I think both approaches are valid for preserving our beloved software, and they have different target.
Forensic technics target two kind of users:
- People who wants the software as it was distributed.
- People who are starting with this computers, and they think this technics is the easiest and cheapest way.
In the other side, disk images and HDD adaptations users prefer them for convenience and speed.
I think that all of us are a mix of those three behaviours, and one of this aspects prevails over the others.
I prefer HDD adaptations and images, because most of them are easily found in the web, they can have corrected some bugs, and I can enjoy fast with them. When I was young, I could spend 3-4 hours playing a game, but now, my real world life (job, wife, son, friends...) only allows me to play 1 hour or less.
The problem arrives when any of the approaches rise in excess, and you start to disregard the others conducts (you become a "tali-fan").
This is a big problem, because nobody has the true reason.
And I am sorry, but I don't think floppies would last to much time. Floppy industry have almost close, and finding new goods (those created now) would become really difficult.
Some of the floppy emulators (gotek, hxc...) started for professional use (expensive industry machines which cannot be updated easily, like plastic extruders or HPLC), and we discovered them, so their creators adapted them for the new market niche. So maybe this emulators will last more time, at least until these machines will be replaced.
And I am sorry, but our machines will die soon or after, despite the care we put on it, because nothing can stop aging.
FPGA machines (Mist, Zx-UNO...) or emulators would be the only way our descendants could play with our beloved machines.
ParanoidLittleMan, don't listen to those "tali-fans". Your efforts are loved for lot of us, as you provide us with great solutions (adaptations, savestates, cheats...). And you are always helping us, using your free time, usually without profits (maybe you don't remember it, but I contacted you about using your ST HD driver in Mist FPGA).
Maybe some of those "tali-fans" would help as you did to me, but most of them only want the praise of the community, and they act as retro-cops (defenders of the true retro-hobby).
Enviado desde mi Moto G (4) mediante Tapatalk