this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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A very common thing even back then. Finishing a game was not a given. It was an achievement.
I read something years ago that those games were designed to have illogical puzzles so that you'd pay to call the help line (yes, there was a phone number you'd call for help) or sell paper game guides
The Secret of Monkey Island 2 famously mocked this where you could simulate literally call the helpline in-game as the PC while lost in a jungle.
I need to play this again!
Nintendo had a Hotline.. I called them once because I got stuck in donkey kong country. (The guy was like ‘at the first ledge just drop straight, there’s a hidden cannon that lets you skip the level’)
That's frustrating. How were you meant to find that?
Accidentally fall down?
Sure, but it sounds like every player would need to fall in the same hole or they couldn't progress.
I'm sure they managed, but that's not a great design.
I think that was a shortcut. Not the only way to beat the level.
In particular, ‘Maniac Mansion’ has pathways for the characters to die or the player to be stuck without a recourse — which later adventures avoided, allowing successful completion from any point in the game.
I recently tried playing through it for the first time (on an Android tablet with ScummVM), and pretty sure I hit such a dead end.