Last Telephone Hint-Line Standing?

[NayusDante]

When I was a kid, going online to find user-written game guides wasn't exactly an option yet. In 1996, when we finally got a GTE dial-up account, I thought it was amazing that I could download entire game guides from sites like GamesDomain. Before that, however, I remember calling the phone numbers that publishers printed on the backs of game manuals.

I'm pretty sure that they're all long gone, unless there's a few odd phone machines left running in some abandoned warehouse. What I'm curious about is when exactly this practice was phased out completely, if it's indeed happened already. When did Nintendo end the "game counselor" program? When did the Sierra Hintline cease operation?

Perhaps an even more interesting question is what ever happened to the materials used in hint centers? In old videos of Nintendo counselors giving hints, they have binders full of information. Has anyone ever found something like that in the wild?

[DogP]

I certainly don't know of any still running, but regarding the binders of material... I remember seeing some at CGE quite a few years ago. IIRC TheRedEye had them. They had full maps, hints, etc. for a bunch of games.

DogP

[dao2]

Might not be any running but apparently people still call :P

and get phone sex chat ;p

http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp...av=menu484_2_7

[Ro-J]

On a side note, I remember when you used to be able to call for the time of day. That ended in 2007. I suspect hint lines ended roughly around the same time.

[BlastProcessing402]

On a side note, I remember when you used to be able to call for the time of day. That ended in 2007.

NO. WAY.

Wow, that's like... wow... life just isn't the same now that I know there's not some lady somewhere saying "at the tone the time will be..."

[Compute]

Sierra Online ran a BBS into the late 90's. That was a neat, free BBS. They had game hints and a pretty good download area. My guess is that my last use of a 900 number for game hints would have been somewhere around 1996 or 1997. Around that time I figured out that I could catalog all of the game hints for games I liked or wanted to play and file them. Then, I got access to the internet. My guess is hint lines may have made it late into the PS1/N64 days, but not much farther.

EDIT: Needed to cut out some rambling.

[Aussie2B]

Might not be any running but apparently people still call :P

and get phone sex chat ;p

http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp...av=menu484_2_7

The phone number given in-game in Who Framed Roger Rabbit on NES leads to a sex chat line now too.

[SparTonberry]

Yes, thank you AVGN for checking on that one for us. :P

[8bitgamer]

On a semi-related note, I remember calling my local newspaper's sports hotline many nights to find out if the Philadelphia 76'ers won (I've always lived in Fort Worth, but I was a huge Dr. J fan as a kid). Unimaginable today.