[rickdeckard]

Yes. But modern games also evolved to appeal to people who don't like to be challenged and look for a casual rewarding experience.

It becomes quite obvious when you play a game of the early 90s and compare it to gameplay of today.

If you couldn't identify(!) and solve the puzzle in a LucasArts Adventure Game, you were stuck, if you repeatedly died in Super Mario / Sonic the Hedgehog you had to restart from Level 1.

[anotherhue]

I'm sorry to tell you this, but if you Game Over in SMB you can resume from the same world by pressing A and Start.

This is one of three things I would time travel to tell my childhood self.

[rickdeckard]

No need to feel sorry. I never had a NES, I was actually thinking of Super Mario Land on GameBoy when I wrote this, but ultimately wrote it a bit more generic...

I do however have a vivid memory of LucasArts' Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where I got stuck in a cave under a Venice Cafe for days, because I didn't know that I need to talk a guest out of his Wine-bottle using specific sentences, and use the wine to soften the mud of a lever in a wall...

But I guess that's too specific for anyone to relate to...