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To the rapidly aging person reading this: GameFAQs is 30 years old, and people are sharing their memories of the venerable guide hub

⁨481⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Agent_Karyo@piefed.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/to-the-rapidly-aging-person-reading-this-gamefaqs-is-30-years-old-and-people-are-sharing-their-memories-of-the-venerable-guide-hub/

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Comments

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  • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    When I was a kid, I played Black and White constantly and my dad printed off a complete guide from GameFAQs and put it in a binder with page protectors and everything. It was so awesome.

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    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      yup i was using gamefaqs when playing the older generation pokemon games very useful. the subreddit was best for friendsafari.

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  • Malix@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I absolutely love the no-nonsense approach of gamefaqs (and the likes). <3

    if I’m stuck in a game (usually some 90’s point&click adventure), more often than not I just want an easily ctrl+f searchable walkthrough, and does the site ever provide.

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    • nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I remember how useful the FFX-2 guide was. We didn’t have a computer at home when I was a kid, but I was able to head to the town library and print off the neat formatted text only guide.

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      • Malix@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        man, the mention of printed-faq’s opened a core memory. I had One Must Fall 2097 and Mortal Kombat move-lists printed out

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  • binarytobis@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    When I was 14, I got in a flame war with another kid in the pokemon forum. I dropped a “What do you know? You’re probably 12!” He replied “Yeah, I’m 12. This is a pokemon forum. What are you doing here?”

    I felt so thoroughly burned that I stayed out of internet arguments as much as possible from that point forward. A real valuable lesson early on. Thanks, GameFAQs!

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    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Funny, dunking on some old dude back in the day got me hooked on internet arguments.

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      • binarytobis@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Image

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  • The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Nothing beats those old ascii art guides. When you're playing an old games, you know they won't let you down.

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    • vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      everything is fucking videos now. You get stuch at a very particular place? Prepare to sift through literally hours of video instead of, for example, just searching for the name of the place you’re in ingame

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      • M137@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Nah, there’s a lot of text guides too. But the problem is that they’re often just copied from one source that somehow manages to get basic shit wrong every damn time. And videos definitely have their place, so many times I’ve first searched for a text guide and only got more confused. As long as the videos are short and to the point I always appreciate them. Found some great channels that way that have helped me through several games.

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      • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        everything is fucking videos now

        did you know that the more inappropriate the place you put the word “fucking” in is, the more seriously people will take your comments? :D

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    • Toldry@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I have never been lied to by data in a .txt file which has been hand-aligned Image

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    • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I was fascinated at one point by ASCII art. I had seen someone manually drawing some ASCII emoji on a cup as a kid. Weird…

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  • Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    So I basically started using it the year it was made. Cool.

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    • rigatti@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Kind of similar story of ancient gaming tragedy, I was a young lad going for 100% in FFVII, and after spending however many hours getting everything ready, I saved right by Emerald Weapon, deciding to tackle him right after school the next day. Aaaaand then I came back to everything on the memory card being gone due to some dumb glitch. Still never beat Emerald Weapon.

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  • redwattlebird@lemmings.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Coincidentally, i was just thinking about this site the other day because i was so sick of video walkthroughs!

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    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The only time I like a video walkthrough is for some visual based puzzles because screenshots aren’t always precise enough.

      The other 99 percent? Screw that, gone a step by step guide damn it!

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  • therealzordon@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    lol I remember discovering this website as a kid, thinking I could stop buying strategy guides for like 10 to 20 bucks, then proceeding to print like 60 pages at a time. Bless my mom for not complaining about the paper and ink!

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  • HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    laughs in Nintendo Power magazine

    Get off my lawn, kids! 🤣

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  • MIDItheKID@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I got in trouble in Middle School for printing out an entire FF6 guide from GameFAQs. It had all of the items and their stats, all of the spells, espers, maps etc. It was absolutely massive and the administration was not happy about me using all of that paper and toner. Already printed it, sucks to be them. 3 hole punched it at home and put it in a binder. It was awesome.

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    • Speculater@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      That say you learned a very valuable lesson about permission and forgiveness.

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      • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Having hypothetically done similar things with work printers, there’s also a lesson to be learned about not using too much paper and ink in one go, space it out over a few restocks.

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      • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        It’s easier to ask for forgivness, than to ask for permission.

        Got it!

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    • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I did the same! But never go caught.

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  • MudMan@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Hm... I'm a bit mixed on that, because GameFAQs became relevant a bit later than that, but at the same time that type of format for ASCII game guides predates GameFAQs being the main place you went to get them, so... it evens out?

    I probably didn't start going to GameFAQs for this stuff until like 2000, but I certainly was using text guides for games in the 90s.

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    • nocturne@slrpnk.net ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The first guide i know i got from GameFAQs was Star Wars Masters of Teräs Käsi, which came out in '97. I may have used it before that.

      I also had printed out game guides (on the supersede white and green paper) in the early 80s.

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      • Damage@feddit.it ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        which came out in '97

        unlike many printed guides, gamefaqs guides came out some time after game release, because average people didn’t have preview versions of the game to play

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    • ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      GameFAQs was definitely responsible for anyone knowing the fatalities in Mortal Kombat games for a while. I was using it plenty in the mid 90s.

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      • MudMan@fedia.io ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I mean... MK1 predates it by what? 3-4 years? Which in 90s tech time is an eternity.

        MK fatality guides were mostly in print. Magazines were all over that type of stuff at the time. But it wouldn't have been strange to get a familiarly formatted ASCII guide for them with, say, your pirated floppies of the DOS or Amiga versions.

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      • OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Prior to Gamefaqs, I myself was perusing Gamewinners.com…a similar forum site lol

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  • JargonWagon@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I printed out a list of gaps in THPS2 from GameFAQs. I didn’t realize it was 80 pages. My mom was really upset. I think I got every single one though.

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  • taiyang@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Before the Internet got social media, we had the GameFAQs voting thing; you’d get head to head popularity contests of coolest characters. Cloud always won, but it was nice to check daily to see who was most popular.

    I still use GameFAQs, though. Even after the buyout, the guides are important to those of us RetroAchevement-ing through some older titles.

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  • SailorFuzz@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Image

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    • kurushimi@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Got banned from LUE by posting this

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  • ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Bring back gameFAQs!

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  • DrDystopia@lemy.lol ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    1. I need help with Final Fantasy 7.

    Buddy recommends this site I’ve not heard about, Game Facks.

    It did not contain game FAQ’s.

    Also, whitehouse.com, as was the style of the time.

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  • meathappening@lemmy.ml ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Big shout-out to the absolute GOAT CyricZ, who has perfect guides for every single Yakuza game in existence.

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  • Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I once tried writing a guide for Paper Mario, and it was then I realized how much effort, consultation, and typing all of these are. It’s in some ways not a surprise that walkthroughs are now just video playthroughs of the game (often involving someone backtracking 3 times as they figure out a puzzle) - that takes a lot less effort than conscious text recorded outside of a game.

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    • jqubed@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’ve never written a game FAQ but when I’ve done documentation for other things on a computer I’ve found that I prefer recording myself doing the task and then writing the guide while going back through the video. It’s too easy to skip steps otherwise.

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    • Damage@feddit.it ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      And explaining actions in text is much more difficult than just showing them

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    • Ashtear@piefed.social ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Even just revising my guide for the new Final Fantasy Tactics remaster is way too big a project for me right now. It’s amazing how much work it is.

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    • smeg@feddit.uk ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Don’t go for a whole guide, pick something smaller like all the recipes or a map of Dry Dry Desert (two things I remember printing off back in the day!)

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  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Honestly been one of the most useful websites for me over the years.

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  • goombakid@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I remember being the first one to make a guide for the game “Bust A Move” (Rhythm dance game). I think it’s still there. My own little contribution to the gaming world.

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    • kaklerbitmap@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Waa there a Bust a Move rhythm game? Are you thinking of Bust a Groove?

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    • kurushimi@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I feel this; I did the same but for Summoner 2. Man I loved that game. Tried getting back into it once and it was tough :(

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  • heythatsprettygood@feddit.uk ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It is funny how GameFAQs is so old I end up going to posts on there about the original releases of games when I’m looking for help with a remake. Props to the site admins for keeping it up this long, so many other resources have withered away over the years.

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  • Jinarched@lemmy.ca ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I feel like I could… like I could… like I could… TAKE ON THE WORLD!!

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  • BreakerSwitch@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Good memories. I was a regular on the boards at one point in time, and regularly contributed to the secrets/cheats/bugs sections

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  • BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I used to print armored core walkthroughs and take them to my room. I think that’s why my parents let me have a computer in my room. So I could use a floppy to bring them over without printing

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  • odelik@lemmy.today ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Escuse me, but I’m aging at just the right rate. Not rapidly, not slowly, but exactly as the universe planned it as we hurtle through time and space on our planet size space ship.

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  • Mist101@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Had a binder for FFVIII. Printed the entire walkthrough from GameFAQs. Fond memories.

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  • Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I hope there’s a giant archive of these guides we can download, should anything happen to that site. Any older games you might be stuck on, this is about the only place to go for help.

    And I’ll tell you now, old games can be obscure as shit. They didn’t care if you finished them or not.

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    • UniversalBasicJustice@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      There is and I will share it with any and everyone willing to seed it.

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      • AntiBullyRanger@ani.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Just posting in jabber!

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  • paraphrand@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I would take the txt guides for RPG games and print them on the laser printers at my high school.

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    • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      i’d strip out useful information into my own guides. never published any, but they are useful

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  • P1nkman@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I was around 8-9 when i was stuck in Sam & Max: Hit the Road for a long time. Restarted the game and got stuck on the same spot. Finally caved and asked my brother how proceed, at which point he showed me a walkthrough. It blew my mind that that was a thing!

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    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Which spot were you stuck on?

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      • P1nkman@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I was never able to figure out that you had to put the “long” hand onto the magnet, and then put the magnet into the giant ball of yarn to grab something.

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      • nocturne@slrpnk.net ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I was stuck on getting the light bulb from the fireplace in their office for far longer than I care to admit. Thanks for the help GaneFAQs.

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  • recklessengagement@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Do we have backups/mirrors of the guides?

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    • UniversalBasicJustice@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I do and will share via PM if you promise to seed!

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      • recklessengagement@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Absolutely, I’ve got ~27TB of free space left to fill! I’ve never seeded soemthing from scratch before though, what do you reccomend?

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    • SlurpingPus@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Good question, especially considering that the site is owned by Fandom, Inc. now.

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    • LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I have some. I haven’t gone through them just yet. I got them from the Internet Archive, I believe!

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  • mesamunefire@piefed.social ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I remember the game grumps did a walkthrough of some sonic game and they were going through some guys 10+ year walkthrough that was really well done. It was hilarious some of the comments the walkthrough person wrote.

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