I've heard some of the authors of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) project say that the main goal of the software is to preserve the old hardware in

I've heard some of the authors of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) project say that the main goal of the software is to preserve the old hardware in code form; the ability to play games on it is just a nice side effect. I used to think that this was just a way of sidestepping piracy debates, but having been around the block a time or two now, I see some merit to it. But I suspect they still play games on it ;)