"There
are plenty of people who play the 8-bit home micro games they
grew up playing, but many of them (at least the ones I know of) run them
on a PC-based emulator not the real hardware."
You don't really think that retro video gaming is the singular, or even the
primary focus of 8-bit micro nostalgia, do you? That seems like a bit of a
shallow view, at least from my perspective.
I certainly don't believe it's the only reason to be interested in, or collect
classic microcomputers. Or the subset that are common home computers.
I just have to look around me at the BBC micros, TRS80s, Apple ][s,
PETs, etc. I don't play games very much, I am interested in said machines for
other reasons.
BUT
Outside this list (and others like it), a major reason why people collect
said machines (or run emulators of them) is nostalgia for the old games.
I have lost count of the number of people who expect me to have all the
games for the machines I own.
-tony