Hardware Hobbyists vs. Emulator Jockeys

Dan Roganti wrote: Access is one reason. As in lack of. If you can't find a working machine, or restore a broken one to working state, either because they're difficult to find, expensive, you might not have room or power enough to run one, etc. Simple. Those of us who use modern machines like to upgrade them. Something that is no longer made, no longer supported is hard to upgrade. So that builds a new market for those that wish to provide upgrades for those that wish to use them. It's anachronistic, sure, but go take a look at the Newton Planet mailing list. Yes, there are *MANY* who still use Newtons to this day and have upgraded to them in various ways. There are still many Apple ][ and Commodore fans. Upgrades such as ethernet cards and new storage devices are very welcomed in those circles. There you go. Now take the next logical step - wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of networking? Ok, let's assume you've said yes, maybe you didn't, but for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume so. What about wireless networking? Maybe you don't want to run wires all over the house. Some of these older machines had serial ports for RS232 or RS422. Well those are rare, so maybe you have to use USB to Serial cables. Okay, what about going the other way, what if you built a serial port for the older machine? What could you do then? What if the keyboard breaks, or you have a machine without one? Would you object to building an interface to a modern keyboard? Of course having the original keyboard, and one that actually works is the desired thing, but say they're unobtainium. Rather than have a machine that you can't do much with, isn't it better to have an interface available? Sure it's not the same, but is it better than doing without? Some would say no, my personal feeling is go for it until you find an original keyboard and manage to restore it. Yup. Now it doesn't mean that the machine is now an accurate description of one of that era. It's been modified and adapted. That's not necessarily a bad thing, for some it absolutely is. I don't mind either way, but that doesn't mean I'd apply destructive/irreversible changes to my classic machines. But this last point is just my own personal preference and doesn't reflect everyone's. (There are those that have re-purposed classic computer cases as fishtanks or lamps, or to house newer computers for example.) Now let's take it further out, say you have a very old machine with rare parts that you just couldn't repair or replace. And you wanted to play around with that machine's software for many hours and , in doing so, you might risk causing damage to the mechanical components (say floppy drive or hard drive, and you had no spares). Now let's also add: say there was an accurate emulator for it, would you fire up the original hardware, or fire up the emulator? Sure you might fire up the actual hardware once a year or two, to be sure that it's still working. But would you risk using it for hours and days on end when an emulator was available, knowing you couldn't replace or repair the hardware? What if you didn't own the machine at all and had no chance to obtain one (or they were very expensive, and you aren't rich and couldn't justify spending over $5000), and didn't know anyone who had one that would be willing to let you play with, but you wanted to know more about it and experience it, would you object to using an emulator? Or would just save yourself that experience until some undetermined amount of time later to play with one? Even though the chances of finding one would get smaller and smaller over time?