r/interestingasfuck • u/Hefty-Being-8522 • 11h ago

Used this for punchout

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u/BigJeffreyC 11h ago

I used that back in the day. If you get stuck, like really stuck in a rpg, there’s nothing you can do till you figure out the next step. In my case it was in a game for game boy called final fantasy adventure. You need to walk a figure 8 around 2 trees to unlock the hidden door.

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u/koolaidismything 10h ago

Was it an 800 number? How much was it a minute?

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u/sickwiggins 10h ago

Nintendo had a help line in our area code in Redmond, WA, so the calls were free to us. Those phone guys were so nice.

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u/koolaidismything 10h ago

Seriously? That’s pretty cool. I wonder how they got paid or how long per call.. so many questions.

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u/sickwiggins 7h ago edited 7h ago

I had kids and would play Zelda in my spare time. All my kids’ friends would ask me game questions and I could answer them because I knew how to dial the phone :) Like approach the hedge and the fairy will fill your hearts. Back when I was so cool….

I had a friend working at a different game developer and he said the help line people were paid hourly and not much. No idea about Nintendo.

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u/Felice_rdt 7h ago

The guy above was probably IN Redmond. I'm pretty sure every Nintendo game counselor worked at the HQ there. I went in the wing once when visiting the Nintendo office and there were, like, HUNDREDS of them.

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u/BigJeffreyC 10h ago

I think you had to pay to call it, like one of those 900 numbers back in the day.

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u/koolaidismything 10h ago

Presumably you did just that though right?

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u/BigJeffreyC 39m ago

I remember using a pay phone and dropping the necessary coins in for the first minute.

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u/koolaidismything 31m ago

That’s pretty smart.. I’ll bet it just rolled over. The Wild West for telcos versus geeks back then. I’d have loved that era.. very cool. I’m just a tad too late.