I'm all for emulation. For one, there's the convenience, as microfracture mentioned. I still have a working SNES, but recently 75% of the time I play an SNES game it's on my PSP or Wii U (which I still consider emulation even if it isn't free). Emulation has given me the ability to take my SNES games on the go, load any ROM up quickly and without having to clean out the cartridge, and it has also added features like savestates to the games.
I'm also 100% behind emulation for preservation purposes. I hope every game ever made gets ripped, made available, and backed up in a thousand different locations to ensure it never becomes impossible to find and play. I'm perfectly OK with this being saved until after the game is no longer being produced, but I still strongly believe it should happen eventually (as well as with music, movies, TV, books, and any other sort of media). I hate to think of anything being lost and forgotten.
I'm all for emulation. For one, there's the convenience, as microfracture mentioned. I still have a working SNES, but recently 75% of the time I play an SNES game it's on my PSP or Wii U (which I still consider emulation even if it isn't free). Emulation has given me the ability to take my SNES games on the go, load any ROM up quickly and without having to clean out the cartridge, and it has also added features like savestates to the games.
I'm also 100% behind emulation for preservation purposes. I hope every game ever made gets ripped, made available, and backed up in a thousand different locations to ensure it never becomes impossible to find and play. I'm perfectly OK with this being saved until after the game is no longer being produced, but I still strongly believe it should happen eventually (as well as with music, movies, TV, books, and any other sort of media). I hate to think of anything being lost and forgotten.