It’s all very simple now but there was a time when people who needed videogame hints had to turn to Conquer the Video Craze, a hint guide for arcade machines that was released in 1982 – on LP.
You kids these days. It’s all “internet” this and “FAQ” that. If you get stuck in a game for more than three minutes you’re off to GameFAQs to look up the answer, not that there’s any excuse for getting stuck in any of the childishly simple tripe that passes for “challenge” these days. You have no idea what it’s like to have to work at your videogames.
When I was your age, videogames cost money. If you sucked at them, they cost a lot of money. Saving your game meant putting a quarter on the console. And if your bumbling incompetence was outweighed only by your desperation for the approval of your fellow arcadians, you did the only thing you could: You shelled out for Conquer the Video Craze, a collection of hints for the era’s most popular arcade machines on LP record.
The idea of videogame hints on an album may sound crazy (Do you even know what an album is?) but Giant Bomb has the proof, with photos and even a video of the record playing hints for Centipede. Of course, you couldn’t actually listen to it at the arcade (Do you even know what a turntable is?) so you were forced to either memorize the thing or take notes. And if you forgot what you were supposed to do, you had to run home, listen again, get some more quarters and start over!
Yeah, those were the good ol’ days.
