Your restriction makes it hard for most people to recommend something. You’re already asking a niche of a niche (emulator users who back up disc-based games), and then you’re looking for a niche within that (Linux users).
Your post title also seemed to be asking about something else – I thought you were looking for HDD recommendations (since that’s a hard disk drive, but you’re looking for a disc drive because English is a stupid language sometimes).
You might have better help asking in the Linux community. It sounds like you need help with a disk drive, not with emulation.
Holy crap that’s a lot.
If the Analogue Pocket has enough buttons for OP, that’s what I’d recommend.
Other than that, I’m really only familiar with the Retroid brand.
I imagine you’d be familiar with the other brands…do you have any specific brand recommendations to look out for?
Do most people spend 5.5 minutes searching an article that they’re not even certain has what they’re looking for?
Edit: I spent less than 2 minutes on the GitHub page, and followed a link to another GitHub page, and got all the information I was curious about. Didn’t even need to Ctrl+F; just scroll around!
Thank you!
I guess one would generally be safe with a known hash, but ROM hacks would be dangerous territory.
Isn’t Project64 on version 3.X now, though? A quick glance at their webpage suggests that they are, and I only noticed download links as far back as 2.X.
What’s the TL;DW?
If you’re concerned, try comparing them to known hashes. If there’s a mismatch, you could have something sketchy.
Also be careful with archives (.zip, .rar).
Some emulators are/were able to be exploited, so modified ROMs/ISOs/etc. could look like a legit game, but have actually been injected with a virus.
You might want to look into DOS or even Flash games. Can’t tell you what’s actually good, but I can tell you there’s a lot out there!
Maybe Lemmings would be a good starting point. I think they had a Christmas edition.
It’s looking like no one who knows is finding this post. Sorry about that.
Do give the Linux community a try though – I feel like you’re more likely to get an answer there. It doesn’t matter what you’re using the disc drive for, it just needs to work with Linux.