Why was the true intended way of a game so hard to get to before?

Most designs I’ve noticed either in class or games I’ve already played was simply an illusion of continuity.

Take Mario for nes, 99 levels!I don’t know how many hours we left mario running until we finally died on level 82. It was simply not meant to be really. The games restrictive programming never let us play lv 99 only cause we couldn’t prove ourselves 98 times.

I don’t understand why they did this though.

Was it really hard to actually have me pick at the beginning “lv 99″ before you even start the first one?

did you really had to show your prestige 98 times before?

Same goes for pacman, invaders gosh every game now it seems from that era.

Most interesting “new” game that I could play as it was intended(hardest possible) was Doom 3 and F.E.A.R.

In doom 3 you had creepy little voices under the duration of the WHOLE game and you would lose hp for every second. In F.E.A.R the A.I finally used it’s full potential in hard which made the game more enjoyable in my opinion. The A.I would be mapped in a way that if an obstacle it could change would throw the sofa on the side, use the cover, jump over the table and understand your position better than most shooters out there at that time(well after even IMO)

It’s of course simple mapping and semi intelligent if questions that makes the A.I in F.E.A.R to act accordingly to the intelligent design of the map and simple sound files and a constant variable that makes Doom 3 players shiver when you play it on insane.

These final touches are what a makes a game great in my opinion. The immutable and mutable rules are the essence of a game, no one is disputing this but final forms is what I found made the game even more enjoy.