You now remember people used to buy 500+ page strategy guides for games

You could say that about plenty of newspapers, magazines, and books.

>You also remember now that games came with instruction books

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The Nintendo ones were the best because they usually had official artwork, full-color maps, and a more at-your-own pace strategy (with demarcated points of interest). The Prima ones weren't as good--they had just black and white sketches well into the early 2000s, and had the annoying tendency to have a straight walkthrough that included every damn fetch quest in the game (the Spirit Tracks guide was like this, it's atrocious). Computer games were where Prima tended to shine, but again, it was hit and miss. The SimCity 2000 book was a tome that included interviews and an inner look at the simulation, while Half Life 2 was basically a glossy walkthrough. Brady was hit and miss, the Riven guide was great (basically multiple walkthroughs, ranging from gentle hints to a walkthrough that spelled everything out). Almost everything had sections in the back as to the inventory lists and where stuff was hidden.

Either way it's better than trying to go through a giant wiki...

>tfw your IQ so low that you need guides to play simple games

Reading the manual while you are in the car or at school or in the toilet was part of the entire playing the game thing.
No matter how smart you are someone dumber or smarter will have different approach to same problems.

My friend use to buy these guides. He would order the special edition, or preorder bonus, or whatever came with the guide at launch. Then he would play the game very buy-the-book. Making sure he missed nothing. Making certain he's making all the optimal moves. He'd get about 15-20% into the game, and lose all interest in it. I would ask him about the game weeks later, and he would talk about what he's planning to do next. Though it would be the same thing he talked about last week and the week before. He never finished any of his games with guides.

>he doesn’t know about the hidden and non marked oblivion quests and locations

Nintendo Player's Guides were great reading in the car when you didn't have actual video games to play. Zoomers will NEVER know this feel.

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gamefaqs were superior

personally I really regret not buying The Wonderful 101's prima guide. That thing is like 700 pages and LOADED with good info. I can't find it online though and the only scan I've ever found is fucking awful.

I remember that whenever I struggled with something for too long as a kid my dad used to print me entire guides for some point and click adventures from the internet at his job back in the early 00s because we didn't have an internet connection at home then yet.