Disappointed about what? You don't remember what it was like? I am really curious about that? Or maybe you aren't from that era and just are figuring out what the fuss is all about?

I like old systems (80s/begin 90s non PC hardware) because you can understand them completely from the silicon level up. I have begin 80s systems which I know everything about on hardware and software level, which is a lot of fun (at least to me). I can read the OS code and understand and remember it; try that with win/lin/mac. I can remember (to enough detail) all the hardware layout, and, without any documentation, solder in more memory.

I think the question 'what is the use?' is akin to asking what the use is of many/most hobbies; it is a way to relax while getting intellectually stimulated. If I would do that with modern computers, the idea of 'maybe this can make money!' immediately jumps in my head and the nice, relaxed atmosphere is gone. I think it's a hobby for many and not a bad one at that. Ohyeah, and then I (and many with me) am weird; I think ps4/xbox one games generally suck; give me Metal Gear I or Nemesis-2 on the MSX-2 any time over those overrated graphical jerk off sessions (disclaimer: I have all PSs, to me they got gradually worse, game wise; more Crash, less FPS crap please). But that's a matter of taste.

> Disappointed about what?

Remember the feeling when you had your first bicycle? Can you get it again from another bicycle like that?

(Heraclitus' river, etc. Just trying to explain, the rest of your post is quite fair.)

Ah no, I see what you mean. But that was what I meant (when I read it back it sounded a bit snarly; not intended); it doesn't have to feel like that? It's just great get some of the feel for the games/software back without it having to feel like that magical. Actually it doesn't feel magical to me anymore; quite the opposite but in a very relaxing way. The frustration with the (far more magical if you put it that way) process of modern software writing isn't there. It is frustrating in that if you do one thing wrong, all crashes and you have to wait for a reboot, however that actually gets you to focus better on not getting it wrong... But I don't have that thing which should work but does not work because of some software update Apple did or some input is wrong but no-one knows why (expressed by stackoverflow answers like: try to reboot, quit xcode and start again etc in 6 answers which all do not solve your identical issue). I have the advantage that I actually like the games a lot from the 80s (that must be nostalgia indeed) and people are still actively working on software for these machines, amazing things which cannot be done if you don't know everything about these systems like [1] (on 3.58 mhz (!) computers).

[1] http://symbos.org