How to modernize your retro game collection in a few convoluted steps

I have a large collection of physical video games. Each passing year, this somewhat prosaic characteristic becomes more and more notable, both in terms of uniqueness and — considering the age of much of my collection, coupled with the unyielding passage of time — complexity. With the trajectory of video game distribution hurtling toward a digital-only future, my insistence on preserving some of its history keeps me connected to the objects and, more importantly, the experiences they contain in a way that a digital library cannot. While I understand and even appreciate many parts of this ongoing digital transition, I grieve the passage of an earlier world in which games had a kind of permanence unencumbered by server status or mercurial licensing agreements and instead just worked.