I believe The Beatles: Rock Band came the closest to being perfect. Eveything about that game was just beautifully done and the only things missing was Pro Drums, an option for Keys, and a few more Beatle songs (Hey Jude, Strawberry Fields Forever, Yesterday etc. etc.)
I wonder if it was genius, or just a happy accident. They wrote it, realized this happens, and decided it worked better that way.
There’s also the fact that when you beat the original Pac Man, you really beat it. The game would try to accelerate the gameplay beyond what the hardware could do, and the game would break.
Ooof, you may be right, then. I still think older games are neat though