this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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Linux Gaming
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I only see this working properly if the game is made portable and saves all its data in the game folder. Which would leave mostly DOS games.
It could also work if the game had an OS around it in the card, and you're booting from it to play every time. It would be closer to how the cartridges worked from the player perspective.
I see no problem here.
Good point :( Maybe it could work like a CD where it'll install from the card and then you need to plug it in to launch the game lol
I mean, there is also the option of doing symbolic links from the standard save file location to a save folder on the SD card. A lot more work, and only works on systems you configure it for, but its doable.
If it's a windows game, you could put the entire Wine prefix on the card and it would be portable. The performance would probably be pretty bad though. 2.5" SATA SSDs and a docking station would work a lot better.
Yeah but 2.5" SATA SSDs would be cost prohibitive at least compared to SD cards.
Large, high performance SD cards aren't cheap either.
If you want something cheap, go with smart cards or RFID cards that will launch a game that's already installed on the computer.
It requires a steam client restart for refreshing, but I've been doing this for my steam games on Linux.
On the storage settings on steam you can add a new library on the external drive and move games to it. Both the game data and the compatdata folders are moved, so you keep the savegames and the whole protonprefix intact
I dunno, cartridges don't stop being cartridges if the save data is on the console instead of the cartridge.
Disc-based consoles certainly don't put saves on the disc.
-- Frost