While games of the past were pushing the limits of the hardware the same as new games do, there is still a point to be made that modern software and games consume too much resources.
I don't really need fucking javascript to read stackoverflow, for example. But I can't not use it, because this shitty site won't let me see it's contents with js turned off.
Has anyone tried reading PDF in the teminal without this GUI nonsense? It's a major pain in the ass, because the format is a fucking crap. It weighs a ton and its standard is 1k pages long or maybe even longer. Have fun implementing it yourself.
Just a couple of mild examples.
Software was shitty back then, and it is still shitty now, but with a twist - writing code now is easier than ever, and programmers produce their shitty code with ever greater facility.
Have you seen the formula for hitting and evasion in Morrowind on UESP?
The bug with the Blind effect increasing the chance of landing a hit is so glaringly obvious, it seems that whoever wrote this didn't even proofread the shit even once.