I once had a hard drive of some particular vintage that wasn’t able to start. I did actually get it running with a hammer tap. Got the remains of data out and replaced the drive. It was nothing special, a Unix system drive with nothing that wasn’t on tape, but I just had to see if I could fix a hard drive with a hammer.
I also remember one admin who would often be seen walking between computer maintenance room and workshop wing with drives and a blacksmiths hammer labelled “format”.
Here’s one nice list which also reflects the status of their usefulness. Physical availability varies widely, though.
Digging ditches was my father’s phrase. And he was right, though I don’t thing there’s many people digging by hand these days.
Electrician or plumber have reputations of being solid and busy jobs that are always in demand. Maybe they just aren’t what parents want to say their children do or something.
If you can use a spare box or at least a boot device, there are systems like https://batocera.org/ that will box a lot of stuff together. Obviously independent emulators are all distributed independently though many of them do multiple systems.
I’m case a reader wants some extra fuel:
You can only compress data to some extent. You could see if any of the files are encoded in an older or less efficient codec than what you have. Transcoding does introduce some distortion, but usually not too bad for utility use like learning material.
The other option is to get rid of some data. Delete some of the files. Use a (non-recompressing) editor to clip out parts you don’t need. Transcode with lower resolution and/or bitrate/complexity.
It all depends on what you have and what you’re able and willing to do with it. There is no universal silver bullet to get you more storage space. Other than actually getting more storage space.
Or, they have a hypervisor, so instead of needing to quit from inside, you just hit the magic button and go back to the console UI. Game is suspended and might resume after power off or switch, or not, depending on the system and user.
You could just ctrl-alt-del or window switch or whatever to get the same experience on a computer.
I guess you weren’t in the ring.