Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "ROM image" in English language version.
[T]he archivists feel that the more copyable something is, the more likely it's going to survive in the long term.
MAME is strictly a non-profit project. Its main purpose is to be a reference to the inner workings of the emulated arcade machines. This is done both for educational purposes and for preservation purposes, in order to prevent many historical games from disappearing forever once the hardware they run on stops working.
Fans of classic games argue that emulation preserves video arcade games, many of which would otherwise be approaching extinction.
[T]he archivists feel that the more copyable something is, the more likely it's going to survive in the long term.
