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+--- Thread: Strategy guides/hint books (/showthread.php?tid=60)
Strategy guides/hint books - LeftHandedGuitarist - 09-29-2025
One of the main things I enjoy collecting are classic strategy guides, especially ones for 1990s PC games. I find them fascinating and almost always fun reads. They would often get really creative with their presentation, doing things like turning games into novelisations and including a bunch of behind the scenes info. I would take these any day over an internet walkthrough.
As we got towards the 2000s, the format changed to be larger full-colour guides and some of them are works of art.
I particular enjoy Prima's 'Secrets of the Games' series. But in the 1990s, before Prima and BradyGames really took over, it was fairly common for companies to produce their own guides with big ones coming from Sierra and Origin.
Anybody else collect game books?
![[Image: strategy-guides-2025-med.jpg]](https://cdn.allthepics.net/images/2025/09/30/strategy-guides-2025-med.jpg)
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - Space Quest Historian - 09-30-2025
I've got a few of those, yeah! Obviously all the Space Quest games. SQ6 was the only one who got the "strategy guide format" book. The rest were the little pocket-sized hint books. I even found one of the reveal markers for the earliest hint books! Obviously it's out of ink now, but it's a cool item nonetheless.
Then I have a handful of other games' strategy guides. The indispensable ones are the ones for The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour — I'll never play those games without my strategy guides handy. And then just some fun ones, including: Under A Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive, Phantasmagoria (1+2), Gabriel Knight 2, and... hold on to your hats... Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity.
Funny to see Ripper on your shelf. I have the Black Dahlia strategy guide but not the Ripper one.
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - LeftHandedGuitarist - 09-30-2025
(09-30-2025, 05:12 AM)Space Quest Historian Wrote: I've got a few of those, yeah! Obviously all the Space Quest games. SQ6 was the only one who got the "strategy guide format" book. The rest were the little pocket-sized hint books. I even found one of the reveal markers for the earliest hint books! Obviously it's out of ink now, but it's a cool item nonetheless.
I always loved the compendium books they put out. I remember reading the Roger Wilco one in school and being able to relive the games through it. One of the earliest books I ever had was the original little hint book for Space Quest 3, along with the red viewing window, but that has been lost to time unfortunately.
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - Lucien21 - 09-30-2025
Must be some racy guide books
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - LeftHandedGuitarist - 09-30-2025
(09-30-2025, 11:09 AM)Lucien21 Wrote: Must be some racy guide books
Imgur is blocking all UK IP addresses as of a few hours ago. Time to switch to a new image hosting site, I guess (updated now).
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - Lucien21 - 09-30-2025
NIce collection
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - LadyKestrel - 10-01-2025
I have quite a few adventure game guides I've collected over the years:
The Beast Within
Beyond Atlantis (Atlantis 2)
Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
The Crystal Key
Dracula Resurrection
Dracula: The Last Sanctuary
The Forgotten
In the 1st Degree
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
The Labyrinth of Time
The Messenger
Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time
All 5 of the Myst games
Obsidian
The Omega Stone
Rama
Riddle of the Sphinx (Book of Dead Ends)
Safecracker (original game)
Starship Titanic
Timelapse
TimeScape: Journey to Pompeii
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
Traitors Gate
Wrath of the Gods
I also have two RPG guides:
Baldur's Gate
Alpha Centauri
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - EirikMyhr - 10-02-2025
Oooh, I want to collect more of these! I only ever remember owning one, and that was included in the box set «LucasArts Classic Adventures», featuring the first LucasArts adventures up to and including Monkey 1, on 7 floppy disks. It was actually the first game I bought! It included a wonderful hint book, full walkthroughs for all five games, which were actually told as a first-person story, just like you pointed out, @LeftHandedGuitarist. Sadly, it DISAPPEARED!! Many years ago… I’ve never recovered it.
Where should one go to search for and buy these today? eBay, or some better alternative?
Oooh, I want to collect more of these! I only ever remember owning one, and that was included in the box set «LucasArts Classic Adventures», featuring the first LucasArts adventures up to and including Monkey 1, on 7 floppy disks. It was actually the first game I bought! It included a wonderful hint book, walkthroughs, which were actually told as a first-person story, just like you pointed out, @LeftHandedGuitarist. Sadly, it DISAPPEARED!! Many years ago… I’ve never recovered it.
Where should one go to search for and buy these today? eBay, or some better alternative?
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - LeftHandedGuitarist - 10-02-2025
(10-02-2025, 07:20 AM)EirikMyhr Wrote: Where should one go to search for and buy these today? eBay, or some better alternative?
I get the best success on eBay. I try to make sure I can see photos of the actual book I'll be buying, and it's possible to find stuff at good low prices if you're patient. But one frustrating thing is that the rarer books I'm most interested in tend to be located in the USA, and the postage prices are high. I've also gotten lucky in unlikely places like Music Magpie and charity shops.
Just about everything is available on Amazon Marketplace too, but it's much harder to know what you're getting and prices can skyrocket. Personally I no longer buy from that company anyway.
(10-01-2025, 07:36 PM)LadyKestrel Wrote: I have quite a few adventure game guides I've collected over the years:
The Beast Within
In the 1st Degree
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time
The Labyrinth of Time
Rama
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
Wrath of the Gods
You've got several there that are on my wishlist!
RE: Strategy guides/hint books - Legerdemancy - 10-02-2025
Here in Australia, I got my first Prima Strategy Guide from EB Games approximately 20 years ago. It was a deal too bananas for me to pass up, Donkey Kong Country (GBA) guide discounted from $29.95 down to just ONE DOLLAR! Easily one of my biggest bargains with regards to gaming. I still have the cover and the original price sticker to this very day! Unfortunately the internal pages are lost somewhere. Maybe in hammerspace? I don’t know.
Mind you, this didn’t kickstart an interest in collecting them until this year. Why? My rationale back then was that I could just look up online walkthroughs to find out solutions. I now realize these guides are a veritable treasure trove for things like concept art, promo images, posters, etc.
I also appreciate how the covers are just as large and detailed as big box computer games, making them a potentially cheaper display piece rather than buying the boxed games.
I only discovered BradyGames and Sybex this year when I started gradually building up my small collection. From my perspective the three companies went in different directions: Sybex is the most book-like, BradyGames is essentially a glossy high-end magazine, Prima is a balance between the two styles. Your mileage may vary with this viewpoint as I only have early to mid 2000s guides.
Ironically, none of my guides are your typical adventure games. The closest I have would probably be The Urbz: Sims in the City (Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance). Fun storyline, witty dialogue and zany characters in that spin-off handheld series.
Thanks everyone for sharing insights into your cool collections!