I emulate for convenience.

Anything non-portable that's older than PS2, I usually play in emulation to avoid having to keep twenty million consoles hooked up.

This is especially nice for, say, PS1 or N64, where the visual quality of the game is MUCH better in emulation. SM64 is killer in 1600x1200 at 60fps with 4x AA and high-res textures.

I don't have a particular compulsion about HAVING to own a hardcopy of anything I emulate for legal/moral reasons. I own plenty of hardcopies that I'll probably never play, and I play many games in emulation I'll never buy hardcopies of.

My collecting and my actual gaming are very disconnected in this way.

I'd never pirate/emulate anything NEW though, but otherwise I don't see the harm, even if the courts do.

Meh.