Nowadays it's pretty difficult to get stuck in a game - a lot (though not all) of current day game design helps you along, and there are also guides everywhere online. Before the internet, and back when a number of games went out of their way to be secretive and baffling, it was very different.

In North America, famously, NES and Game Boy players that got stuck could rack up their parent's phone bill and call a Nintendo Game Counsellor, who would try and guide them through a tricky part. It seems like a strange concept now, but the pre-internet days meant that outside of magazines, guide books and the playground, sources of information were scarce.

Now the MetalJesusRocks channel has had a look through a guide book that the counsellors themselves used; it's pretty interesting to see behind the curtain of how the staff teamed up and in many cases drew their own maps and art to help them master games. The video also looks briefly at a 1989 Employee Manual, but that's a rather dull corporate document.

Are any of you old enough to remember calling this tip line? Go on, admit it.