Reject volatile tradition, embrace modernity: ~/Games/ROMs/Nintendo 64/

Also use a shitty CRT shader that mimics a broken black-and-white TV from the 50s for more tradition.

Yarrrrrr, I don’t mind digital distribution! Ahoy mateys!

Actually, in the case of discs, it can.

Say it with me everyone, "Optical media bad!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_degradation

Unfortunately, playing a burned copy requires modifying your hardware.

Most of you are probably too young to remember, but back then, the fact that Sony chose optical media and implemented DRM on the PlayStation was very controversial to people who knew the implications of those decisions. Unfortunately, that number of people was, and remains, very small.

Every disc copy of every game is a ticking time bomb, and the only way to defuse it is to make an unauthorized backup copy, then hack your PS1 to play the copy. There is no way to slow, prevent, or reverse the eventual decay of the data on the original disc.

UNLIMITED POWER

Reject rentals, embrace ownership

CDs and carts are worthless if the game is unplayable without a Day 1 patch.

Or being forced to sign into your Epic/EA/Blizzard/whatever account before you can play offline story-mode.

Actually it can, if they disable it. Bring back offline gaming.

I really don't want more plastic garbage. Just give me the files.

Physical games can unfortunately degrade. To be clear, I'm a huge proponent of physical games. I say this only to highlight the important of emulating your games, as well.

The worst part is you can't return the game after opening the box.

So far I haven't seen any 'no cartridge' disclosures on Switch games, but surely they're there... surely?

Again this bullshit.

Old consoles did not have mechanisms to prevent you from playing games. Mainly because internet was not widespread enough for hardware vendors to make it mandatory.

A game(or the OS of the console/PC that runs it) that is 100% on your physical media can still require you to connect online, login with an account and all other kinds of bullshit. It was done in CD/DVD distributed games in the 00s. There are of course games released on physical media today that are not complete and require release date updates to run.

A modern unhacked console could refuse to run a game from disk if you don't connect/login to get permission from mommy Nintendo/Sony/MS. Them not doing so is not a limitation imposed on them by physical media. It's a policy, hopefully forced upon them by law.

TLDR: We don't need physical media, we need an unrevocable right to be able to play games we purchased with effective enforcement. Additionally we should have a right to modify the games as needed to be playable in other hardware/OS since we can't expect original hardware to last forever.

Personally I'm working on a way to make cheap SSDs into cartridges for pc gaming. My goal is to build all the required directories and software onto the SSD so as long as you have the framework on the pc you can just plug it in and it will launch the game.

Tb drives may cost too much but crap 200gb drives are a dime a dozen.

In a way we've come full circle.

I play board games on my platform. My platform is the dining room table.

Sorry, I can't hear your complaint over Steams per game sales outstripping all other consoles

Discs and cartridges are just more eventual plastic trash for a planet that is drowning in it. They also do nothing to address the real problem because the terms were always the same, even with these. The real change needs to happen at the consumer rights level and require DRM free digital downloads. Hard drives aren't eternal either, but they can be backed up and replaced as needed to preserve a collection. Without illegal intervention, discs/cartridges keep the media stuck where it is until it breaks.

That was part of the reason why I started using cassette tapes again. No internet no subscription.

Good luck getting any of those classics at an affordable price, have you seen what the market looks like?

If gamers are dumb enough to pay these companies to continue with worse and worse habits, fine by me. Gaming money and consoles are 100% disposable income.

tradition is expensive

This is the way. Also, nice game selection on the left. Would love a physical, still haven't bought it.

Currently I'm collecting hucards. It's awesome 😁

But yeah optical discs, rather not interesting for collecting (bland + rotting).

Although controversial here, but in the age of AI, one can create engine replacements for games with DRM and/or behind obnoxious launchers to play them fully offline. For example, I am a huge fan of Anno 1602, but I was disappointed by the History Edition from Ubisoft. LLMs helped me a lot to build a new engine from scratch in quite a short time with all the enhancements, qol and features I would have loved to see in the History Edition without all of the Ubisoft crap. It runs super stable and smooth (especially multiplayer). This is the version my friends and I are playing now.

optical media bad