Crating Like Crazy

This project scratches an itch I’ve had for years: bringing the tactility of retro media to the digital convenience of FPGA gaming.

This project involved creating Figma templates, printing out a ton of stickers, cutting, trimming, pasting...a ton of hands on crafting to get these feeling just right.

Final Thoughts

One of the unexpected bonuses of this whole project is how seamlessly it works with my NAS-hosted game library. Instead of storing ROMs directly on the MiSTer’s SD card, I mount my entire collection over the network using MiSTer’s built-in CIFS/NFS support. This means every NFC “cassette” pulls its assigned game from my NAS automatically, no matter where the hardware sits in the house.

The result is wonderfully frictionless: I get the feeling of handling physical media while still relying on a centralized, well-organized library that updates in one place. It’s retro ritual meets modern network convenience—and it makes the collection far easier to scale without ever touching the MiSTer’s storage again.

If you like MiSTer, retro hardware, 3D printing, or crafting physical objects that bridge nostalgia and technology, I can’t recommend this enough. The barrier to entry is low, and the creative possibilities are wide open.