BanditKeith2: While that is true it seems it was way way less common compared to npow where its the industry standard and atleast back then the games worked and was not a buggy as hell mess at launch as they had to be working from the start
amok: nah, many was buggy. it was just that you had to live with the bugs as there was no easy way to path them without interwebs, i do remember buying magazins with disks wich often had patches, though.
and do not forget taht games now are much more complex, and there is a much higher variety in computers and systmes (back then you had a C64 or a Spectrum, now you have different motherboards, cpu's, gpu's etc) and with added complexity = more chance of something going wrong
TheGrimLord: Yes, but expansions were primarily a thing of the PC market. Consoles didn't suffer from that. When you bought a game, it had to work. And most did. You could get through them with very little problems. There was no need for patch updates or anything of that nature. You bought the game and that's simply all you got.
amok: see above
Never had issues with the NES, SNES or GENS. I have no idea what you're talking about. Never owned a C64.