Originally posted by: Scruffy
(I'll play along....)

Dude, just get a copy from a friend or an abandonware site, or find a legitimate copy on the secondary market. Computer programs are digital, so each and every copy is reference quality. It's not at all like the situation with Star Wars.

Not exactly true. Many arcade games came with suicide batteries (even in the 80's) that would destroy your pcb board once the energy in the battery died. (Call it murder-suicide.) This is the whole "the company knows best" syndrome all over again. You bought a 2,500 dollar machine, but it's going to die in 5 years... if you're lucky.

Oh, and don't say emulation is the same. It's not.