I’ve been stock-piling electronics that either people throw away, or things I bought 2nd-hand only to find they are broken.
Looks like the right to repair law is in very slow motion. Not yet enacted be the European Commission. And once it is, member states have like 2 years to actually enact it in their law. Probably even more time before consumers begin to see results.
(edit) I think some US states were the first to enact right to repair laws. So some consumers could perhaps pretend to be from one of those states to demand things like service manuals. But parts and repair is likely more out of reach ATM.
I have 2 full case pentium 1s I’ve tried to use for emulation htpc’s and simple kids computers. They can’t emulate much above a snes are shit for video play back and way to big for simple router functionality. Even when I could get them to work nothing even semi modern would run at any reasonable speed and when it did it’s still a giant machine case with the needed associated fans and cooling not to mention the power draws. 1 mini pc with 10 year old specs does all of it so much faster without any of the hassle and for way less power draws. It’s just simple physics. The hardware has advanced so much more it’s not worth the money. I even spent an extra 100$ on fanless cards that fit but I can’t get fully functional drivers for. Good luck.
Emulation is an extremely CPU intensive activity particularly when you are emulating a different instruction set at the hardware level. If you are emulating a gaming system rather than just running that gaming system, you’re doing it wrong (from a permacomputing PoV). The simple physics answer is to pick up an snes at a yard sale for $5 and save it from the landfill, instead of blowing a wad of cash on new hardware you don’t need. Then hack that snes to do whatever you need, such as to attach a copy console. I hacked a Wii to act as a media server, so it can not only play the old wii games but also play AVI movies from the LAN via samba.
Your take is like saying: I want to simulate a nuclear fission reaction in my livingroom… these old PCs suck and should be tossed. Of course if you select an obscure and heavy task you are limited in the hardware you can deploy for that.