386 and 486 CPUs were back in the day. I used a commodore 64 for most of my school life and a word processor / typewriter when I needed something that could print text better than the ancient thermal printer I had (no joke I had an okidata thermal printer for my commodore. Quality was good but when you eventually couldn't get the regular paper you had to buy the rolls and I had the jury rig a feeder)
A lot of people complain about the Sega 32x and Atari Jaguar ports of Doom but it was mind-blowing to be able to play Doom on $300 worth of hardware in 1995. If you wanted a computer that could match the performance of even a Sega 32x you were dropping at least $1,500. Literally five times the price.
But I do remember when prices came down after I got back into computers after a bit. Picking up a 486 DX 100 for about $150 and then going to a computer shop asking for a Vesa local bus video card for it and the guy just pulled it out of a junk pile and gave it to me. Remember going home and booting up primal rage and X-Men children of the atom on that thing and being blown away with that computer could do. Terminal velocity .