You know what? I was born after the 8/16 bit era (well, born just as the 16 bit was closing). My choices for playing these games are: ebay, emulators, and virtual consoles.

ebay can get too expensive REALLY quickly. emulators are legal, but the games I would play on them are definitely pirated. That, and I have to deal with a control scheme the game wasn't designed to be played on. virtual consoles offer pretty much the exact experience as the real thing, and they're affordable.

So, yeah, I'd much rather pay for a Virtual Console than go out and buy hardware which is older than me.