this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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[–] Malix@sopuli.xyz 89 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Malix@sopuli.xyz 13 points 5 days 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

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@piefed.world 60 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

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

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 5 days ago (4 children)

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

[–] M137@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days 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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[–] Toldry@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

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

collapsed inline media

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[–] binarytobis@lemmy.world 52 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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!

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] MIDItheKID@lemmy.world 28 points 5 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Speculater@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

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

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 9 points 5 days ago

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

Got it!

[–] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days 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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[–] MudMan@fedia.io 27 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 11 points 5 days 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

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (8 children)

I'm sure there were other sources before it ended up on GameFAQs, but it was a one-stop shop for all the stuff you would have found in magazines and strategy guides, and it was free. And that was the difference. The one kid on the playground who knew about GameFAQs would share, and internet adoption only went up over time. GameFAQs is almost solely responsible for strategy guides and hint hotlines becoming obsolete.

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

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago (4 children)

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.

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days 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.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 6 points 5 days ago

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

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[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days 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.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 18 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

So I basically started using it the year it was made. I am 40 now, and I was about 10 when I originally found it. Cool.

I remember spending hours printing an entire walkthrough for Secret of Mana on my dot matrix printer back in the day. Got me all the way through to the final boss; but then the SNES itself died mid battle. 😩

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[–] redwattlebird@lemmings.world 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

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[–] therealzordon@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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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[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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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[–] SailorFuzz@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)
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[–] goombakid@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago (3 children)

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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[–] Mist101@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

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

[–] BreakerSwitch@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

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

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

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

[–] BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days 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

[–] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days 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.

[–] DrDystopia@lemy.lol 8 points 5 days 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.

[–] recklessengagement@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Do we have backups/mirrors of the guides?

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Bring back gameFAQs!

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

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

I saved paper by printing them 4 sheets to a single page.

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[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

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!

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago (11 children)

Which spot were you stuck on?

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[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

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

[–] odelik@lemmy.today 6 points 4 days 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.

[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

laughs in Nintendo Power magazine

Get off my lawn, kids! 🤣

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

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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[–] heythatsprettygood@feddit.uk 5 points 5 days 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.

[–] Jinarched@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

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