Comment by entropicdrifter
3 years ago
Huh, what happened in 1984/85 that made "emulator" so much more popular a term than before?
Aha! It was Apple's Macintosh release, which included an Apple II emulator built-in: https://books.google.com/books?id=Ti8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=P...
I don't think it could have been just that? Usage peaked in 1984, but it rose quite steadily starting in the early 70s.
I do assume most of the increase in usage was related to computers/software, however. The timing is right.