Interesting points here. One thing that AAE had (but I'm not certain actually worked) was a retrace control. I think this was an attempt to have a similar effect as cranking the brightness on a real vector monitor too high and seeing all the retraces (like in the attract mode of Major Havoc, where the name is drawn). The actual "mechanics" of emulating vectors is a bit out of my technical knowledge, I leave that stuff to the experts here.
As for
my Asteroids Deluxe. This has taken YEARS for me to finally hunt down, buy and then months to get the boards fixed.
My AD has only 15,000 plays and the vector monitor is almost like new, with zero burn in, so I do not expect any problems with this particular game.
This is my THRID Asteroids Deluxe. So I have some decent "Asteroids Deluxe karma" here. I had a real, working cocktail that I traded. I had a water damaged upright that I had mamed for a long time. I just couldn't stand the imperfections with my second most favorite game of all time. When I tried playing AD in AAE or even macmame, it just drove me nuts to the point where I went out and became aggressive about getting a REAL Asteroids Deluxe. Then spending the time, effort and money to get it playing perfectly. Again, this is my FAVORITE GAME of all time here, except for maybe Stargate. I don't want to play every vector game ever made, just the few I really like.
AD just cannot be emulated 100%, even if you had a ZVG hooked up to a WG6100 (real vector monitor) it would STILL not be quite right, as the B & W vector monitor in the AD is as bright and sharp as it gets.
WG6100's are a different story. The 6100 in my Gravitar just went out and I am trying to fit right now... But that's part of the fun of collecting genuine, 30 year old arcade games, the fixing, maintainence and repairs. Related to BYOAC stuff but a bit different, as I have to "wheel and deal" to get parts and repairs.
AAE is a great idea, I support it and hope for its' continued future progress, somehow.