GAME OVER

In the days before the ubiquity of the internet, stumped gamers would sometimes phone a tip line for a bit of life-saving advice. Nintendo’s ‘game counsellors’ in particular had a near-mythical status, and a gig that every kid dreamed of having. The reality was less impressive, less glamorous, but the idealised version – encyclopaedic knowledge of games, completed Battletoads blindfolded – lives on in , where they serve as fixers in virtual worlds.