I did the same thing, used to fall asleep reading the strategy guide for at least a year before I got the game myself.

I was similarly absorbed with those annual “bumper collection of cheats for video games” books that used to come with tech magazines, endlessly rereading them and memorizing them for games I never owned.

I wonder:

A) How much this is endemic to the Hacker News demographic. I’ve always been absorbed in the pursuit of useless knowledge (later in life this manifests in unnecessary PC watercooling and Haskell addiction).

B) If we all had genius parents that realized you can spend £3.50 (much less than the cost of an A list game) and keep a child occupied for an entire year, while also encouraging them to read (!!).