A hint line sold one thing: the answer to whatever was stopping you. In the late 1980s and early 1990s British games magazines were full of them, premium-rate 0898 numbers that charged by the minute for recorded tips, cheats and full solutions, one number per game. The callers were mostly children, the phone usually belonged to their parents, and almost every advert said so. “Please don’t phone unless you are really stuck,” Codemasters told Your Sinclair’s readers in January 1992, “and make sure you get permission from the person who pays the phone bill first!”
Fast facts
- First found: a “hint hotline phone number” supplied with Mindscape’s Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom, reviewed in April 1985.
- Britain: premium-rate 0898 numbers, later 0891 as well, charging 25p to 48p a minute between 1989 and 1992.
- United States: first ordinary long-distance numbers run by the publishers (Sierra, Nintendo), then 900 numbers billed by the minute or by the call.
- Who paid: whoever owned the phone. The adverts were required to state the price.
Publishers on the phone
The first lines were customer service. Ahoy!’s reviewer of Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom noted in April 1985 that the game came with clues for every room, “along with a hint hotline phone number should you really get stuck”.
Sierra, whose adventures killed their heroes often, found out how many stuck players there were. Its newsletter explained in 1988 that Sierra had sold over a quarter of a million adventure games the previous Christmas, “almost all of them gifts”, and that on 26 December most of the new owners “called Sierra’s Hint Hotline for help”. Thousands of calls a day reached the small town of Coarsegold, California, “jamming telephone exchanges all over the state”. Sierra ran seven hint lines that year, and added an evening shift for Christmas 1988.
Nintendo of America put its Game Counselors on the phone in Redmond, Washington. The first issue of Nintendo Power, in July 1988, gave the number, 206-885-7529 (“that’s 885-PLAY”), and warned that “we have so many video game fans calling that we’re putting more game experts on the team”. It was an ordinary long-distance call, so the bill went to the phone company, not Nintendo; the magazine reminded one reader “to keep your eye on the meter, especially if you’re not paying the bill!” Its counselors got famous callers, too. In November 1988 Nintendo Power reported that the comedian Jay Leno had called “asking for help on Level 7 of Zelda”.
Paying by the minute in America
The 900 number changed the arrangement: the caller paid a premium charge for the call itself. From 1990 Nintendo ran “Captain Nintendo”, a recorded weekly round-up of tips on its own 900 line, 1-900-420-6100, at a flat $1.50 a call. In 1995, because its counselling line had become so popular that it was “very difficult at times to get through to a GPC”, Nintendo moved its live Game Play Counselors to 1-900-288-0707, at 95 cents a minute in the United States and $1.25 in Canada, and left the old number to a 24-hour recorded service. Other publishers did the same. Konami’s 1998 adverts offered recorded hints on 1-900-896-HINT at 95 cents a minute, or “$1.25 per minute support from a game counselor”, with its web address printed alongside.
Britain’s 0898 numbers
In Britain the premium-rate line was a business in itself. CRASH ran its own in 1989, with Chatterbox Ltd: news, a competition line, and “Nick Roberts’s Playing Tips”, at 25p a minute off-peak and 38p at other times. The adverts printed the price, and Sinclair User’s adventure columnist explained why that December: “They have to, by law.” The rate rose year by year:
| Source | Off-peak | Other times |
|---|---|---|
| CRASH 62, March 1989 | 25p/min | 38p/min |
| CRASH 86, March 1991 | 33p/min | 44p/min (inc. VAT) |
| CU Amiga and Zero, 1991–92 | 34p/min | 45p/min |
| Your Sinclair 73, January 1992 | 36p/min | 48p/min |
Codemasters ran a switchboard. Its January 1992 advert in Your Sinclair gave a separate 0898 number for each game, Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy World Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy, Little Puff, Rockstar, Slightly Magic, Seymour in Hollywood and Spike in Transylvania, in one column for the Spectrum, Amstrad and Commodore 64 and another for the ST and Amiga. Next to them sat a “NEW RELEASE INFO LINE 0898 555 000 (Tells you what is being released this month)”: an advert that callers paid to hear. U.S. Gold’s “Hints & Tips Line” in PC Review that May gave separate numbers for groups of games, among them Pool of Radiance, Eye of the Beholder and Another World, on 0891 and 0839 prefixes.
Other lines had no games of their own to sell. Software Dial-A-Tip took a full page in Zero in March 1992 for an “Interactive Cheat Line”, a “Megatip Games Line”, separate Amiga and ST tips numbers, an “Interactive Solution” for Shadow of the Beast II, a “Computer Funline” and an “Inferno Adventure Game” played down the line itself, “ALL LINES UPDATED WEEKLY”. By 1993 the cheat line’s digits, 101 234, were being advertised on an 0891 number as “Cheats Galore”. Adventure players had specialist services: Sinclair User reported in 1989 on the Guiding Light Adventure Helpline, open from midday to eight in the evening, seven days a week, with help on the Graphic Adventure Creator on Mondays and Wednesdays. The Cheat Codes entry describes the Dial-a-Tip lines of 1991, at 33p and 44p a minute, and their plea: “PLEASE GET PERMISSION TO RING”.
Who it was for
It is often said that hint lines gave publishers a reason to make games harder. No period source found makes that case, and the adverts point the other way: Codemasters told readers not to phone unless they were really stuck, CRASH asked them to check with the bill-payer, and Nintendo told one reader to watch the meter. What the adverts do show is who was calling. Nearly every one of them was written for a child using someone else’s telephone.
After the phone
Free help grew alongside the paid lines. Magazines printed tips and full solutions every month, and online archives of player-written guides followed; GameFAQs began in 1995. Konami’s 1998 advert, with a 900 number and a website side by side, catches the moment when both were on offer.
Sources
- Ahoy! issue 16, April 1985: review of Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom (Mindscape), with its “hint hotline phone number”.
- The Sierra Newsletter vol. 1 no. 3, 1988: seven hint lines and the advice to call early. The Sierra Newsletter vol. 1 no. 4, Fall/Winter 1988, p. 13: “Sierra Extends Hint Hotlines for Holiday Season” (the previous Christmas, 26 December, the jammed exchanges, the hint line number).
- Nintendo Power issue 1, July/August 1988: the counselors’ number and hours. Issue 3, November/December 1988, p. 93: Jay Leno. Issue 6, May/June 1989: “keep your eye on the meter”. Issue 10, January/February 1990, and issue 16, September/October 1990: Captain Nintendo on 1-900-420-6100, $1.50 a call. Issue 69, February 1995: the new 900 number, 95 cents a minute, from 1 March.
- Gamers’ Republic issue 3, August 1998: Konami hint line advertisement.
- CRASH issue 62, March 1989: the CRASH Hotline (with Chatterbox Ltd). Issue 86, March 1991: Infodial advertisement.
- Sinclair User issue 93, December 1989: adventure column (the price “by law”; the Guiding Light Adventure Helpline).
- CU Amiga, July 1991 to March 1992, and Zero issue 29, March 1992: premium-rate advertisements at 34p and 45p a minute.
- Your Sinclair issue 73, January 1992, p. 37: Codemasters Help Lines advertisement.
- PC Review issue 7, May 1992: U.S. Gold Hints & Tips Line advertisement.
- Zero issue 29, March 1992, p. 86: Software Dial-A-Tip advertisement. Amiga Force issue 8, August 1993: “Cheats Galore” on 0891 101 234.
- Amiga Action issue 21, June 1991: Dial-a-Tip advertisement, as cited in the Cheat Codes entry.
- Edge issue 169, December 2006, p. 50: GameFAQs’ beginnings in 1995.