My friend and I collect old video games. But all my physical media just sits on my shelves and collects dust. Why do I even collect them? I literally just emulate everything. Is there a purpose to what I do? People ask me why I collect and I never have a real answer because I don’t even know. If I never play my stuff, is it worth just selling?
I’m a fellow collector and I also emulate a lot but even still I collect. For a few reasons.
I will always have the original copy in case I need to make a backup and archive.org is shut down and the cloud providers delete my backups for copyright reasons.
I can display and rotate the games I choose to display. Even if no one besides me see the games I choose to display, they are important to me and I’m glad I can enjoy them.
I can recreate formative gaming moments from my childhood and share them with my children accurate to the way I experienced them
That being said, emulation does bring many conveniences and so I do emulate most of my collection on my phone but I still maintain a physical collection and I do break out the old consoles from time to time