I spent two years trying to make SD Cards more nostalgic

What if SD cards were around in the 1980? That's the question we've all been afraid to ask, probably because there were a lot of things very similar to SD cards around back then but I'm gonna ignore those. I'm doing what I want so in this video I'm building custom SD cards which look cooler and bring a delectable nostalgic vibe.
Thanks to the companies who support the channel! Check out bambulab.com/en for all your 3D printing needs and www.nextpcb.com/ for all your PCB fabrication desires!
Floppy8 - abe.today/blogs/main/floppy8-...
Gamework - • I designed a game cons...
0:00 - Intro
0:33 - How it all started
1:49 - Issue #1: Sharp Edges
2:37 - Issue #2: Cracking
3:49 - Issue #3: Label Adhesion
4:26 - Issue #4: Drive bay damage
4:56 - Issue #5: Iteration Speed
5:41 - Issue #6: Read Inconsistency
6:30 - Issue #7: My Brother
8:49 - Modern Day
13:34 - Shout-outs
13:49 - Printing & Paining
14:29 - Final Assembly
14:58 - Final Product
15:42 - Outro
Thanks for watching!

[@abetoday]

I'm so glad everyone is enjoying the project! If you're interested in making/buying your own version of these, I'm definitely going to make them available in some form! If you don't want to miss news on that then make sure you're on my new mailing list at abe.today/pages/subscribe (it's also linked in my bio under "Mailing List"). Please also comment if you're interested in a kit, a complete drive, just the files, etc. I'm really not sure what's possible but I'd like to do whatever lets the most people enjoy these :) Thanks for watching

[@xorowl1584]

sell a man a kit, he nostalgia's for a day, give a man stls, schematics, code snippets and board numbers, he nostalgias for a generation I would buy a kit, but i would be sad without the files required to send out for fabricating more of the cards and parts that might break

[@ThisOldChris]

If you put the PCB design on PCBWay shared projects, you get 10% commission on each order. Or you could sell the files on your store. I imagine selling a complete product would be a challenge. I wonder if it would be popular enough to be a kickstarter?

[@trixieleonard7825]

I would like the files to make and modify myself

[@nonapplicable4795]

I am very looking forward to a potential kit/schematics. I think that it would be interesting to combine the loader with a floppy emu like a Gotek to give my Amiga 500 a working cartridge slot in lieu of its original internal floppy or even an external floppy drive.

[@TheNateKtv]

Abe achieved something never seen before; actually finishing a project you started 2 years earlier.

[@xeonon]

Wait... you mean people actually finish projects? I just shove the unfinished part in a corner and forget about it

[@oasntet]

@@xeonon Wait, you still have corners you can shove projects into?

[@max-abobea]

​@@oasntetI eated your corners, sorry

[@zaicol850]

​​@@max-abobeawere they tasty?

[@max-abobea]

@@zaicol850 well.. they tasted

[@BigRigCreates]

Micro SD cards are cool, but nothing beats the meaty snap of a cartridge. Cool seeing a project stuck in project hell finally see the light of day!

[@questeusher]

This project brings me joy 🥲

[@driftliketokyo34ftw35]

Bigger cartridges are also harder to lose since they’re, you know, *bigger* .

[@thewiirocks]

I'm surprised how bespoke he went with everything. I probably would have snagged a 32 pin connector for a Gameboy, wired it to the SD reader, then made PCBs that fit in Gameboy cartridge shells. Other than securely mounting the 32 pin connector in the reader, all the difficult engineering problems would be solved.

[@EricM-112]

I like the Nintendo Sds

[@Add1ct666]

Love how your kitties keep trying to take the components.

[@abetoday]

they're just trying to help!

[@NeoTechni]

microSD cards are also not human-sized, in that they're too small to handle properly.

[@abetoday]

especially with my meaty fingers!

[@PrettyFlyForATyGuy]

I really liked full sized SD cards or Flash cards for this reason

[@jnharton]

@@PrettyFlyForATyGuy Yep the full size SD cards are a pretty good size.

[@CptJistuce]

I always thought CompactFlash was the optimum flash card format, in terms of dimensions.

[@JasperFoxo]

@@jnharton if you drop a micro sd, you are f u c k e d .

[@sumdeathjr]

Bro is gonna make his whole console

[@ethanxillasaurus2572]

I hope he does no one else did that on youtube except for one other person but they didnt make the literal switch card reader

[@0xm]

@@ethanxillasaurus2572someone needs to make a retro switch.. id guy it

[@ethanxillasaurus2572]

@@0xm fr

[@flappyjay_gaming]

hopefully not like a certain rapper that did their own """"""console""""""

[@LaughingMan539]

You're the reason I took up PCB designing. I was always intimidated by multi-layered pcbs and I didn't want to take the time to learn it. Keep up the fun projects.

[@abetoday]

it is scary but just keep working on slightly trickier projects, you'll get there!

[@mofman1]

I really like this project, maybe the demand for something like it doesn't exist on a commercial scale but honestly I feel like maybe it does. I see a trend lately of people trying to live their digital lives more intentionally and cartridges like this sound like it would fit that growing niche well.

[@tatecheddar]

That's a really weird way of saying that people refuse to be a part of an all digital future.

[@0xm]

@@tatecheddaras a terminally online loser, i refuse to be part of it either long live cassette futurism

[@capsfederation3154]

The compact disc is extremely fragile medium. Games and movies will start coming in cartridge format again

[@alejandrovallejo6763]

Have you seen how many hand helds that are designed to play emulated retro games exist? There's a huge marked for nostalgia tech. Hell Nintendo sold a Game&Watch console with 1 game for like 50$ and it sold like crazy.

[@porterde08]

@@tatecheddaryou already are.

[@SZvenM]

The paintjob on the red makes it look soooo nice. Such a great retro feel, really makes it all come together so nicely!

[@baosia]

YES! I'm not alone! I found a stash of mini disks and just holding them was so nice. They rattle a little when you shake them, there are satisfying snaps when you bring them out of their protective cases, and we haven't even started to talk about actually putting them in the player yet. Man... I miss the tactile feels. Physical copies of Switch games are a handy size and you could probably fit 50 switch cartridges on the same area as a snes cartridge but the feeling of popping them in the switch is non existent... the only way to feel remotely alive when handling a switch game is to lick it

[@Elizabeth2445A]

minidiscs are the superlative audio storage format: easily recordable, like a cassette with better seek times, endlessly rewritable, (lossy) digital so the recording won't degrade nearly as quickly, and so brilliantly tactile, especially with a clamshell player (although the MZ-1 has its charm)

[@heroslippy6666]

With the old DS cartridges, we could launch those things at eachother to get that feeling of life lol.

[@PKSuperStar256]

This project is reminding me of the cartridge format for the PC Engine/TG-16, the HuCard/TurboChip.

[@JasonOfTheBirdmen]

Abe is here! We are blessed this day!

[@abetoday]

thanks for all the love

[@orions2908]

Glad your cat was there to help you every step of the journey, this project would not have been possible without him

[@orions2908]

Jokes aside this is such a cool project. It's quite depressing to see physical media slowly dying so this is a breath of fresh air

[@RealTal.]

you're truly the nostalgia youtuber.

[@JackoMcW]

I can't express how much I enjoyed this video. As someone who also loves to feel like a failure and give up for a few months halfway through my projects, I loved the transparency there; but also, I remember in your obsolete game console video your talking about how you weren't really happy with the feel and look of the 3D printed plastic - I appreciated that then as an example of a time where something doesn't turn out *quite* like you envisioned, but you recognize that "done" is better than "perfect" - but I like that even more now that it seems like here, you've overcome that as well and found a way to finish your 3D printed projects in a way that you love. Absolutely awesome and genuinely inspiring, cheers.

[@Odwalla_YT]

Hell yeah man. It's always awesome to hear when creators document their difficulties with a project that keeps kicking them in the nuts. Validating and inspiring man, I love seeing how this project evolved. Congrats on the 100k!

[@abetoday]

Thank you so much I'm glad you enjoyed and thanks for watching!

[@prose_mozaic]

Literal magic. This is WONDERFUL!!

[@Loopy5418]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="82">1:22</a> That magic was smooth as hell.

[@sycyourtube]

I love your work. I really want to make my own custom console and computer for my kids to play games and learn about how they work. You inspire me!

[@abetoday]

Thank you! You can definitely do it!

[@liefbread]

For 10 years now ive been resisiting getting a 3d printer and this makes me want one so badly... What a fantastically cool project. Love it.

[@KORUPTable]

Just get a cheap one and you will probable get hooked and get something nice after you start creating things like me lmao I'm pretty broke so all I have a an ender 3 v2 but I got it to the point my prints come out perfect every time. One day I'll get a bamboo and be able to set and forget my prints but for now I'm happy.

[@abetoday]

Thank you so much!!

[@max585t]

This is an awesome project! I love the idea of physical cartridges in the modern age. Plus a great place to show off cool game/music art!

[@abetoday]

yes! glad you get it!

[@papasivir4241]

There's genuine advantages to it. Especially if you want to go back to physical media so you can actually own your stuff and then you realize that optical discs are still the most recent form of physical media and they suck ass LOL

[@papasivir4241]

I feel like a commercial version of this needs to be made using NAND flash technology similar to an SSD. I feel like that would be necessary for a modern game to run off of a cartridge like this.

[@Sparkette]

Nintendo Switch uses cartridges and it's modern.

[@PhysicsGamer]

@@papasivir4241 Also a physical shelf can be a way easier experience than a digital one once your game collection gets above a certain size...

[@SimplyMattic]

This is actually so cool to see! I would love to have a home-media setup where all my movies/TV shows are on cartridges, it's a lot like a DVD collection but without the fragile CDs. I really hope this idea gets expanded upon because I feel like there's an untapped market here!

[@adonian]

and these types of videos/projects are why I subbed. I really want to make a MiSTer case with this type of "cartridge" slot.

[@A_F_Innovate]

Yea Abe one of my favourite reinventor. I love the mint comment and no issues.

[@printmeister]

They both look great, this was an awesome project! Great job!!

[@abetoday]

thanks so much man!

[@cheddar500]

The legend returns! That final result looks * chefs kiss * so good

[@abetoday]

Thanks Cheddar! Appreciate the continued support

[@novabella4422]

Not gonna lie, the entire vibe of this thing is so rad I would love to buy some of these. They look so infinitely satisfying to use.

[@cy8646]

Awesome project! And there's a lot I could learn for a project of my own. Looking forward to seeing what else you're up to.

[@lindoran]

Abe this is so awesome! Think you really have something here. Very awesome

[@scottevensen2615]

Wow this is rad! Love the design, looks way more fun to use 👍

[@JerickWallace]

glad to see you back you make great content man very engaging and interesting to watch! hope you continue making cool projects and sharing them here

[@abetoday]

thanks! I definitely will!

[@chadmasta5]

Happy to see the sort of end result of the little cartridges! I love the creative ideas you come up with for stuff like this!

[@GingerKringer]

I love this!!! Such a cool take on physical media and looks like it feels so good to hold and use!

[@KamilHaddadM]

Both the cartridge and the reader designs turned out gorgeous. Was a joy to watch your video about the project.

[@abetoday]

Thank you so much I’m glad you like them!

[@s01itarygaming]

In the end everything seems to have turned out great! Thanks for keeping with this project and posting these videos for us :D

[@catppussin]

I love seeing this success story, great work Abe!!

[@ThePiones]

I've literally been thinking about doing this for years. Good to know someone is pushing through!

[@CattoRayTube]

yay new video :)) Every stage of this looked so good, even the ones which didn't make it far. Very cool to see all the iterations.

[@nevyn]

I love this. Kudos on continuing iterating until you reached gold! I love the red version, but both are gorgeous and totally look like something out of the late eighties/early nineties. Now I want to make a gameboy style retro handheld that takes these cartridges ;D

[@AnGuS_xD]

Somehow this Video gave me a comfy nostalgic feeling while actually learning something

[@abetoday]

[@skootz24]

This project speaks to me on a spiritual level. LOVE how it turned out!

[@abetoday]

I’m glad you enjoyed it so much!!

[@GentleEnt]

I'm not gonna lie when you uploaded that video of your gamework I became absolutley OBSESSED with the idea of sd card based carts. I was really sad for a while because I thought it was just gonna be a one and done. I am so so so glad you carried it farther. I've been losing sleep over the idea of having all my media one one universal style of storage and loading media. This is the kind of project that just solves something that i think is universal... which is the desire to own the media you love but not wanting to have 35 different devices to play them all... and also not wanting to just store them all on a computer. I'm glad you've been just as obsessed about this project as your first video made me and I can't wait to see if you have any plans for it in the future! Keep up the good work! Your videos are amazing!

[@ducdashot1239]

this is such an awesome idea, glad you came back to it

[@abetoday]

Thank you for saying that!

[@ElliotMosher]

This is so RAD! Ever since I saw your Floppy8 demo I've been thinking about making my own. Thanks for sharing your process!

[@wolf1737]

This is awesome! I'm glad someone finally made sd cards feel more like good 'ol cartridges, perfect mix between functional and aesthetic, I need this in my daily life! Also, I love both versions, looks straight like an official nintendo product! Tho I really like the beige one, with that square led reminds me to my old eu snes! New sub, keep it up with the amazing work here!

[@ArtByLukeW]

Absolutely agree it's impossible to choose between the beige and the red. This project is really inspirational. Thank you for having the courage to share your setbacks!

[@abetoday]

Thanks so much I’m glad you feel inspired!!

[@garrettpowers3237]

I rarely comment on KZbin but I want to say thank you for making these videos I appreciate how you showed what the process really looks like to do something creative. I know that very technical videos have a much smaller audience but if you ever want to make longer videos showing more of the process of modeling, designing, and programming I will absolutely watch them.

[@heidisparklebottom]

Yay! ❤ was wondering when you'd be back. Great project!

[@8bithavok]

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen and earned my sub. I want this! I don't know what I'd use it for, but I want it!

[@abetoday]

Thanks for subbing! I'm very glad you enjoyed!

[@NawfalAlHashimy]

love your projects, amazing learning journey

[@ILostMyOreos]

I'm glad you took a break for yourself, and I'm really glad you came back to share your experiences :)

[@JeffBreyer]

Such a fantastic project. Well done!

[@MuiskamenRider]

Woah! Great work! Imagine having this port on a Steam Deck and just a bunch of cartridges with some games that you usually play but take a lot of space in the console that could be used to play newer ones.

[@otter-pro]

Found about the floppy8 project from HN, and now subscribed. The projects on this channel are amazing.

[@abetoday]

Thanks for the sub!

[@jameslocke1416]

That’s so cool! Both the console and the Button! Congratulations, Abe!! I keep looking at these high tech projects, including retro game consoles that retail for 50 bucks and still somehow deliver the goods. Then I look back at Atari, Genesis, etc. and it seems to me that the loose tolerances for carts and tough, wide contacts- exactly what you’ve emulated - were part of their success. Kudos for using the parts that work the best! That adds both improved functionality and a retro aesthetic

[@kristoffero5882]

you are cool as hell and you did this whole thing just cuz it looks cool and i totally get that coolnes is the most important aspect of everything. i hope you and your family will be alright and im looking forward for more quality content.

[@davecgriffith]

What an awesome project!! Love it.

[@abetoday]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@egill1257]

Great video! Your channel inspired me to create my own floppy disk-reading pico 8 machine, looking forward to your next project!

[@pwolfamv]

Congrats on the play button and finishing a project! You've inspired me to make things and I look forward to what you do in the future.

[@goguelnikov]

Nice work! I love the retro style of this project. Old cartridge readers were really cool. Well done!

[@kseo-u]

If these things were sold... I would literally buy it! I love it! Amazing work.

[@MegaManNeo]

The thought process and work you put into this is amazing. Love the beige drive for nostalgia reasons. Dunno tho if I could pull it off, I actually have a couple of spare 3.5" floppy drives I'd love to use in some capacity but nothing so far came out of it. Thanks for the tips with giving 3D prints a better look too, your final result is stunning to look at.

[@Rick_Makes]

I love the look of that red drive. The whole project has a great 80's/90's cyberpunk anime vibe.

[@RichsRandomRetroReviews]

I'm only 1m41s into this video and this is sort of something I thought about a number of years back for my Grandmother. See she used to use VHS tapes to record the TV but when the TV went digital, she lost the ability to do that. I thought about a DVR but she was vision impaired and she'd have never been able to have used some kind of menu system. So I thought about trying to recreate something she was familiar with: A VHS recorder. I'd have a machine that she'd put a 'tape' in (some kind of SD card housing) and she'd select the channel - over here in the UK she was used to 5 channels although we have hundreds. So a nice 1-5 button selection for the channel that a DTV board would 'tune' to and then a nice record, play/pause and stop button. She'd load a 'tape' choose the channel to record and then press the record button. When the TV programme was done, she'd eject the 'tape' and put it to one side and then get another 'tape' to record something else. Sadly I didn't have the expertise to do something like that and she's since passed away, but it was something I thought the older generation of people might be into. Oh well!

[@BP-ss4dq]

That's actually crazy I was thinking of the exact same thing like two days ago! Awesome video man

[@thisdudeisbig5546]

Man I remember when you had only 12k subs, Congrats on 100k! You really deserved it

[@abetoday]

Time flies!!

[@discordinc]

It's fascinating to see the long history of the project. Glad yiy kept iterating on it

[@electrofreak0]

This is the definition of a passion project. That one thing you just can't let go and you gotta finish. Looks awesome! Only thing I'd love to see if a version with a more enclosed top so you could stack a couple of them together (think Apple II Disk Drives).

[@Vircon32]

I really like the look of your cartridges! Interesting that you based them off SD cards. In my case I didn't want to deal with PCB boards so I designed a 3D printed enclosure for USB drives and they look more like an SNES cartridge. I even did full game boxes and manuals for a couple of my games, but I did't put as much work on you on my cartridge reader. Nice project there, definitely nostalgic! 😀

[@GundamGokuTV]

Honestly I want physical games to go back to carts like Nintendo still does. It's just better then using a disc.

[@cyanmargh]

Especially when "disk" is not an actual disk

[@tatecheddar]

If we could just keep flash storage costs down, then maybe we could achieve that. I'm actually kinda surprised Nintendo was able to pull that off with how volatile that market is. Probably because they never needed more than a few tens of Gigs on each chip. I wonder how things will go with Switch 2. If they still have cartridges then we might see costs go way up for certain games. That's the main reason why they moved to discs in the first place. Way cheaper and less volatile to just produce discs.

[@pillowhacker]

They seem to be designed to be used exactly once. Put into a device to upgrade its storage and never touched again until the host device dies or you upgrade the storage again.

[@flamestoyershadowkill6400]

I want it to go to full sized SD cards

[@rune_doll]

I've been working on a similar project but for music (being minidisc style), this is really awesome! The SD NAND is a neat approach, wish there was more of them available lol.

[@tokenfilipino]

Dude. Your builds are amazing, and you deserve the accolades for your success. I have surface-level understanding of any of what you talked about, but you explained out in a way that made computer hardware engineering not seem so daunting of a hobby to attempt one day. Congrats dude 👏🏽

[@abetoday]

I really appreciate the kind words (and I saw your other comment as well so thanks there too!) Appreciate you watching

[@JumbocactuarX27]

I just got a 3D printer recently and I think I have almost all the parts to try something like this myself. I guess I gotta try it now. Thanks for making such sharply edited and entertaining videos!

[@Digi-Yamo]

Ive been subbed to you since around the beginning and I'm so happy to see how far you've come! You actually inspired me to start making my own little creations with old tech. Also don’t worry my cat likes to mess with my projects too 😂

[@mustardpikachu4685]

i love these so much omg. I think that releasing both the files and a DIY kit would be awesome

[@ZenithTheReborn]

Thank you for not giving up. Sometimes I get in my own funk where feel like my work doesn't matter, but it absolutely does. No matter how small in the grand scheme of things it may seem. By the way, the red one is my personal favorite. ❤

[@johnbeverly9723]

The progress you've made in pcb design is amazing with such a short amount of time. Random but i just think its cool how it feels like only just a couple of videos ago you had essentially a redundant sd card adapter and now you have custom parts with more purposeful function.

[@johnbeverly9723]

been lurking for a while just havent commented much

[@Nexon-lab]

I love this dude amazing stuff

[@Sb129]

Very nice, the 3D printer really speeds tinkering like this up. It makes me want one more and more the times I see someone like you make something cool like this. That being said, I think the size of regular SD cards are just right for something normal and yet not microscopic like the appropriately named MicroSDs.

[@BrandonPhilips]

I have been thinking about this sort of project for years!

[@indy1725]

This is fantastic! I've been lamenting the loss of removable high-capacity storage for a while now, wishing I had something like a Zip drive that used 250GB carts.

[@randomlegodev]

such a charming project, it looks insanely polished for a 3d print

[@MWSJoey]

The beige one is absolutely gorgeous. Love how you put this project together.

[@WhoTheDev]

Another awesome project!

[@SnowmansApartment]

such a cool project!

[@kyu_273]

love all your video and projects

[@abetoday]

thank you!!

[@Joogoo96]

I remember you! You were posting about your Pico-8 console on the subreddit a few years back! Way to finish the project brother! You just got a new sub!

[@abetoday]

Haha! Yes! Time flies!

[@PossumMedic]

Looking good! Glad you pushed through! :D I'd love to see this as a kit!

[@abetoday]

Hopefully! I’ll do a community post if I do

[@PossumMedic]

@@abetoday Heck yeah! 🤘 I'll keep an eye out! :D

[@lordtyroxx]

I've been wanting to do something like this for a while. I had an idea for a wall-mounted arcade cabinet with an RFID reader that reads what game I'd like to play and immediately launches it. This makes it so each cartridge just has to have an RFID chip inside instead of any sort of custom PCB, making it a bit cheaper to create the cartridges. The cartridge can slot into the machine and emulate contact pads touching.

[@franciscogonzalez9165]

Check out Mister FPGA with TapTo. It does exactly what you're explaining here. Mister FPGA runs several arcade/computer/console "cores", and TapTo is an NFC reader that launches the game you want by using NFC cards.

[@VictimofNightCity]

Sounds like a good idea

[@johnmickey5017]

This is exactly how the Yoto player works. It’s a music player for kids. The music is stored on an internal drive. You pick an album by inserting its card. Works super well and consistently.

[@lordtyroxx]

@@johnmickey5017oh awesome! I’m going to have to check that thing out!

[@brianv2871]

yeah, i had a similar thought but using an old floppy drive and using a qr code label that you place on old floppies that no longer work... that way you get to use the old format in the way you're used to, just instead of the magnetic encoding that's likely bad by now, it's just got a little camera that reads the qr code that is a file name and it loads that off an sd card.

[@flappy7373]

went to subscribe and was momentarily confused that i couldn't, because i already am subbed. just thought i'd say that. seems you've just got that "makes me wanna sub" quality.

[@mememe37]

So glad you've used a green led this time. Great job on the 3d prints!

[@phil2768]

That was super interesting to watch while I struggle with insomnia tonight 😀 - thanks!

[@schulbus13]

This is incredible 👑 Also I'm in love with your cats

[@ultimaq8730]

This is amazing, really cool project!

[@abetoday]

thank you!!

[@ChadDoebelin]

Very nice! The algorithm suggested that I check this out, and it was right. You've earned a new subscriber!

[@abetoday]

Thanks so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@someuser4166]

Lol I love how your cat keeps attacking your stuff. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="498">08:18</a> <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="761">12:41</a> <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="776">12:56</a>

[@Linda-gf9jo]

Your video editing is seamless

[@abetoday]

Thank you!! I’m always practicing to try to get stuff smoother!

[@CalicoStonewolf]

As someone who loves the old style physical media, this project really caught my eye. The end result is absolutely wonderful!

[@125nsr]

realy nice and cool project !

[@manualsearch]

let's gooo, missed these projects