A little while back I got into the NES homebrew scene, and I recall seeing a game, (Bobl) that had incredible water physics - way more than system would have been capable of calculating. It turns out that it was a Lookup table and it really opened my eyes as to what you can accomplish with them and how simple tools can look like very complex processes.
> (Bobl) that had incredible water physics - way more than system would have been capable of calculating.
I'm not denying the effect is impressive, but assuming you're referring to the surface ripples/capillary waves, would a 1D cellular automaton be beyond the abilities of the NES to calculate in real time?
https://morphcatgames.itch.io/bobl