I called a few back in the day for clues. Sonic 3, Tomb Raider 4 (I think), Overblood (lol) were a few games that stumped me as a baby child. This was long before I had internet let alone a PC that could connect.
It was something like 5-6 bucks per minute a total rip off to have someone tell you you’re a dummy for not looking up and pressing ‘A’.
Olds know you had to prioritize dial up time for playing games rather than reading about them. Reading strategy guides written before the game was released by people who never had the opportunity to actually play it online before writing while my parents are on the phone and trying to sneak forums in during computer class to try to catch up on the meta.