At some point it just makes more sense to run emulators, like it is already done with the classic gaming consoles.
Ideally, we would get a push to release source after a given time, in order to have true conservation efforts.
7 Kingdoms had its source released and was almost instantly ported to run natively on Linux. And from someone who played that game as a teen and truly enjoyed it, I admit it's not that much of a game! There are thousands of titles that deserve this attention.
Off the top of my head I can think of:
- Black&White
- The Punisher (this title was even censored due to graphical content)
- the original Starcraft and Warcraft
- Pharaoh
- Anno 1602 (I am aware a FOSS "clone" exists)
- Evolva
- Syndicate
I could go on forever...