I’m in love with this retro Nintendo-cartridge case. Sure it’s bulky, and all of the video games inside would take up a microscopic amount of space on the average USB flash drive today, but I can’t deny the sexiness of the whole setup.

It almost makes me sad that using such a stylish box to store your games is now a relic of the past (about 25 years ago -- which is closer to a century in technology time). Modern storage options, like soft DVD binders, just don’t cut it for me.

I got the memo back in the early 2000s, when the Nintendo 64 was on its last leg, that plastic cartridges were cumbersome and archaic. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get jealous of the music industry, which these days releases the hip artists’ latest albums digitally, on CD, and on vinyl. It’s not like Gears of War 3 can also ship on a vintage medium.

I’m certainly not against the modern-day convenience of being able to access your game collection -- or music for that matter -- from a hard drive or cloud-streaming service. In fact, on a day-to-day basis those formats make a lot more practical sense...and using a storage case would be kind of impossible. But as we race toward a day where players don’t have their games on a physical medium anymore (and a day where, as some industry analysts predict, we won’t even have consoles), I can’t help but feel like I’m part of an aging minority group that’s being forced to integrate into modern society and abandon our native tongue.

So for now, I’ll just admire this sweet case (that belongs to my girlfriend)...and continue searching for my NES console, so we can actually boot up what’s inside. Here’s to classic gaming.

Check after the jump for more pictures.