E3 didn't exist in the 80s, if memory serves correctly. The Internet hadn't reached the public yet, either, so the primary way to learn about games was through word of mouth or print. There was a stronger sense of community, though that also led to many rumors and misinformation.
Gaming was also considered exclusively for children. Nerdy children, at that. When I was in middle school in the late 90s, if you played Nintendo in particular, you were "kiddy". All the cool kids played Final Fantasy or whatever was "popular", if they played games at all. Most gamers were reviled until it went mainstream in the early-to-mid 2000s. It reached critical mass with the Wii and smartphones. Suddenly it was "okay" to be a gamer, because the general public learned that -- much like rock'n'roll or metal music -- video games aren't the devil and they don't ruin people.
Gaming today is full of tutorials. You can expect the first hour or two of a game to explain shit to you now. Game systems have complete operating systems. Games get patches, expansions, DLC.
In the old days, the game you took home is the game that you had, for better or worse. Your system was similar; you get what you get, and you fucking like it.
This simplicity, while limiting, is also great because you just put the game in and turn it on, ready to play. No setup, no installation, no patches, no DLC. You buy the game one time and that's it.
That model put pressure on game studios to produce good games. Today, a lot of developers will release something half-assed an incomplete because they know gamers will lap it up. They'll throw in day-one patches for end-of-development bugs they find. To this effect, modern gamers basically pay full price to beta test the games. Then publishers throw in DLC, in-game or in-app purchases, and so on. Capitalism has, frankly, ruined video games as an art form.
Nintendo is one of the few developers that cares about quality and will delay a game until it's ready. There are still other good developers, but they're a dying breed.
I miss the old days. The golden age, I think, was between 1991 and 2006. Gaming was great, our knowledge of games wasn't encyclopedic, there was a stronger, smaller sense of community, and developers weren't rewarded for laziness.
I love my 3DS and Wii U, and PC gaming is leagues better than it used to be, but times were simpler and more reliable 20 years ago.