Geeky distraction of the day: A big list of
Commodore emulator-related file formats. Interesting that they've now got
digitised C64 tapes, consisting of the data as the C64 would see it; essential for that authentic watching-the-flashing-border-until-it-loads experience that ordinary emulator formats don't give you.
Not to mention
raw GCR disk images, for those who missed hacking the 1541 and inventing better ways of writing bit patterns to a 5 1/4-inch floppy.
That's what plentiful RAM, disk space and CPU cycles give you, I suppose. I wonder how long until someone writes an 8-bit computer emulator which works on the logic-gate level, or renders the actual electrons in the machine?
There are some Amstrad CPC emulators around now that are good enough to run Demo (scene) software. A lot of demos were (back in the ol' days) designed to make the hardware do things it wasn't intended to, and hence rely on very intricate properties of the Z80 chip or other components. One fun technique was to click the relay that controls the tape deck on and off to provide an additional beat for the music that's playing during the demo.