To Do Is to Be

I'm not sure where to post this but I was wondering about a few things/ideas that seem connected. I was reading through keoni29's post about the Atari 2600 cartridge reader he made and has mounted in his PC (optical drive bay) - http://atariage.com/...on-an-emulator/ and it got me thinking about the Retrode 2 - https://www.dragonbo...0416650091.html which is an external cart reader/USB adaptor for SNES/SFC and Genesis/Mega Drive cartridges (I believe) along with connections for other things like controllers. Unconnected to that there is a Vectrex32 - http://vectrex32.com/ which is a hardware cart that holds a 32-bit CPU and can be programmed using BASIC (the Vectrex is just there as a middleman for the controllers, display and sound) and the programs are uploaded to it through a USB cable. There is also a portable Atari 2600 - https://www.benheck....ble-hand-built/ that looks like it would be the size of a cartridge if you got rid of the lower hand controller part of it, which says that the PCB must be tiny (as I suppose any modern iteration of an '80s-era console would be today). Ok, what I'm wondering is, how hard would it be to either - 1) design/build a cut-down Atari 2600 or Atari 5200 (or other retro machine) so that it's small enough to fit inside something like a CD drive case such that it could be mounted in a PC and connected via USB with a physical cartridge reader in the front (maybe also with dedicated 9-pin or whatever controller ports if there is room), or 2) design/build an external USB adapter device that has a physical cartridge slot (similar to the Retrode 2) so that gamers could plug in actual game cartridges and an emulator would read them through the USB port (the external reader could have dedicated controller connections or the emulator could read USB controllers). The reason I ask is because part of (for me, anyway) the draw of collecting/playing retro gaming consoles is having the physical carts (and console). Emulators remove the console part of it but that could be replaced with a "real" (as in the same chips as the originals) console in a CD bay and, if that isn't an option, at least the physical cartridges could be plugged into an external cart reader along with plugging in legit controllers into 9-pin or 15-pin ports. I can't speak for others but I'm not enthused with having a bunch of ROM files on a flashcart or just in a subdirectory on my PC, I prefer having a physical cartridge (and manual and overlay and whatever else would be included back in the day). It's much better for collecting/trading and for displaying. Nobody is impressed with a printout of a subdirectory compared to a bookshelf full of boxed games. This would also address what to me is the only downside of the Vectrex32, which is that there is no way to plug a cartridge into it and I think it would be great to be able to buy/play Vectrex32 games off of physical carts with colored overlays. And an external cartridge reader for Vectrex type carts would fit the bill there. It's also a lot easier to sell physical carts and have them be unique and low-volume, especially if they include actual boxes and manuals and whatever else, compared to just a ROM file. So, is this a dumb idea? I've seen people design and sell daughter PCBs for arcade games and even for consoles. I've also seen that Retrode 2, so it seems to me that there could be a market for at least the external cart readers (maybe one for Atari 2600/7800 and 5200 carts and another for Vectrex and then for Colecovision and the others) if not the CD drive bay consoles in order to bypass emulators (because nothing would beat playing the games on the correct hardware). I think you need to understand how Google works. From the non-authoritative Wikipedia but it is a good approximation of what you pretend to, but clearly do not, understand - "The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector." Yes, that's coin collecting, classic car collecting, video game collecting, all of it. Displaying or showing off or however you want to describe it is part of the draw for most. Maybe not you, but it's very common, get used to it. But go ahead, act like you're an expert at something else. A hobby can be about more than one thing, unlike your binary assessment. It can be about self-satisfaction and impressing others. Also, you didn't explain what you think self-satisfaction means, for some collectors that means feeling proud about the display. Whoops! Ah, well, all of that makes sense. I was looking at it more from the point of view of encouraging more homebrew releases of physical cartridges, how could that be accomplished. I think the coolest thing would be a redesigned 2600 or 5200 in an optical drive bay but, not considering that, a physical cartridge reader would be little different than having an external SD/flash card reader (except for format). The other solution would be just that, releasing homebrews on some kind of tiny modern flash memory card but I was wondering how much more difficult it would be to have the external reader read old-school cartridges. I don't imagine that there would be a big market for such a thing, but maybe big enough to justify it? I mean, there's a market for Vectrex lightpens, I would think a more generalized cart reader would have just as big a market, if not bigger, though I assume such an external cart reader would cost more to make than a lightpen (or 3D goggles). I mean, I was as surprised as anybody when the iCade (which I think started out as a visual joke on Thinkgeek) became as popular as it did, it was nothing more than a shaped Bluetooth controller and iPad stand. I was also looking at physical cart readers as being some crude level of illegal game copy prevention. I'm sure most competent gamers could clone a game onto a physical cart but that's something that many people wouldn't be in the mood to do (or have the minimal gear for) so it would prevent (or at least minimize) the copying and distributing of raw ROM files, whereas you only need to dump a ROM off a cart once and it can be copied forever. Thanks for responding to the actual question, though I'm curious about what you think of having a whole/cut-down retro console mounted in a PC. My thinking for that is that it would slow down the modifying of original consoles with RCA plugs and other additions along with the reality that those things are old and will eventually die completely whereas a new-built console would have fresh parts (if they are available to build such a thing) and therefore last a while, while also again encouraging the use of physical carts. The new versions might also address any short-comings of the original designs in terms of chips and audio/video output, if there are options for those. Yes, I did stew on that for a bit before writing. Stew on the difference between needing a physical cartridge vs. just a ROM file. I'm a fan of having actual (boxed) cartridges for my retro consoles and I was thinking of a way to encourage more homebrews to be released that way vs. just as ROM files with no physical form. I'm looking forward to the next round of homebrew carts from AtariAge, for example, I think I'll probably buy Ratcatcher for my 5200. I mean, just go to the AtariAge Store page, tell me how many announcements for cleverly-packaged ROM files you see. Not the same thing, as much as you'd like to claim it is. There is a market for physical game releases but currently that's limited to only (mostly) those people who have the actual consoles to play them. My question was what if there was a way to increase that? Either by creating new versions of Atari 2600s, 5200s, etc. and mounting them in PCs (to take advantage of PC monitors and USB ports) or by creating external cartridge readers. But I have no idea how difficult or expensive that would be though I gave examples of things that already exist that are close, that don't seem to be so expensive such that they're not affordable to purchase or can't be built. Now, I agree with you about developer intentions and how games are "meant" to be played. But displaying a collection is part of the draw for many collectors, all you need to do is walk through any CG facility to find the cubicles populated with (possibly) hundreds of action figures to realize that. None of those people collect JPGs of the action figures, right? And they don't cram the figures in boxes and store them in the garage, they are out where they can be seen, either at work or in a room at home. I've seen them, I've worked with those people.

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