View Full Version : Last Telephone Hint-Line Standing?
NayusDante
02-13-2012, 08:05 PM
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?
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
Might not be any running but apparently people still call :P
and get phone sex chat ;p
http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=6682501&nav=menu484_2_7
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.
Aussie2B
02-13-2012, 11:07 PM
Might not be any running but apparently people still call :P
and get phone sex chat ;p
http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=6682501&nav=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
02-14-2012, 09:56 AM
Yes, thank you AVGN for checking on that one for us. :P
8bitgamer
02-14-2012, 10:02 AM
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.
BlastProcessing402
02-14-2012, 02:40 PM
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
02-14-2012, 03:06 PM
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.
Bojay1997
02-14-2012, 03:51 PM
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.
I doubt that phone hint lines lasted even that long. Starting in the early 90s, tips and tricks type magazines became very common, most video game magazines had walkthoughs or something similar for the biggest release games and player's guides began to be published. According to Nintendo's website, they operated a "Powerline" which was an automated system from 1994 to mid-2010. I'm assuming this replaced their physical game counselor call center. I would suspect that by about 1995/96, the last of the phone hint lines were long gone.
Kitsune Sniper
02-14-2012, 04:01 PM
... that can't be right.
I remember some of my Dreamcast games had hint line phone numbers...
Collector_Gaming
02-14-2012, 04:06 PM
Man that must have been the best customer service job out of all of them...
What do you do? I help kids beat video games over the phone.
Me - "Hello thank you for calling the Nintendo Tip and Tricks Hot Line this Tyler speaking what can I do for you?"
Gamer - "Hey man I need help beating Bowser in Super Mario World."
Me - "No way. Nice game man.. Hold on one second *gets out binder with all the maps and hints and such* alright you ready for this? ......"
Bojay1997
02-14-2012, 05:11 PM
... that can't be right.
I remember some of my Dreamcast games had hint line phone numbers...
Looks like you're right. AIA ran a US hint line for Ilbleed. Here's a manual scan I found with the number listed on Page 10.
http://gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Sega_Dreamcast//Manual/formated/Illbleed_-_2001_-_Crazy_Games.pdf
Aussie2B
02-14-2012, 08:23 PM
Uh, guys, if you just read the previous posts, you'd see that hint lines were going even during the PS2 days.
By the way, the Nintendo automatic line ran concurrently with the live counselor line. In the early days of Nintendo's counselors, the line didn't even cost anything. It was simply a long distance number, but if you happened to live in the Seattle area, you could call them for free as much as you'd like. Later on, around the mid-90s I think, they wised up and made it a 900 number, and they added the automatic line as what you could call for free (or at least just for the cost of a long distance call). I have no idea when they stopped with the live counselors, but if the automatic line lasted until 2010, I would assume that it outlasted the counselors.
The bummer is that I missed out free counselors. The Nintendo's area code (206) used to extend much farther around Seattle, but by the time I started using the counselors, they had already switched to 1-900 and my town had gotten a new area code too, so I even had to pay for the automatic line since it was long distance at that point. I used both a little nonetheless, though.
rbudrick
02-16-2012, 07:13 PM
I will never forget the massive phone bill I got as a kid and the stroke my parents had for calling 206 885 7529 too often. I'll never forget that number.
-Rob
Bojay1997
02-16-2012, 08:11 PM
Uh, guys, if you just read the previous posts, you'd see that hint lines were going even during the PS2 days.
By the way, the Nintendo automatic line ran concurrently with the live counselor line. In the early days of Nintendo's counselors, the line didn't even cost anything. It was simply a long distance number, but if you happened to live in the Seattle area, you could call them for free as much as you'd like. Later on, around the mid-90s I think, they wised up and made it a 900 number, and they added the automatic line as what you could call for free (or at least just for the cost of a long distance call). I have no idea when they stopped with the live counselors, but if the automatic line lasted until 2010, I would assume that it outlasted the counselors.
The bummer is that I missed out free counselors. The Nintendo's area code (206) used to extend much farther around Seattle, but by the time I started using the counselors, they had already switched to 1-900 and my town had gotten a new area code too, so I even had to pay for the automatic line since it was long distance at that point. I used both a little nonetheless, though.
According to various on-line sources, Nintendo closed down the game counselor line in 2005 and moved the employees into other departments. I'm pretty surprised that the line was still around less than seven years ago, although I guess most people still didn't have broadband up until the last few years, so perhaps there was still a huge demand for using the phone over other sources.