>>11946665 (OP)
>Why wasn’t there standardized pricing for video games back then?
Because video games weren't standardized slop.
>How were parents able to buy ones that cost $80 for their children?
Back in the before times parents, and even children, had these things called "jobs". It was kinda like getting free money from the government every month except you had to do this thing called "work".
>Or were they just buying the games their kids could play for a year, as a Christmas or birthday gift?
That was a big part of it. Imagine your family only had 1 iphone and it was plugged into a TV in the livingroom and everyone had to share. Each kid gets a game for xmas and they/thems birthday. With 4 kids that's 8 games a year (sorry for the racism). Grandparents might slip $5 into the card attached to your xmas present of socks/underwear and you might pool that with your siblings to buy a game. You might leave your bedroom and go outside to not only touch grass but mow it. One of those "work" things.
There were also these things called "friends". In ancient times these weren't russian bots you clicked on a button on facebook to add too a list of other russion bots you're connected with. They were actual people that you physically interacted with in the neighborhood, school, etc. Each of them had a family with their own set of games. You could swap games with them and gain access to a much wider library.
Piracy was also a thing. Being poor and being a luddite are both generational. Children on /vr/ are unaware that bootlegs, piracy devices, downloads, etc, existed in the distant past because their parents and their grandparents were also poor luddites. But those things did exist, and were much more common that bandwagoners who are totally not just "normies" trying too hard to fit in imagine.
