> In hindsight maybe a binary level translator from 8080 to 8086 would have worked better (and be simple enough)
Many programs written in assembly language used self modifying code back then. It saved RAM and improved performance. All programs that used such trickery would have broken by a binary translator.
The fun thing was the Roland Sync. You could sync up all the TB-303, TB-909 and all the others with a 5-pole DIN cable. The sync was badly implemented. It lagged, it had latency.
However!
As soon as you cabled all together their imperfections added up and they started to groove like nothing that has been heard before.
Many programs written in assembly language used self modifying code back then. It saved RAM and improved performance. All programs that used such trickery would have broken by a binary translator.