That depends. 3D stuff run better on real hardware and in some cases, it can't be emulated at all. But most programs are 2D and they run as good on an emulator as they do on the real thing, so having a vintage Mac gives no advantage unless it's 3D what you want. For me the sweet thing about emulators is that they allow you to have multiple machines without sacrificing space. I only have two computers—one is portable—and sometimes I don't know were to put the notebook.

Mac emulators unfortunately don't have enough people working on them; they're always buggy or lacking features / compatibility. It's got to be complicated work making an emulator for a computer that has been around in various forms since 1984!

For me it's easier to get some old machines on the cheap. Generally I go with PowerBooks since they're small and not too hard to swap parts out of. Up until the G3 series, that is. After that, forget about trying to fix them!

With a real machine, if the software doesn't work, you can't blame it on an unfinished emulator!

I'll have to defend emulators.

Generally, they do a great job if you invest the time and effort into setting up a suite of options, ie. 3 or 4 instances of mini vMac (or the original vMac) to cover System 1.1 to Mac OS 7.1, and 3 or so Basilisk II (the old pre-Java version) to cover Mac OS 7.1, 7.5 and OS 8.1. Sheepshaver supports the OS's up to 9.0.4. Perhaps you need an old G4 to support the stuff to OS9.2.2 and early OSX.

I still have my old SE, 1998 iMac, Dual 500MHz G4, QuickSilver 2002 and MDD (and Mac Pro and 1.67GHz PBG4. Generally I get by very successfully with just the Mac Pro and MDD and their emulators. All the other kit is unused, or assigned to night time duties (backups, downloads, uploads, etc, when the MDD is just too noisy to leave awake.

Also currently chasing a few more G4's on eBay that I may just re-sell.

Edit: Replaced 'xxx 7' by 'Mac OS 7' - IIGS User

I agree with Attila: I use a Mac, and it seems like most of the Mac emulators on the Mac are awful. I haven't ever gotten SheepShaver or Basilisk II to work, and mini vMac is just barely usable.

I'm fortunate enough to have the real hardware to back me up, so that's what I use, but not everyone has old 68ks and PPC Macs around.

The Apple II platform has _far_ better emulators on the Mac: Sweet16 and Virtual ][

I don't know about mini vMac, but the original vMac have always been rock-solid with me. The few bugs I've encountered come from the programs themselves and not the emulator. Maybe I've been lucky.

Of course is much better the Real hardware than emulators, but I wouldn't put them against each other, I think emulators are a great complement of the Real machines, because you can test Software without the risk of a fatal failure or data loss of a machine,

Nowadays Emulators have gotten really good, the first Emulator I was really surprised with,
was the AppleWin: (i think it deserves some credit)

http://applewin.berlios.de/

And since I also have an Apple //c, just the feel and touch of the real computer is incomparable,
but one of the huge advantages of Emulators is that some are Portable, so if you go out on a long trip, you can take it with you. (like SoftMac, Snes9x, Palm)

I even have an Apple ][ emulator in my old Palm Vx that runs Karateka and Aztec, Visical, Applesoft, etc..

Also once you setup your first emulator, eventually all the emulators get easy to run,
since all of them require the same things (ROM and disk images)
So I like both but I will always prefer a real Macintosh computer.