Jeremy,
[emoStep and retro visuals]
Nice project! I think packaging Etoys for such use is a good idea.
In the case of Smalltalk, the true retro visual would be high resolution black and white, which is not at all nice for games (even though we put up with it on early Macs).
I started designing computers for children in 1983 and Smalltalk computers the following year, so what was the best I could do back then was what you would consider retro. If I could go back I would have focused on 320x256 or 256x192 with 64 colors. Having 2 bits each for R, G and B is the very first step towards "true color" (do an image search for "ega art"). For modern hardware (even the first Raspberry Pi) there is no point in having such limitations.
-- Jecel