Disc Rot


Nintendo

Nintendo Switch
Joined
Oct 8, 2005
Messages
13,418
Age
45
Location
Melbourne, VICTORIA - AUSTRALIA
dvd_rot%5B1%5D.jpg



http://www.prodisc.com.au/Portals/0/images/articles/Disc%20Rot%20main%20article%20-print%20version%20-high%20res.pdf


http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=disc+rot&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1525&bih=724&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi


http://www.rfgeneration.com/news/Disc-Rot/An-important-note-to-Video-Game-Sellers-and-Buyers-1337.php

Normally my blogs contain humorous little diatribes or reflective thoughts on gaming and collecting in general. However, I feel the very pressing need to make a PSA to the gaming and collecting community at large:

Sellers, PLEASE start checking your games for 'disc rot'.


YES, it exists. I've bought half a dozen games this year alone, online, that had this problem upon arrival, including Panzer Dragoon Saga and several Turbo CD games.


What is disc rot?


Well, first let's explain what it is not: an indication of someone handling the game poorly. Unless there is a scratch on the top layer of the disc that ends up appearing similar to disc rot (a tiny nick on the label can look similar), the problems are separate and unrelated. For some of the games I purchased, the seller felt cheated because of the claim that there were no scratches or problems with the disc and that it was well taken care of. Disc rot damage is typically unrelated to how well one takes care of the disc.


Disc rot, as far as my research has shown, is due to bad disc pressing during the manufacturing process. Apparently microscopic air bubbles or other contaminants may get trapped in with the information layer between the outer polymer layers. Sometimes the pressing may be slightly uneven. Or the thin lacquer protective layer is compromised. In any case, over time the information layer is oxidized in these tiny pockets and 'rust' or 'rot' pieces of the information layer.

Some of my SEGA SATURN games suffer from Disc Rot. :(
 
This tends to happen after about 20 years. Better start investing in a mod chip!
 
Show me your 2002-printed Sega Saturn games, then. Now, Sega Dreamcast is a different story.
 
It comes in lots of flavours.


Disc rot first kicked off (and was never eliminated on) Laserdiscs. The stress they endure in playback and the sticky layer sandwich pulling at the reflective layer used to cause 'dropout' in the image, a sign of worse to come. Nobody escaped this, it happened A. LOT.


Then original CD Rot was caused by the print on the CD's surface reacting with chemicals from the inlay booklet - I've had a few of these, you can see it's happened because the CD print becomes very visible from the playback side of the disc, even without holding it up to the light.


Then there's the rot that seems to be evident in the image at the top - oxidation of the reflective layer. I have a couple of music CDs that have brown blobs around the rim (poorly sealed edges) and a couple that have gradually turned Golden brown on the print side (They still play though).


I'd imagine that most of the original causes must have been eliminated, discs that present the problem more recently must be from poorly manufactured batches. Probably be a good idea, if looking to buy a replacement, to get one from a different region (or edition)?


Pretty difficult to tell with Playstation discs, being opaque black...........
 
A good way to test for disc rot is to place them in the microwave for 15 seconds.
 
Does anyone have any first hand experience of commercial games on floppy disks? I've only ever removed small files from them, how long does a full disk last when stored in 'normal' conditions?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've got games on floppy going back to C64, (Touch Wood) they still work. All my ST and Amiga stuff still works. Same for cassettes. They'll probably outlive the devices needed to play them. Unless you have a magnet fetish.
 
I've got games on floppy going back to C64, (Touch Wood) they still work. All my ST and Amiga stuff still works. Same for cassettes. They'll probably outlive the devices needed to play them. Unless you have a magnet fetish.

Sniff, you just reminded me of the time I sold my Atari ST and gave away boxes and boxes of disks containing, amongst other things, 'tunes' I had made using some sampler system.


Or the time I sold my Speccy and gave away two bin-liners full of original games...makes me so sad to think about.
 
In that case I must have a magnetic personality <_< , because the data on floppies and even diskettes did not survive for long after I stored them. Storage was in dustfree cabinets, with a low humidity and nowhere near any magnets. "Not ready reading drive A: Retry Abort Ignore?. Aaarrrghh!
 
Abort, Retry, Ignore?


By Marcus Bales


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,


Over user guides and handbooks piled up on the desk and floor --


As I nodded, after nine or ten straight hours of design,


I finely drew the final line, then pulled a floppy out to store --


Locked and loaded, then, I saved, and waited for the disc to store;


Only this and nothing more.


Ah, distinctly I kept hearing such a sound it set me fearing,


Fearing as I sat there peering at the Saved Percentage score,


Fearing, as the disc kept turning, turning with a grinding, churning


Sound while I was yearning -- yearning as I'd never yearned before,


"Save!" I yearned again, but hopeless, read the words I'd feared before:


Read: "Abort, Retry, Ignore."


"What is this?" I barely muttered, "What's this message you have uttered,


Uttered as my floppy fluttered, fluttered locked inside your door?"


But there came no soothing voices helping me among these choices,


With these unfamiliar choices, just the cursor's either/or --


Just the cursor blinking, blinking for my choice of either/or


From "Abort, Retry, Ignore."


Much I marveled: this repeating cursor like a heartbeat beating


Answered nothing, thus defeating all attempts to re-explore


Whether I'd done something sloppy: what had happened to that floppy


I'd inserted there to copy all the work I'd done before;


What had happened to the art, the artwork I had done before,


Before "Abort, Retry, Ignore."?


Art, not software, is my calling; it’s particularly galling


To be hesitating, stalling, stalling over one key more


When, instead of starkly staring, stunned, at high-tech so uncaring,


High-tech blindly overbearing, I could open up my drawer,


Get my low-tech colored pencils from their matching low-tech drawer


Beneath "Abort, Retry, Ignore."


But no, I had to get ambitious, buy some modern meretricious


Merchandise that leaves me vicious messages that seem to roar,


Well, not really roar, but tease, as, fingers trembling over keys,


I finally choose from one of these atrocious choices I abhor


A choice I know will be atrocious, one I finally must abhor


Among "Abort, Retry, Ignore."


No result! So twice as hard, to try and catch the thing off-guard,


I pressed, but still the same canard appeared until I nearly swore.


Frantically in desperation, pushing keys in combination,


Getting tintinabulation: "Beep beep beep", and nothing more,


Cacaphonous concatenation, "Beep beep beep", and nothing more;


Except "Abort, Retry, Ignore."


Then it was I heard the thunder, felt the thunder rumble under,


Through, the floorboards, and no wonder! Lightning split the dark night's core!


Lightning piercing lightning slashing through the night like sword-wounds gashing


Darkness deeply, when my flashing cursor flashed! then flashed no more;


Flashed a final time and then: erased itself to flash no more;


Erased "Abort, Retry, Ignore."


The lights went out, then came back on, and in the cold grey light of dawn


Profit and design were gone; gone, returning: nevermore;


Gone my imitation Titian, like a ghost or apparition,


But gone as well the admonition I must choose and choose once more;


Gone: the price of manumission from demands to choose once more


Among "Abort, Retry, Ignore."


Now my cursor still is blinking; is it winking? Yes! It’s winking!


Winking at me from the screen beside the disc that wouldn’t store;


Winking at me from the black, though nothing else comes blinking back


Along the phosphorescent track that throws a shadow on the floor;


And my art, from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor


Shall be found now -- nevermore!
 
Back
Top