Did you ever buy that toy you wanted as a kid but didn't get?
I myself wanted one of those remote controlled air planes. I thought that's the coolest thing ever. Once I grew up and had the money, I never bought it.
Emulators were a godsend as a kid. I was lucky and had a cousin who was way into that stuff and set me up with several burned cd's with zsnes and tons of ROMS when I was around 12. I experienced so many more games than I would've otherwise!
People talk about needing the CRT filters and blah blah to have a realistic experience, heck. Sharp pixels, Save states and Fast forwarding through unskippable stuff have been part of the experience for me for 25 years! Fanmade romhacks and expansions (like for chrono trigger, which I would never have experienced without emulation) are awesome!
If you really want to play games on the classic devices, consider checking out IPS screen mods that add a backlight to most models of gameboy. I’ve also seen rechargeable USB-C battery packs mods people install