The only game I got stuck in and had to refer to a guide was Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers back in like 1994 or 1995, but I was also 12 years old at the time.
The game guide was a fucking novel that turned out to actually be a pretty good book.

The game itself I bought at Wal-Mart on the clearance rack where they kept shit like Bejeweled (or whatever the hell it was called back then) for about $2.00.

I actually still play this game from time to time on Steam.