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?