Whichever one was before the internet ruined everything.
what one is that
I like that one.
I feel that would be the 32 bit era and up. Not that it was needed often, because games at that time began introducing super long tutorials and introductions, and challenge dumbed down significantly.
the 8 bit and 16 bit era, we had to go to the bookstore and look up EGM, strategy guides, etc.
Between those two I liked the 16 bit era more since things were a bit more intuitive where as the 8 bit era had some ridiculous difficulty or really random secrets.. Like Zelda II's house in the forest or the house that grew in an empty area.