With thanks to Marcin Wichary for introducing me to it, let me share with you… Hint Line ’93, a project of the awesome-sounding museum ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image). Originally pitched by Yarn Spinner, the concept of the exhibit was:
…a visual novel on screen, where you’re working a fictional hint line, with critical information in The Compendium, a dog-eared binder full of official docs mixed with handwritten notes from previous counselors who figured out what actually works.
So yeah. It’s a bit like… Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, except instead of bomb defusal, you’re working on a computer game hint line in their heyday of circa 1993. Customers call you, and you have to help them with their video game problems, ideally in accordance with company policy to try to guide the customer to their own answer rather than telling them the solution outright. Oh, and also sometimes people call up about products that aren’t covered and you need to identify this promptly and get on to the next caller.
Obviously you’ve already got an encyclopaedic knowledge of all the games already? No, you don’t, because before they could even start on making Hint Line ’93, the creators first needed to invent a fictional video games company, a catalogue of fictional games (including faked screenshots, history, lore, and BBS posts), and more. But it wouldn’t matter anyway, because you get a thick manual – the compendium – of hints and tips to refer to (also code wheels, post-its, and lots more).
The exhibit is designed to be experienced in-person, but – given that I live on the other side of the planet – I was delighted to see that the museum put a (less-tactile) version online for visitors around the world to play.
Also: speaking as somebody with an awesome name, there are so many people with awesome names involved with this project. Mars Buttfield-Addison and Paris Buttfield-Addison are perhaps my favourite. Excellent names.
Even if you don’t feel up to playing the game, have a flick through the (digital version of the) compendium. That’s where the real art lies!