I think that there's another factor to consider. The market for computer game was both much smaller in the 80s and early 90s but also tended to be much more educated. So, games that are essentially puzzles with stories would have much more appeal to that group of people.
I think also culture was much more ready to put "mindful" and engaged deep thought time on content. As lot of games due still end up burning lot of time, but I feel they often are more mindless or more in the moment gaming. Kinda tetris like deepflow. Our attention spans have shortened a lot and there is lot more distractions available.
