Do you know of any MMOs who are using two separate clients/servers for legacy and current? Cause all of the ones I've played on only use the current client/server code and add additional code for legacy changes. Meaning not having copies of old client/server versions is largely irrelevant (not saying it couldn't be helpful though).
Here's an example of the code DarkStar Project uses for the HomePoint Teleport System. It all starts with this:
HOMEPOINT_TELEPORT = 0; -- Enables the homepoint teleport system
In code, "0" is often used as "false", and "1" is often used as "true." So in this case, the homepoint teleport system is false, or disabled. The -- denotes a "comment" (different programming languages use different characters for comments, such as //, /*, (*, etc). Comments are what programmers (should) use to explain their code. Yes, even professional programmers who deal with a game's code for a living on a daily basis want the code to be full of comments. It helps when debugging, searching for particular lines of code, and keeping things neat and organized. It also helps other developers understand the code much quicker. Often times comments are also used for server/emulator specific changes. Sometimes code even has loads of unused/disabled code within it. As an example (this is an assumption), Nasomi probably has both the old claim system and the new claim system in the code. The old claim system is "commented out" (using comments to disable the code). You don't want to simply delete your old code, as you might decide to use it again. It can also be stored as a backup instead of commented out. There are probably comments that also help separate and label the two systems, like --OLD CLAIM SYSTEM and --NEW CLAIM SYSTEM. All of this is subjective and each programmer is different - and there are normally multiple ways to develop a single feature.
Moving on, here's the rest of the homepoint teleport code:
https://pastebin.com/0SuJzNtK(There's also more to the code that determines the location of each homepoint and the exact location that you are teleported to when you use a homepoint teleport.) This code shows what happens when HOMEPOINT_TELEPORT = 0; is set to 1 instead of 0. You can also see the -- comments explaining a bit of what's happening.
This is just an example of a feature that operates differently on different servers, and how those differences actually reside within the same server code. The point being, there's not much use for old client/server versions except to maybe find era accurate data and numbers, but much of the time you can't simply copy and paste old code and it magically work with newer code. It generally needs to be rewritten, which is what MMO companies apparently do for their legacy servers.
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