Hey there,
I had a tech talk about retrogaming on OG Hardware. We ended up with the point that discs, some GBA,(3ds) and Switch games just die and cannot be used anymore.
So i question what is the use in collecting then. Its basically dead money. Its not really a cheap Hobby.
What do you think about it?
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I think having ROM’s on FPGA devices will be preferred way of having ‘collections’ in the future.
That was actually the Initial discussion. It cant die so easily on that…
Not sure why anyone would think that, I have functional machines and games going back to the Atari 2600.
Because facts. I knew about CDs/DVD and so on. New to me ist the GBA, DS, 3DS and Switch run out somewhen.
I have functional music CDs from 1983 and gaming CDs on the Sega CD forward.
Most commercial CDs and DVDs are expected to last about 25 years, although they can last a lot longer than that depending on the quality of the manufacturing process, how the discs are stored, and how they are handled. Keep CDs and DVDs away from heat and light, keep them away from high humidity, and minimize flexing or bending them as much as possible. When discs flex, the polycarbonate layers can split and separate – even just a tiny bit – and moisture can get in. Once that happens, the disc will degrade faster.
Source: Am an optical media nerd and enthusiast and still use optical media every week.
Yup. And when returning them to the case DO NOT spin them so they are “right side up”.
Any dust or grit in the case will damage them when you do that.
I personally like having my small collection of games. No idea when any of them will die, but it’s at least nice to have them. For price, I’m lucky enough that the vast majority of games I want aren’t super expensive at a local game store I like to visit.
That, or are cheap enough at a pawnshop near me. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger for PS2 for under $20 (possibly under $10/I don’t remember)? Sign me up! Almost bought it, but decided against it since I wasn’t sure how tight the rest of my college financial aid money would be after all my Christmas shopping.
Edit:
I am also skeptical about things like disc rot because I have heard countless times about it but have never met a single person who has ever had it happen to them.
Just on the issue of disc rot, I feel like I have something to add to the conversation that’s more than a personal anecdote.
For many years I worked as a game developer and I did tons of multimedia software, it would not be an exaggeration to say that in my career I personally oversaw the burning of over 100,000 discs, and that’s not counting manufacturing or high-run final product.
There’s actually a pretty high failure rate, even on new disks. Most that are about 7 years have a 50% failure rate, anything after 10 years if you’re lucky you can use software.
In the above examples I’m talking about discs that the consumer grade hardware can burn. It doesn’t matter that we used the highest quality equipment, it really doesn’t change the formula. Commercially made ones have a much higher durability, somewhere around double.
So basically any disk you own, regardless of where and when it was made, you’ve got 15 to 20 years at best and then it’s nothing but a crap shoot.
Well. Look for older games like Metal Gear Solid or FF7. They still work.
Could it be that you speak about an expected failure rate?
Why would it just…die?
I dont know how to explain. I’m not that big of a techie. But yeah. They do somewhen.
I don’t collect anymore. I do still have a small amount of stuff that I enjoy but overall it’s too expensive, not enough space, unreliable media etc…
I got rid of most of my physical games, and built a lovely GameBoy & N64 collection. I consider those as goodies, expose them on shelves. Of course, I also use them and would be sad if they do not work anymore, but their value is not only linked to that. I don’t consider the monetary value the games have. I will never buy a game because it’s rare and expensive. I only collect games I love, and sometimes yes, I have to pay a high price, but it’s just because I have to deal with the system.
I like collecting games for 2 reasons
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I like the games. Just having a physical copy is nice to have for the box and game art alone.
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so that I own a licensed and can backup the game before it dies. Since even if the game dies I still legally have a playable copy of the game.
Thats one Argument for keeping the stuff OG. I really have mixed Feelings :/
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It amuses me that something so modern as video games already has the problem of fading into oblivion. Maybe that’s why it’s so compelling, because the foundations are still in living memory?
Anyway in the museum, a disk that cannot be read is an artifact just as the plane that cannot fly.
