Games of a certain era were intentionally made challenging because they only had about 6 levels. They had to make it last, so they made that shit hard. You'd spend months just trying to beat level 3. Same with arcade machines; though they were hard to make you die and put another quarter in.

Ninja Gaiden from 1988 is still the hardest game I have ever played. It was next to impossible in the arcade and even harder on the NES

I love Battletoads, but it's so hard.

Easier to get playing, at least.
Put rectangle in rectangle.
Toggle Power.
Enjoy.

Its seriously a bigger hassle to figure out where you were in a show on Netflix if it decided not to save your spot in a show than it is to get into a level in a lot of games back in the day.