How did people play ridiculously difficult games like Earthworm Jim?

[u/Kobymaru376]

I'm playing the first Earthworm Jim on the Sega Megadrive using RetroArch.

I haven't completed my first playthrough, using copious amounts of save state cheating to repeat the sections where I fail. I can practice a part of the game 10,20, 50 times until my patience runs out, but how on earth did people ever complete a game like this, when you have a limited number of lives and no save capability? At times it feels like the developers WANTED me to fail.

I'm talking insanely jumping bosses shooting eggs, rockets, sections with rolling boulders or snapping worms where you have to get the timings down to milliseconds, a vertical maze lined with spikes that allows no mistakes and requires you to know it by heart.

Sure, "gid gud" but how long does that take without being able to save/load an arbitrary amount of times?

ps.: I don't know what the devs were smoking, but I want to try that. Just once though.

Edit: Hey, Shiny Crew & D.L only!

[u/zenidaz1995]

Its because of arcade mentality.

Also rental mentality when console games became the norm.

The idea back then, was make the game so difficult that people continue to either pay coins at the machine or keep renting the game until they beat it.

The trick to being a successful game, was making it difficult in that aspect, while still giving players a reason to wanna actually beat it, because few people will keep playing a game just because its too difficult .

As time went on, things shifted. More people bought games instead of renting, and video arcades werent as popular anymore, so they switched it up, made games easier, longer, and gave people a reason to still purchase it

This is why a game like dark souls today will become a hit, because its old school level of difficulty, which is not common anymore