That's the last game I made my own map for, also!

Recently, I found myself taking notes with some game because the in-game journal was so unhelpful.... What game could that have been?...

For certain games you had to write stuff down

First time playing Star Control 2, you would be totally hosed if you didn't write stuff down. Sometime coordinates only come up once in dialog and once it's gone, they're gone, you can't always repeat the dialog.

Also if X alien wants Y but you didn't write it down, you could easily foget which alien it was that wanted Y.

I also remember some really old games (I'm talking commodore, Atari 800XL, Sinclair type games) were an NPC would give you a code and back in those days, I don't think any game had a journal system.

I enjoy it because it gets my brain more engaged by the game. Mostly with classic RPGs, but La Mulana is almost unplayable without taking very detailed notes.

I used to write notes more often, especially when my knowledge of English was limited. Nowadays, not so much, but they still come in handy for those annoying puzzles/memory games/missions where NPC A only accepts Item X that one has to repeat on a different playthrough - my memory isn't that bad, but I enjoy being lazy.
Drawing maps and more detailed texts about something...not anymore, unless they're related to personal stuff. It used to be good fun, though!

In games like Morrowind especially with its atrocious journal I find it necessary to make important quest notes myself.
But it doesn't have to be data dense games. I often use pen(cil) and paper while gaming. In Caesar 3 I like to figure out new housing blocks designs for each level. And most recently, in Heroes of Might and Magic 3, I made a note of what number of creatures is referred to as 'few', 'several', 'pack' etc.

I've made maps on square math paper for some olds adventure games, but that's not really necessary in games today.

Other than that, if I'm unsure if a game will save some password or code solution that I find out in-game, or if there's some riddle that needs to be solved with clues being drip-fed, I write those down. Never really made detailed notes, though.

To me this discussion is relevant only to maybe RPGs, and there I nowadays expect the game to have a good quest log system which keeps track of subquests for me, which I should be doing and which I've already finished.

As for drawing maps, I expect RPGs to take care of that too with automaps. If a game still expected me to draw a map on paper, I'd probably not play it.

Oh right, certain older games have the "level codes", so I guess I am supposed to write those down unless I want to restart the game from the very beginning each time. Games like Lemmings, The Lost Vikings, Lethal Weapon etc.

The "newest" games where I recall making notes or drawing maps to paper:

1. Betrayal at Krondor: IIRC it has no quest log whatsoever, so when so NPC asks you to do something for them... you either have to remember it by heart, or write it down (what you were supposed to do, and where that NPC is in the first place so that you can get back to them for your reward).

2. The Legend of Kyrandia: There is this dark maze where you are supposed to drop glowing berries into the rooms so you can see your way around. I recall I drew some kind of simple map to get past that, but the maze wasn't quite that hard as I had heard some complaining (I think many people didn't realize you can use the berries for light, and instead tried to get past a completely dark maze blind or something).

3. Baldur's Gate: I wrote down to a text file any active subquests and marked them finished there. While the game did have a sort of "quest log" in the form of the journal system, I found it pretty much useless for tracking down subquests. It was quite hard to keep track with it which subquests were still unfinished.

I recall Baldur's Gate 2 fixed that, it had a proper quest log and I didn't have to do the same with it anymore. Also it may be that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition has fixed this too for the first game.

Lots of old RPGs got a lot easier when making maps and taking notes about quests. And I made maps for all the old Infocom text-adventures.

Nah, I'm too lazy. I'd just buy the game manual and use that.

I did so in 90s. Nowadays I expect games to have a proper journal and automap. I don't think I have replayed any old game that require taking notes recently - if I know there is not automap/log I tend to pick another game that have them.

In Neverwinter Nights I had a complete list of wizard spells and crossed out those my character has learnt.
In Skyrim likewise I had a list of all the possible item enchantments and marked those available.
In Witcher and Skyrim I had lists of alchemical effects of ingredients.
I also use notes for some "tips and tricks" in games (hidden stats, synergy effects etc.)

I still take notes, especially to prepare strategies, old or new games alike.
It can be crucial for difficult games, puzzles for adventure games, or war plans for strategy games (or map plans for tactical scale), or comparative lists for items/crafting for RPG.
It is part of the charm of gaming to me, I guess.
If I don't in a game, that game is usually either too easy or too boring to invest time like this, I'll just try to complete it as quickly as possible, erasing it from the backlog to probably forget it, erasing it from my memory at the same pace I played it.

I tend not to map or keep a journal these days though, but it's because I currently only play games including those.

As a kid I kept notes for the swordfight insults in Monkey Island. I still remember most of them so it's not necessary now. I also drew maps in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for those maze-like sections.

Lately, only when replaying Loom, but you're supposed to write down the spells every time you play anyway.

I've been keeping notes while playing West of Loathing. Mostly writing down the location of locked doors/crates, so I can go back to them once I find some needles to pick the locks with. :-)

And I do it with some adventure games. "Year Walk" comes to mind, where you must remember some glyphs between one area and another.

Generally, I really enjoy taking notes while playing a game. It feels like the game is leaving my screen and entering my physical desk space. I love that feeling.

I used to do it back then but not so much nowadays. The games seem to be "easier" nowadays, with good quest logging and mapping systems so i don't think pen & paper is really needed. For example, compare Morrowind to Skyrim. Having said that, the most recent games i've used a notebook were Grimrock & UnderRail.