I used to make my own maps, too. Particularly for adventure games (I was a huge Infocom fan). Many of those games came with actual physical props in the box that were essential to solving the game. But you certainly had to remember hints from characters, too. Fun stuff.

It’s too bad that FAQs have ruined RPGs for you. I’ve found the temptation difficult, too. But I also find that games I where I have to refer to the FAQ all the time usually have puzzle design that’s poor enough that they would have driven me crazy otherwise. :-) So, the FAQ sometimes serves as a way to keep myself sane. On a related note, Edge 169 had a great feature on game FAQs as cooparative play.

In the early days of RPG (e.g. Ultima and The Bard’s Tale), there were no in-game mapping system. i always had to prepare a pile of grid paper to draw dungeons and world maps by hand. it is also necessary to record all the conversations with NPCs so that i did not miss hints and clues to finish the game.

Thanks to technologies, nowadays games are full of fancy graphics and convenient user interfaces. Once stuck in a game, instead of spending days to figure out a way, it’s difficult to resist the temptation to go to the internet and find answers in 5 minutes. Sadly, without this feelings of “hard work”, gaming is not a fun thing to me anymore.

Whenever I want to take a trip back to those classic games, I whip out Activision Anthology, which features nearly every Atari 2600 game made by the best publisher of the time. What seals the deal, though, are the handfull of licensed tracks that play alongside the games and add to the “ambiance.” Classic stuff from Soft Cell, A-Ha, Twisted Sister, and more. It’s genius. No Wham, though. :-(