*legally available, if those megacorps won’t spend/earn a penny on running antiques or legacy services. The players can do it. And they need support from the law to do it, which in this case, Nintendo of America.
Yeah but what can you do if a lot of the companies who made the original games aren’t around anymore and didn’t sell the rights to anyone else? Even some of the people who claim piracy is immoral understand that “pirating” abandonware is perfectly fine.
That wouldn’t really work, unfortunately. Most companies don’t just shut their doors, they’re bought by someone else. That new entity would own all the company’s property. Even when they do shut their doors, typically it’s done with debt, and debtors end up buying the assets.