In some industries the machines can be around a century old if not more, and were converted to computer control only "recently" (as in decades ago). From that perspective, the rapid change in computing is the anomaly.
That's the beauty of open source software and standard protocols like RS232. No matter how long ago the software has been developed you can port it to newer (and more mantainable) machines.
This is also going to be a big Charlie Foxtrot with today's equipment and mobile apps and web portals.
It doesn't matter that you have contemporary hardware to run it on, the developer is gone, their servers are gone, and the app isn't in the store anymore.