I remember waiting a month at a time hoping to see a hint for whatever game I was stuck on, only for it not to be featured - or perhaps even worse; to see a hint for that very game but one I'd already figured out myself! Urgh! Gaming in the 80s / 90s was a challenging affair!

This article also skips over the other option we had back then - premium rate phone numbers that....slowly.... read .....out .....some .....barely ......relevant .....facts .....about ......the ..... game ......at .....£1 ......a .....minute ......with .......maybe .....the ......hint ......you .....wanted .....after ......costing ......your ......parents .....a .....£12 .....phonebill.

I remember the hint books for Sierra's games (e.g. King's Quest). Each hint would be a question or sentence with multiple boxes underneath. The boxes were blank and you used a special highlighter pen to reveal the content of the box, with each subsequent box being more and more specific. It was an interesting way to get hints.