this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
287 points (98.0% liked)

RetroGaming

25505 readers
115 users here now

Vintage gaming community.

Rules:

  1. Be kind.
  2. No spam, AI slop, or soliciting for money.
  3. No racism or other bigotry allowed.
  4. Obviously nothing illegal.

If you see these please report them.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Xylinna@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
gts@lemmy.world
287
How gamers were nickel and dimed in 80s and 90s (besides arcades) (europe.pub)
submitted 1 week ago by ICastFist@programming.dev to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
56 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Granted, the "nickel and diming" of hotline numbers (1900, 0900, etc) was nowhere as bad as today's cash shops, but a lot of us simply forgot they were always hungry for all our money

Here's a bunch other hotline ads for you to peruse - https://www.retromags.com/gallery/category/1729-telephone-hotlines/

PS: I never understood these american numbers that used letters, how were you supposed to know what was the actual number?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago

I remember calling the LucasArts one for Day of the Tentacle back in the day. I don't remember what I was stuck on exactly, I just remember hearing, "You're playing with Hoagie in the past." I think that's the only game I ever called a hint line for.