This is my thinking as well. Hamfisted attempts to make LCD's look like CRT's by artificially curving the screen and messing with colors is just nostalgia. It d

This is my thinking as well. Hamfisted attempts to make LCD's look like CRT's by artificially curving the screen and messing with colors is just nostalgia. It doesn't add anything to game and 1980s designers were most likely pissed they had to deal with these limitations like color distortion, curvatures, ghosting, burn-in, etc. Pac-man isn't better on a shittier screen. Pac-man succeeds because it had novel game mechanics for 1982. I mostly agree, though I think it gets a little muddier when you consider that the artists of the day — while doubtlessly wishing they had access to "more perfect" displays — were often designing their art to take advantage of those distortions to get effects they wanted. So, if part of why we're doing emulation is for history's sake, we have to keep that in mind. The painters of ancient Roman frescoes probably wanted more vibrant pigments than they had and it might even be interesting and attractive to "enhance" one with modern pigments, but it's ahistorical. That being said, I've never personally found added distortion in emulators to improve the experience. I'm always constantly aware of its artificiality and that far outweighs any potential gains in "authenticity".