IMO the main thing is the bleed between "pixels" in retro games.
I recently bought a "Metal Slug" art book, and was AGHAST that all of the assets in the art-book were obvious screen caps from an emulator. The assets looked like shit, and I considered the book lazy and crappy because of this.
The game assets were designed on CRT screens with the bleed as part of the aesthetic.
It is amazing to see the difference between assets on a CRT screen vs an LCD screen with no shaders. Do some basic googling if you are interested, it is crazy how much better a low-poly model, or illustration looks. Especially on stuff like the classic King of Fighter and Street Fighter games.
I recently bought a "Metal Slug" art book, and was AGHAST that all of the assets in the art-book were obvious screen caps from an emulator. The assets looked like shit, and I considered the book lazy and crappy because of this.
The game assets were designed on CRT screens with the bleed as part of the aesthetic.
It is amazing to see the difference between assets on a CRT screen vs an LCD screen with no shaders. Do some basic googling if you are interested, it is crazy how much better a low-poly model, or illustration looks. Especially on stuff like the classic King of Fighter and Street Fighter games.