Emulation is important to games being preserved over time, because games, especially CD-based ones are so easily damaged irreparably. But the content is ultimately more important than the delivery method, and emulation is the only reliable way to make sure that said content doesn’t vanish from history.

We’ve completely lost an estimated 90% to 95% of films from the silent era. Roughly half of all films are already permanently lost. If the industry is not careful, we’ll lose the history of the early eras of gaming the same way we lost the early eras of film. Future generations will wonder why we didn’t bother to preserve such a crucial part of art history.