<p>In the Vim and Emacs terminal apps, the color schemes look horrid. How do I enable the colors to be as vibrant as the GUI version (or more than 8 colors for that matter)?</p>

<p>Should I just give up, and move over to their respective GUI applications? And if so, which?</p>

You can't have
more
colors in the terminal, because there are only ANSI codes for 8 colors (16 if you count bold/light).  If you want to customize the colors, you can use the TerminalColours plugin from
http://ciaranwal.sh/2007/11/01/customising-colours-in-leopard-terminal
Personally, I prefer to use the so-called Carbon Emacs on my Mac.  There are several builds available; Google is your friend.  I get mine from
http://www.porkrind.org/emacs/