Yeah, although the games we played as kids were also short, repetitive 8 bit games with frequent game overs. I never really had any strict screen time limits as a kid besides the “6 o’clock is news time”, but even on weekends I remember 30 mins of Master System time was usually enough before I got tired of dying and ran outside to go burn off my excess energy on the trampoline.
It was also easier back then for sharing screen time with siblings, since you’d play as far as you could, lose your last life and then pass the controller. Then there’d be that one kid who’s better than everyone else getting further in the game than they ever had, and all the other kids would watch on transfixed