Also, the games were designed to run on that display hardware. They exploited the limitations and artifacts to get a better over all image. When you play on something without those artifacts, those tricks don't work. Hell, you can't even play some games like Duck Hunt on modern hardware without significant modifications.

And we definitely played that close to our faces sometimes because not everyone had a big TV and no one had wireless controllers so you'd be sitting on the floor between the TV and the coffee table, which was in front of the couch. If you were lucky, you had the game system and an old hand-me-down TV in your bedroom so the TV was likely as close as your toes, or closer.