Cheating in multiplayer games is obviously indefensible, but I’ve never been above cheating in a single player game. Games are a relaxing outlet for me and if I get frustrated long enough I’ll look up the solution.
That said, I will have one of two reactions upon spoiling a puzzle. I’ll either realize that the answer was right in front of me and I’ll be disappointed I didn’t spend a little more time on it, or I’ll realize I would never have figured it out and be glad I went for help.
The elevator solution was an example of the latter.
Old man Murray (site is still up, though over 20 year since an update) had a good post about adventure game puzzles.
Page 2 and 3 sum up the frustration.
https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/78.html
Adventure games have gotten better..
Care to provide examples of which modern adventure games are better?
Puzzles were very difficult at that time in games, possibly intentionally because Lucas Games was selling hint books.
Throughout the whole game you take planes to fly from one location to another, and this eventually depletes your credit card.
At some point you have so little money that the only plane ticket you can afford is a rusty world-war-era biplane that will fly you to some destination through the famous Bermuda Triangle [1]. It's the only option you have so you will eventually take it. But why that? Because when in flight, a tractor beam pulls you up and you find yourself, the biplane and the pilot in an alien space ship, which is how the game justifies the myth of the Bermuda Triangle.
Now if I remember correctly, you will be stuck there and will have to reload a saved game, unless you have a guitar with you. In fact, in the space ship you meet the alien captain who is wearing the classic white Elvis dress. If you earlier purchased a guitar in the shop close to your apartment and now give the guitar as a gift to the alien captain, you will then become friends, and the alien captain will allow you to leave the spaceship with the biplane. Even more, on the ship there is a machine named "lotto-o-matic" or similar, that will predict lotto numbers. So you have to use the machine and collect the receipt. Back to USA, you can use those lotto numbers and win an incredible amount of money that will allow you to take all the planes you need for the remaining of the game.
I remember this particular puzzle as I was stuck for weeks in this limbo without money trying countless useless solutions. I leave in Italy those hint books did not exist and there was no internet. Luckily at some point a local game magazine (Zzap! [2]) answered a letter from another gamer who was asking for a clue.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zak_McKracken_and_the_Alien_Mi... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_Triangle [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzap!64
He's not completely wrong and the tendency of adventure games to sometimes veer into puzzles that are more moon logic based did I think contribute to the fall of the genre but I do think that he overemphasizes those faults and has a tendency to describe puzzles that are merely hard as impossible to figure out.
Also, I disagree with his criticism of the interface, as a kid it definitely didn't bother me, if anything I find it less frustrating than the amount of pixel hunt in some adventure games.
Although I generally remember 90s games being somewhat brutally unforgiving, the lesson they would teach most thoroughly is to save often.
I don't like how some of these reviewers feel like failure = bad. It's sheer laziness or frustration.
Not that criticism is bad but Grim Fandango seems to one of the most if not most loved adventure games (just visit and adventure game forum or subreddit). So one can take it apart and think about the individual parts but the whole is certainly a masterpiece of a game.