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I just wonder how people behind this emulator do that enormous amount of work for free. I mean it takes a lot of time from your regular job and your family to do an in-depth research like this, not to mention writing quality emulator code. They must be angels. Or demons. Or both.

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Everyone needs a hobby - for a lot of people, doing this kind of research and development is just plain fun, especially if it involves working with video games you enjoy or collaborative work with a lot of people that share the same interests. I guess it's a bit like an online hackerspace?

Emulators in particular seem to attract a lot of extremely talented programmers, since they often demand advanced or novel techniques in reverse engineering, compilers, graphics, etc. and I guess serve as a nice "challenge" for those who are good at these things.

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