Video Games Walkthrough

At video games, a walkthrough is a document which attempts to teach a player how to beat or solve a particular game. They are also a form of cheating particularly with video games. Walkthroughs are often made by amateurs after they have completed the game and date from the earliest text adventures and the simplest graphic adventure and puzzle-adventure games. Now they are most common for complex games, such as role playing games and strategy games; less involved games usually have a FAQ instead. A classic variation on the straightforward walkthrough is "progressive hints." This type of walkthrough provides a series of hints, increasingly explicit, to try to guide the player to a solution without making it too obvious right away. The player usually has control over how many of the progressively explicit hints will be revealed. A notable implementation of progressive hints is the Universal Hint System, which defines formats for hint files so that client software can allow the player to control which hints are revealed. A non-software implementation is the "red filter obfuscator", as described in US Patent 6833829, where the hints are printed under an obfuscating mess of red squiggles. Placing a red color gel over the printout reveals the text.

Walkthroughs are typically organized according to the levels or stages of the game, they frequently contain the author's ASCII art of the game title or logo at the beginning, and are usually available for free on the Internet, as opposed to the more involved strategy guides, which are professionally printed with many graphics. On the internet, one should also search for "solutions" as a synonym for the more puzzle-type games. GameFAQs is one of the most popular websites for walkthroughs.