There were plenty of bad games back then, and worse, you only had the cover to guess what the game was all about, if you were lucky maybe some computer magazine

There were plenty of bad games back then, and worse, you only had the cover to guess what the game was all about, if you were lucky maybe some computer magazines with a proper review, and if even more lucky maybe a demo on a cover tape/floppy/CD. Today you have dozens of influencers doing play through, videos of complete games, everyone and their dog writing blog posts. You would go out, give you hard earned money as kid, regardless of pirated or original copy, and then get a garbage game with no money back.