Atari games just objectively suck, they barely worked and you could only think they were good when there was nothing to compare it to. I'm not criticizing the people who made these games, they got paid like 2 bucks and had to make a game with pong as the only reference pint for what a game was, and it had to run on a dollar store calculator. but there's just no reason to pick up adventure for the atari 2000 unless you are interested in the history of video games.

Once you get to the NES there are things worth playing. The original Legend of Zelda is terrible, and the second one is worse., but is interesting to play if you are big on the series. Mega Man, Metroid, and Mario mostly worked at that time. You're better off playing Metroid Zero mission instead of the original, but Mario definitely was fine the way it was, really made something special that holds up, same for Mega Man(with some frustrating exceptions). Outside of nintendo there's the original metal gear and sonis going on, which definitely show their age but are still fun and cool for some people. SNES was when games actually started being playable, sometimes even fun, on a consistent basis, but that's after the timeline you discussed.

I am a zoomer, albeit a kinda weird one, so take all this with a grain of salt.