I'll never forget begging my mom and dad for games. They would always put limitations on the cost so id usually end up with 2nd rate games, or year old releases on sale. 50 bucks was usually my cut off for NES titles. The new games would usually start at 59.99 back then so I got screwed.
I even had to plead with my mom to get the action set NES over the base set which was $20 bucks cheaper. I was like, "Mom! The action set comes with 2 games and a gun! 1 game costs 60 bucks...so thats 120 minus 20 bucks difference...thats 100 bucks mom, plus a gun! look how much we save!! Youd have to buy me a game anyway so this is an amazing deal"!!
Only time I enjoyed doing math back then is when it benefited my gaming life, lol.
The first game I got was maybe 6 months after i got my nintendo. It was Blades Of Steel which was a birthday present. Loved that shit!
After that, the pleading began. My dad put a $40 cap on my after blades of steel and I had to settle for a game called Karate Champ which was amazingly 29.99. It was one of the only games under 40 bucks and looked cool. Boy was I in for a surprise. Mike Tysons punch out I scored for 39.99 on sale months later.
My best sales pitch was for a 110 games in one cartridge I found in the classifides one day. I literally made my case for an hour with my dad from dining table to living room, again doing the math and convincing him of the amounts of money he would save buying 1 cartridge over 110, lol. He left me in suspense for 4 days until he came home with it. He specifically told me it would be the last game I would get for at least 2 years as it cost $200. That was my birthday & christmas present for the next 2 years, lol. The joke was on me however as half the freakin games were either clones with minor changes or some japanese variants I never heard of.
Ahhhh the good ol days!