Azzanation said:
Its only when CDs came out during the Sega CD and Sony PS1 that box art was more a scam. Most CD based games used CGI pictures for the back of the game box/cases. It was hard to tell which games were good back in the 80s and early 90s but it was all about keen eye and word of mouth. These days’ bad games can sell millions based off brand loyalty and advertisements. 1 million sellers back in the 80s and 90s you knew that game was awesome. These days we see games like The Order break a million which goes to show the type of industry it is today. Its not about the games anymore, it’s all about the brands. That’s the thing that the 80s and 90s didn’t worry about. You still had fanboys however the games did the talking not the consoles etc. |
I disagree with pretty much everything you said. In the 80s and 90s, it was pretty much impossible to know what you were getting, which is why there was so much shovelware. Game covers were usually illustrations that had little to do with actual game-play and magazine "reviews" were often fluff. There was little internet access and no real way to find out if something were good unless it had a big marketing campaign behind it and lots of people had played it. That's why I ended up renting a lot of junk back then and why terrible licensed games were everywhere. No one knew what they were getting. Way, way easier to know if something is a quality release now.
As far as the "brands" thing go, the 80s and 90s were all about brand names. They were used to decide who was "cool". I even remember this one rich kid who used to brag about his Intellivision and put down Atari all the time. The only time I don't remember much fighting was the short period when the NES had no competition.
