For the full nostalgic computing experience, original hardware, preferably plugged into a CRT screen, is the ideal. But as with most ideals, that experience can be fleeting or vanishingly rare because a natural consequence of age and "made to a budget" materials, this stuff breaks down. Unless you have a large budget you must develop the required skills + carve out time + collect spare parts.
You need to have a passion for retro computer repair and maintenance hobby as well as the retro computing hobby.
I have a growing pile of "repair projects". Some of which started out in my collection as fully working.
Don't get me wrong, I do fit into the category of treating the repairs, and especially the investigative/troubleshooting side, as a hobby in its own right. Heck, part of the reason I got into electronics and why I've learned much of what I know is due to the need for it. It's not all blinkenlights!
But the main reason for my retro computing is programming, and I have to wonder if the community needs to get passed the "original hardware or GTFO" gatekeeping even when it comes to developers, and for sure for retro gamers.
People who just want to play games absolutely should not be shamed for using recreation or emulation. I'm firmly decided on this point. I don't care about minuscule lag or inaccurate CRT effects, let people play their Mario in HD over HDMI using a wireless XBox controller if they want to!
But I am also coming around to the opinion that, of course your commercial game should work on original, physical hardware, the hobby retro game coder shouldn't be forced into the same category.
FPGA, such as MiSTer and Spectrum Next, and the most popular emulators in my experience are plenty accurate enough for a community release. I'd imagine most of the game's players will be using those systems too!
I think they should definitely relax. I don't know if games have a end of life on copyright like other stuff, but most people are just doing this to hold onto some joy they had from their past. I remember seeing a game in an arcade a long time ago called Midnight Resistance. It was a Contra kind of clone, but the graphics were so next level compared to what I was used to on the NES. Turns out it was only available on the NEOGEO or something like that. No chance I was ever going to buy one of those back in the day. Then lo and behold, I finally find it as an emulator when I am 20 years older. It was so fun to relive those memories from that arcade.
There are a lot of companies and developers who are totally fine with people conserving games but then you have others like Nintendo who are ruthless with legal threats and takedowns :(
Sad...
I have a bunch of retro gaming machines. Atari 2600 that isn't working but has 100+ game carts for, a Fairchild system with a handful of games that we just brought home from my wife's parent's. and our original NES that I know works. Shit part is HAVING to have a crt to make them work right. I have to haul our shitty old tv up so I can try out the Fairchild. That being said I am ALL FOR emulators given the trouble keeping some of the old systems running.
I've a bunch of adapters for converting signals but the coax ones either needs mods or yeah an old tv, and even TVs with the input do not always tune in or hold signal any longer because they expect better quality input nowadays or are "helpful" by constantly fine-tuning!
Do the old machines suffer from things like failing capacitors? I was chatting with someone the other night about old computers and he was saying he'd love to play the old Spectrum games again. I think emulators are a valid way to do that as the original hardware can be fragile and may be expensive. I do regret selling some of my old machines, but I hardly find time for games lately.
Totally, bad capacitors are a major source of retro computing woe right across the board.
For your friend who would like to play old speccy games The Spectrum plug and play recreation is excellent, but for $0 the online emulators are great too