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I'm sure I don't need to make you aware of physical media's continued decline within the world of gaming. Most players now purchase their games digitally, and hardware manufacturers are even going as far as to pull support for discs in their current and future consoles as a result of this dramatic shift in purchasing habits.
We will soon live in a world where physical games can no longer be obtained (unless you play exclusively on the Evercade, of course), which is why it's quite a welcome exercise to dip your toe into the past with platforms like the MiSTer FPGA and SuperStation One.
A recent development in the world of FPGA gaming is Anime0t4ku's release of a selection of modified cores that support physical discs. You simply hook up a DVD/CD drive to your MiSTer FPGA via USB and the cores allow you to load the data from the original disc – a pointless endeavour, some might argue, considering the MiSTer is just as happy running the games from ISO files, but one that has helped me personally bridge the gap between our digital future and my own physical past.
Like many retro gamers, I have a substantial collection of cartridges and discs that I've accrued over the decades, and while I've dabbled quite comprehensively in the world of emulation over the years, I feel that nothing beats that tactile connection you have with actual media.
As human beings, we automatically attach memories to objects, and this is certainly true of me and games. There are titles in my collection that I still have the original receipts for, 20-odd years after buying them, and I can even remember the store they came from, who I was with on the day of purchase, or where I played that particular copy for the first time.
None of this enriches the playability of the games in question, of course; still, the process of handling the game, opening the case, browsing the instructions and loading the disc into a machine all combine to create a heady nostalgic pull which is all but absent when you're simply booting a ROM image.
I've really enjoyed having an excuse to return to some of my physical discs via MiSTer FPGA, even though, as a Polymega owner (and the owner of all the original hardware), it's something I've been able to do for years. However, MiSTer is considered by many to be the best way to play old games – perhaps even more so than original hardware, given the modern comforts it provides – so having the option to boot original media on the FPGA-based platform is a welcome boon for me personally.
Taki Udon's SuperStation One dock will eventually offer the same capability, and that should offer an even more elegant means of leveraging your collection of discs if you happen to own the base machine. It's an admittedly simple little trick, but I've been amazed by how tempting and addictive it has become to revisit games in their original physical form – a delight that is in danger of becoming a forgotten memory as the industry progresses.