An idealistic idea, but having to obtain both the computers and the authentic copies of the games is just too expensive and unlikely an endeavour for all but the serious collector. Plus if someone has the system but copies the floppies to play, whatever rationale of anti-piracy that was there gets nullified IMO.
While such a guide would be very welcoming (and I personally prefer using the real hardware if possible and practical), saying that everyone should do so sounds extremely impractical.
I agree that finding and actually being able to afford both the games and the computer would be a difficult thing for most people. I myself have had to study Yahoo! Auctions for many years now in order to figure out how to get the cheapest PC-98 possible, and for the moment the emulators do seem to be the most practical way to play the games. Even if you did have the computer, I can agree that Touhou 1-5 are out of the price range of nearly everyone on this site. However, regarding the nullification, something tells me you are more likely to be let off the hook by ZUN for piracy than you would by a large corporation such as NEC.
Thing is, I don't think many people even have the extra money to spend on actual hardware (I sure don't). Another problem would be actually acquiring the games. Last time they sold, they sold for a HUGE amount, because there's only a few of them in existence. (VERY few) I'm sure nobody has like $100,000 or so to spend on 5 games which will take the next 10 years to be put up on auction if you're lucky. While I do respect what you're trying to do, and I do see why, I just personally don't think it's very reasonable myself, though this is just my opinion on the matter.
I'm not trying to make it look like I'm yelling at you (because I'm not, I know how reading text can be interpreted), I'm just saying the most reasonable thing to do is continue what we're doing, but I don't see a problem with encouragement for people getting real hardware or devs seeing this and try to create a legal PC-98 emulator. I would greatly welcome the latter. Just getting legal copies of the games is just not gonna happen, that one is sure.
Also, I do look forward to that guide. I'm very interested into how the PC-98 systems operate.
I agree that most people would have trouble coming up with the money to purchase a PC-9821. To find one for cheap (about ?5,000-?10,000) takes years of watching auctions, and most people don't have the time to do that. I would actually prefer to use an emulator, as most people would, because it is more practical and far cheaper. While I don't condone piracy, I see no big issue at the moment regarding the usage of the illegal emulators until a better alternative is created. Judging by what I've seen, the amount of people interested in the PC-98 has risen in the past few years, so I predict someone will produce a legal emulator sometime in the next few years.
Regarding the actual games for the 9800, I myself actually wrote this post so I could find a legal emulator to run the
demo versions in, and also to play songs with M.Kajihara's PMD; I never really considered the actual full games. Personally, although I don't pirate, I believe that ZUN does not really care much about the piracy of the older games. It is the Windows games that I would expect him to enforce the copyright on the most. Perhaps in the next few years, ZUN may actually make the old games free (and legal) for download or offer them through some complication or "History of Touhou" CD.
But anyways, I'll write up a guide when I can get ahold of a PC-98. I hear that with the newer "Cereb" and "CanBe" models, the procedure for getting the games to work is a little different from a regular 98-Fellow or 98-Mate (which ZUN probably designed the games for). I also hear that with NEC Windows 95/98, running Touhou is harder than running it in MS-DOS. I'll try and cover as much of this as I can in the guide.
