I remember printing out guides from there back in the dialup period of my life.
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.
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!)
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.
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.
And explaining actions in text is much more difficult than just showing them
Perhaps it’s because I grew up with adventure puzzle games and point’n’click games, but GameFAQs was always the nuclear option for me.
I much preferred the Universal Hint System - an approach more suited to nudging you towards figuring out the answer for yourself.
There’s no denying that it was (and is) a fantastic resource though. Hell, I’ve even written a guide myself. One of the last bastions of the 90s and 2000s WWW experience.
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.
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
I remember finding online guides for the first time back in the days of dial up. It was incredible. So many games I had places where I was stuck and you just accepted that you have to figure it out or you just don’t continue the game.
Had a binder for FFVIII. Printed the entire walkthrough from GameFAQs. Fond memories.
Do we have backups/mirrors of the guides?
I do and will share via PM if you promise to seed!
Absolutely, I’ve got ~27TB of free space left to fill! I’ve never seeded soemthing from scratch before though, what do you reccomend?
Edit: Wait, just realized you meant you’re going to share the magnet link, not send a direct download - yeah no problem, I always seed :)
I have some. I haven’t gone through them just yet. I got them from the Internet Archive, I believe!
Good question, especially considering that the site is owned by Fandom, Inc. now.
I’ve seen several sites dedicated to old games go down in just a few recent years.
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.
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.
man, the mention of printed-faq’s opened a core memory. I had One Must Fall 2097 and Mortal Kombat move-lists printed out
Good memories. I was a regular on the boards at one point in time, and regularly contributed to the secrets/cheats/bugs sections
I remember when Gamefaqs was hated for stealing individual creators’ walkthroughs. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.
Stealing, as in replacing/faking who the author was?
As i recall, the files were user submitted so it was more of a tacit consent of plagiarism.
Really sad to see your entire generation give in as it shrinks, and do nothing else with their lives. Next year, the youngest Millenial becomes 30.
Goodbye, friends.
Big shout-out to the absolute GOAT CyricZ, who has perfect guides for every single Yakuza game in existence.
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.
That day you learned a very valuable lesson about permission and forgiveness.
It’s easier to ask for forgivness, than to ask for permission.
Got it!
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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I did the same! But never got caught.
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.
Waa there a Bust a Move rhythm game? Are you thinking of Bust a Groove?
Yes and no. In the US, it was released as “Bust A Groove”. The original Japanese release (first release) was “Bust A Move”. That’s the game I first played and based the FAQ off of.
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 :(
