I couldn't even describe where I was over the phone.

Called once to ask for the answer to the Riddler puzzle in Adventures of Batman and Robin.

A couple other times too I think but I can't remember what for. I just remember them shilling the Super Game Boy to me before I hung up.

When I got Legend of Mana I didn't know how to unlock all the stages so I called the help line at the back of the instruction book. I ended up calling it a lot, and got to the point I memorized the phone tree so I could get my answer in under 30 seconds. Unfortunately all those calls added up and the phone bill came to around $80. My dad was kinda pissed.

I called the Sierra Hotline after being stuck for a few days in Leisure Suit Larry 7 (I was a novice in the genre), they didn't tell me how to advance in the game but they sold me the official Leisure Suit 7 hintbook. After that, I found out I didn't need to open any door to get to the beavers.

I called the Sierra Hotline after being stuck for a few days in Leisure Suit Larry 7 (I was a novice in the genre), they didn't tell me how to advance in the game but they sold me the official Leisure Suit 7 hintbook. Thanks to that hintbook, I found out I didn't need to open any door to get to the beavers.

https://youtu.be/MgqUpKw9HWs?t=5

>>10172830
No, primarily because my parents would've disallowed it.

For those who didn't into English as kids, did you believe "Hotline" meant something like an erotic line?

I'm ashamed to admit that yes, I called the cheat line once. The person was who answered was very impolite. Worst of all, my question pertained to the ice dungeon in Zelda lttp.

>>10173730
Dear Anon,
The crops are coming in nicely this year. Within a fortnight, we should have husked them all. Jebediah has lost his rotten tooth.
Regarding your question how to pass the fish-people level, I will have to set off to the nearest town to consult with Reverend McBride. When I make it back... and hark, if I make it back. I will send word of which I hope it reaches you in Tegucigalpa.

>>10172830
I called the Sega Hotline, called it off the box for Vectorman irc.

My memory is foggy, I can't pinpoint if it happened before or after the Dreamcast, wanna say before. Either way, it was way past the Genesis lifespan and I got the number off a Genesis game. I was really shocked for some reason that someone answered, I just asked some dumb question about Sonic and Knuckles and they gave me the information right away. I was blown away, I couldn't believe there was someone whos job was sitting around waiting to answer phone calls about years old Genesis games, and just had the answers

Were games deliberately made harder just to sell hotlines and guide books? Looking at Sierra’s old adventure titles I feel like that was probably the entirety of their business model.

Looks like these hotlines survived for quite a bit, it would be interesting to know which was the year the internet "killed" them.

>>10175850
who is the guy with kitana

>>10176660
takeshi kitana

>>10172830
>Hey Sega, I wanna know something.
>DO SONICS GOT BLUE DICKS?

>>10172830
I couldn't get through the Lost Woods so I got my parents' permission to call them, then when they asked what I was having trouble with I got afraid that they'd laugh at me so I said "N-NEVER MIND I FIGURED IT OUT" and hung up

>>10175249
Nah. Back before the internet the term 'hotline' more or less meant a '1-800' number you could call. The services ranged from games to sex, but it was a general term not specifically for just sex.

>>10172830
Haha before the internet, I may or may not have called this one time

I seem to remember myself, my sister, and our mom in our kitchen with a phone, calling Nintendo's gameplay counselors for some reason, just one time ever. Annoyingly, I can't remember what our question was or even what game it was connected to. It's not the kind of thing we normally did. Usually getting stuck in a game just meant you'd return it to the video rental place without having finished it. (And if you owned the game, then you had time to figure it out yourself.)

No, but I called the Skulljagger Insult Hotline (it was a free call). It's what turned me on to the phrase "quivering bowl of lard".

Let's talk about something more retro than phones... letters!

>>10173743
>I just remember them shilling the Super Game Boy to me before I hung up.
jewtendo

>>10177387
based

>>10175326
i think the genesis was still popular in the late 90s, at least in europe it was

>>10173730
> waiting six months for a wrong answer instead of looking for solution by yourself

90's gaming was tough

>>10172830
Yes, it was rare because it cost money, but I remember a few occasions.

>Startropics submarine code (It was a rented copy)
>Ice key in Banjo-Kazooie (they had no idea)
>Location of the last heart container in Zelda 2 (This was like in 1999, I was shocked they were able to tell me)

I remember reading an interview with some former game counselors and they said in the early days, before they had a computer database, you were expected to create and maintain your own binder of hints, codes, maps etc for games. I'm imagining myself in a cubicle sketching out maps to Legacy of the Wizard while fielding calls from kids asking about the Konami code or the location of the 7th dungeon in Zelda...I would give anything to be there.

>>10179323
More SOVL...

>>10175043
>"Sure we COULD tell you the answer now that you paid $1.99 to call for the first minute, $2.99 for each additional minute, or we could offer you the official hintbook for only the low, low price of $19.99..."
Absolute scammers

>>10179441
what happened with sierra and metaljesus? was it a scam thing?

>>10179363
>Startropics submarine code
I remember making it to that point, having no manual because the game was used, not having any idea what it wanted me to do, so I did the only option available to me: try every combination starting from zero. I'll never forget the answer 747

>>10172830
Yes, for this fucker right here. I played this game constantly as a kid but there was a point where you had to find a hidden dungeon entrance to progress and I could never figure it out and the game effectively ended at that point for me. At some point I convinced my parents to let me call Nintendo and ask them what I was supposed to do.

IIRC the "hint" the game gives you for finding the entrance is "palm trees and eight". This was a desert area and there were palm trees everywhere. I tried looking for areas with eight palm trees, I used every attack and every ability eight times on every palm tree I saw, I walked around palm trees eight times clockwise and counterclockwise. Whatever dumb shit you can think of, I probably did it. I don't remember how old I was, probably 9 or 10 with all the free time in the world. Spent hours upon hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

So I finally call up and this motherfucker tells me that there's a spot where there are two palm trees you can walk between, and you need to walk around these TWO palm trees such that you draw a figure eight. It worked but it sure pissed me off.

>>10172830
I called one time to the Sega hotline because I got filtered by the barrel in Sonic 3. I never spoke with anyone because there was an automated message right at the start that said "if you're calling about the barrel in Sonic 3, you have to press up and down to make it move". They must have been getting swamped with calls about it, this was right when it came out.

>>10179638
I played this a lot when I was a kid too and the figure 8 palm tree trick was revealed in Ninentod Power.

I beat this game finally when I was like 15 and oh my fuck I love that game. All the remakes just can't do justice to how fucking grim and bleak that game is, and its somber tone with some EZ hydlide action.

>>10179613
Makes me think of of "for Dummies" book series.

>>10179613
>touch tone phone required
Rotary bros...

>>10172830
I called their automated hotline, which was just a 1-800 number. They had pre-recorded lines and a directory of games with sections to choose from. Kind of confusing in hindsight, but I guess it defeated the purpose of a 1-900 number that could give you live help. I must’ve called in 2005 or something. I don’t think I ever called a 1-900 number. I knew my family was poor and I’d get my ass beat.

>>10175249
Hot lines in my country where just sex on the phone I even have an anecdote about that.
>brother has a card with some naked chick on it in his room
>10 year old me stole it
>called the number
>woman in a sexy voice says "I'm here to makes all your wishes come truth"
>petrified as I didn't know what to do
>just said "I wanna fuck"
>woman just laugh her ass off and hung up.

>>10172830
I called Nintendo in high school asking if Mario is a legal resident of the Mushroom Kingdom, cause in the Super Show he went from Brooklyn to the Mushroom Kingdom without any visa or border check. Then I asked "does Mario have a passport?"

The bloke on the other end said that was a good question but not one he has an answer to, and that I best take it to Mr Miyamoto

>>10172830
I called it one time while staying over at a friend's and asked them how to get away from mike tyson's huge fart and then my friend farted into the phone and we hung up and laughed and laughed and then we got caught when the phone bill came and we both got sent to summer bible camp instead of disney that year because we had also been prank calling a bunch of other people with the same fart joke a ton and one of them was a retarded guy from church that we made cry. Also we weren't smart enough to move the phone to the farter's ass so the talker would just take a fart to the face every time.

>>10179613
>24/7 video game tip hotline
Imagine being the guy workig the 10pm to 6am night shift and you get a call from a teen playing Banjo-kazooie at 4am wondering where all the jinjos are.

>>10175339
It was that, to make games longer which was especially for rentals, and the least cynical one was to get kids to get together and talk about it at recess and share secrets and shit

>>10181383
Did Miyamoto ever tell you?

>>10179486
Holy shit, nice one anon. I can only imagine the elation you felt when you got it

>>10181407
based farts

>>10179903
Offtopic but yeah, this game fucking rocks. It's depressing as fuck with the ending and how many characters die throughout (and how many times the main character falls from heights kek). The music is leagues above the music from Sword of Mana or any other remakes (Adventure of Mana?). Probably the best action RPG on the Game Boy by a longshot, in terms of how ambitious it is.

Remember when Final Fantasy was the pure turn based series while Seiken Densetsu etc. were the "experimental" spinoffs? It feels like it's been so long since that was the case now

>>10182003
I seem to remember that the main girl character's brother(?) meets a particularly gruesome fate, but yeah it was always cool going from the first sombre overworld to the second one once you get/start searching for Excalibur.

Biker roasting SL trolls

>>10176769
Lol.

>>10173538
Same. When I got stuck in a game back then, that was the end of the game

>>10181383
>high school
>bloke
what nationality are you anon?

>>10172830
>Did you ever call to the Nintendo or Sega Hotlines asking for hints or cheats?
Yes, and I remember I often couldn't hear what the guy said, so I would call back multiple times. Like this one time I was playing Shadowgate on the NES and I wanted to know what to do with the underground lake and the guy was saying throw the "sphere" into the river, but I kept hearing "spear" and I kept trying to throw the spear into the lake but the game wouldn't let me. After about the third or fourth time that I called the guy literally yelled "SPHERE" into the phone and I was like whoa, and felt embarrassed, then I said sorry and hung up. But the question is, why do you throw a sphere into the lake, that doesn't make any sense? Throwing the spear makes sense because spears are a throwing weapon and there could be a monster that you need to kill in the lake or maybe it's a King Arthur scenario and the lady of the lake gives you back your spear in an enchanted form, but throwing a sphere? That makes no sense.

>>10184603
Aussie

>>10175323
kek. You forgot to add
>castle to C6

>>10179380
So much SOVL they needed three pages to answer the question

>>10179380
So much SOVL they gave this person a three page reply.

>>10184748

>>10184749

>>10184630
Are you ESL or was he? I think I know the answer regardless. The sphere was an ice sphere, it froze the lake. It makes perfect sense.