[Tiktaalik]

The story of sending away for a guide to this opaque game is pretty funny. I'd never heard of that.

I have heard however that with a similarly difficult and opaque game, Tower of Druaga, it was not uncommon in Japan to find a little box next to the machine where you'd find a collectively created strategy guide. Gamers at the arcade would add to the knowledge of what worked and what didn't in order to pass each level of the game. It was a sort of early strategy wiki.