I grew up with Sierra classics (Quest for Glory, Space Quest, Conquests of the Longbow). I recently had a chance to revisit some by playing them with one of my daughters (in a browser, with an Emscripten-based DOS emulator, which still kind of blows my mind).

Like you, I remember being particularly amazed by games that were created by one person (like Richard Garriott for Ultima). I could already sense that the era where that would be possible was quickly receding. Although today we've got a bit of a resurgence with indie games, which have brought some of that magic back.