>First is when the preservation technology has reached the point where laserdiscs in general >can be added to MAME and emulated.
Before the improved laser discs support, there have to be several more laser disc player units still yet to be emulated and in case some of those specific laser disc games also have unique hardware components also needing to be emulated. There was specific stuff regarding Williams Star Rider hardware as an example, but don't remember the threads and details.
>And the second is specific games (Dragons Lair and Space Ace and possibly others) where >other issues (e.g. games being available in various ways) mean mamedev will choose not to >support those games at all.
The old DL hurdle
Maybe if enough MAME users purchase enough Mint Milano cookies, Pepperidge Farm will forget the whole thing and not tell DL about it.
imo, the customer market for DL products has probably sailed on by. The profit potential earnings probably ended between 2010 and 2015 now that most of the customers have now aged and moved on to other interests and the younger generations will have almost zero interests in the 1980s era games.