REU is a bit of a cheat, and for some releases people are using cartridges with far higher capacities than ever sold back in the day. Cross-platform tools and emulation are also huge dev speedups.
But a big thing is that back then, games were often made on a timescale of months, and with a budget. Hobbyist dev has no limits to how much time they want to sink into doing something properly. Ideas & techniques have had many years/decades to percolate into existence.
But a big thing is that back then, games were often made on a timescale of months, and with a budget. Hobbyist dev has no limits to how much time they want to sink into doing something properly. Ideas & techniques have had many years/decades to percolate into existence.