What did you do if you got stuck in a game back in the ’80s? Archival footage from 1988 shows a lost art of the gaming industry.
The internet has made a lot of things easier.But we often forget that there were already clever solutions to many of the same problems back then! For example, if you’re stuck on a game today and search the internet for a wiki, a guide, a video, or an AI-generated answer, it’s no different from calling a gaming hotline in the ’80s!
Such services were quite popular and widespread back then. An archival video from ABC was recently unearthed by This Week in Gaming and shows,what it was like on one of these hotlines:
Call at Nintendo
In this video, we see a few minutes from the daily lives of a male and female call-in staff members who work for Nintendo Power magazine. The magazine was published in the U.S. by Nintendo itself in 1988 and offered a so-called “Powerline” as an additional customer service feature.
People who were stuck on a game running on the NES could call this line. That could happen very easily—after all, games in the ’80s were often much more inaccessible, difficult, or complex.
A call to the Nintendo hotline could help, and that’s exactly what happens in the video. The staff primarily answer questions about *Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link*, which was released in the U.S. in December 1988. But they also answer questions about the original *Punch-Out!!*.
A Walking Gaming Encyclopedia
In the comments on YouTube, but alsoOn TikTok, many people are fascinated by how the employees answer callers’ questions. People are particularly taken with Craig.
In the video, he comes across as a true Zelda genius. He seems able to answer every question off the top of his head, without even having to think for long—let alone look anything up.
And yet these call-in agents definitely had access to massive folders full of information about the games. In the video, call-in agent Shanon later refers to one such folder. But Craig doesn’t even break a sweat and, most importantly, keeps playing the game himself the whole time without any trouble.
What makes this so brilliant, however, certainly has to do with the structure of Powerline. Craig was likely hired specifically for *Zelda 2* and spent several hours a day for an entire week answering—often the exact same—questions over and over again. At some point, most people would have become very well-versed in the game.
Reminiscing
Alongside the fascination with these people’s work, the comments also resonate with a great deal of nostalgia and ’80s romance. People express surprise at how friendly the staff are, and can’t help but think about how often you get flamed on Reddit these days for certain questions—or that you’re now only chatting with AIs.
Some people definitely long for the days of *Nintendo Power*. Incidentally, the magazine no longer exists, and *Powerline* certainly doesn’t either. Nintendo discontinued the magazine back in 2012. However, there was a podcast of the same name from 2017 to 2023.
Some also point out, however, that calling the Nintendo hotline wasn’t cheap. Back in the ’80s, there were probably quite a few parents who were suddenly surprised by their children’s phone bills.
