For my money, the biggest advantage console gaming has over PC gaming these days is that you can still get your games on physical discs and cartridges. With PlayStation ending discs for new releases in 2028, that advantage is disappearing – and for at least one PC gamer, physical games are making a comeback on Steam with an extremely cool array of custom, SSD-based cartridges.
"Got a couple of used 2.5" SSDs for cheap so I decided to make a Game Cartridge system," Jibril-sama explains on Reddit. "Games are actually on those SSDs with a script to auto navigate steam to the game's page. Auto-starting the game right away is also possible."
The clip below shows a bunch of these cartridges, each of which comes in a slick custom casing with game art. Jibril-sama plugs one into a dock, and the game instantly becomes available to play on Steam. This is entirely impractical for a lot of reasons – we'll get into those in a minute – but there's no denying it's cool as hell.
Steam Game Cartridges from r/pcmasterrace
The system shown in the clip runs Linux, and "all it needs is a systemd template to check for a script on the SSD and launch it. And a udev rule to trigger the system," as Jibril-sama tells our friends at Tom's Hardware. "So basically: Plug in SSD -> udev rule sees the event -> triggers the systemd daemon -> systemd daemon looks into the SSD and finds the script -> execute the script."
But how on earth are you getting ahold of that much storage media unless you're literally the owner of an AI datacenter? Well, Jibril-sama apparently isn't kidding about getting those SSDs cheap – apparently the 128GB drives were just €7 apiece, which given storage prices these days, feels like trading beans for gold.
I had a pleasure to help with work on a viral project which took over a part of the internet yesterday!Check it out here:makerworld.com/en/models/30...All pictures were done by me, including the ones in Tom's Hardware article.#steam #PC #cartridge #photography #retro #gaming #DIY
— @princessmidori.bsky.social (@princessmidori.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-16T21:57:40.114Z
It's actually pretty easy to do the practical part of this without all the cool cartridges, since you can just designate an external USB drive to house your Steam library, either entirely or in part. It's a nifty way to keep all your games installed if you're out of room on your system's main drive, but admittedly, it's not nearly as fun as plugging individual games in.
And either way, "you still don't really 'own' the games on Steam," as Jibril-sama readily admits. You'll always be beholden to Valve's online authentication to actually play your games, which means this isn't really a way to preserve your library the same way as traditional physical media. "But it's at least something fun and useful to me personally."
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