Playing on a computer screen with a keyboard isn't anywhere near as much fun as using real hardware, but I think some of you would be surprised at just how much of the emulation experience can be changed for the better by running the video through a TV and sitting on a couch with a proper controller. If the controller is identical in shape and response to the original system's (and there do exist decent USB versions of certain controllers), it's quite uncanny. I believe that one day, when the original hardware has virtually all died out, people will play old games via emulation and reproduction controllers.
I owned an SNES copier in America (still want to get it shipped out to me someday), and the lines between real hardware and carts vs. real hardware and flashcarts/copiers/CD-Rs vs. emulation with a proper setup get very blurry for me. I've got an old laptop with S-video output that I've dedicated to emulation, and when I'm running one of the really accurate emulators with full speed and the best possible configuration, I tend to think "I have no problem with this."
So many of the problems that people have with emulation isn't really emulation's fault, per se. Don't get me wrong, I've abused savestates, quit games after losing one life, and felt overwhelmed looking at a massive list of roms just like everyone else, but it's possible to get beyond that. It's like alcohol; you just have to know how to moderate yourself.
Taking games out of cases and touching the real system to turn it on, and even hearing the disc drive access something is pleasurable, but the real issues to me are the controller, the accuracy of the game on a functional level, and the accuracy of the video and audio. If they perfect those things in emulation, I could see one day being convinced to stop fussing with my old original hardware that by then is freezing half the time and just emulate.
