10 Things That Secretly Sucked About Old School Gaming
5. You Knew Almost Nothing About What You Were Buying
If you want to know about a video game you are about to buy right now, there is almost too much information available. Previews, reviews, some guy's blog... you can even watch a Youtuber play the entirety of it on launch day, should you so wish.
What were your options back in the day? Magazines, maybe. While some mags like Electronic Gaming Monthly would cover video games, they only came out once a month and did not have nearly enough space to cover every release. Other publications such as Nintendo Power were tremendous sources of entertainment, but their direct corporate association often prevented them for speaking freely as to whether a game was good, bad, or even playable.
There was always word of mouth among friends, but given that they were as in the dark as you, oftentimes the only way to learn if a game was worthwhile or not was the hard way.