My daughter and I were recently playing Super Mario Bros 2 on my childhood NES and an old TV, and I was struck by how fantastic the shiny cherries looked, imple

My daughter and I were recently playing Super Mario Bros 2 on my childhood NES and an old TV, and I was struck by how fantastic the shiny cherries looked, implemented with a single white pixel. An emulator on a modern computer, even with retro CRT effects, somehow completely fails to replicate this. Another thing that struck me was the animated shine on coins and question blocks in the original SMB; they look like glorious polished bronze glinting in bright sunlight. I don’t understand why this would be lost in the emulator.