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Artrigis

Artrigis

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Hey all, recently bought a pretty nice bundle off of CL. $70 for about $380 in gamecube games / controllers. Most of the discs were stored in one of those disc binders, so are pretty rough shape. I would say most of them have heavy scratches. I have ones with 1000 tiny surface scratchs. Ones with that sort of scratched wavy look where there are several following a curve. And ones that have deep scratches. But I thought it was worth the risk.

Ive tested every game, in either the random saves from the memory card or from the beginning. Tested each game with 3-5 min of gameplay and had no problems. They all were recognized by Wii instantly. No freezing, stuttering, anything like that.

This seems like something I should know.. but I never scratched my discs as a kid, or bought very scratched games before. The only experience I have is 2 very scratched up games that wouldn't load, or get past title screen.

This is the worst condition lot I have bought, is my 3-5 min of gameplay adequate to see if they work? I don't want to sell something that is going to freeze 12 hours into the game.

Any input is appreciated.
 
[quote name='Artrigis']Hey all, recently bought a pretty nice bundle off of CL. $70 for about $380 in gamecube games / controllers. Most of the discs were stored in one of those disc binders, so are pretty rough shape. I would say most of them have heavy scratches. I have ones with 1000 tiny surface scratchs. Ones with that sort of scratched wavy look where there are several following a curve. And ones that have deep scratches. But I thought it was worth the risk.

Ive tested every game, in either the random saves from the memory card or from the beginning. Tested each game with 3-5 min of gameplay and had no problems. They all were recognized by Wii instantly. No freezing, stuttering, anything like that.

This seems like something I should know.. but I never scratched my discs as a kid, or bought very scratched games before. The only experience I have is 2 very scratched up games that wouldn't load, or get past title screen.

This is the worst condition lot I have bought, is my 3-5 min of gameplay adequate to see if they work? I don't want to sell something that is going to freeze 12 hours into the game.

Any input is appreciated.[/QUOTE]

That's really the best you can do.....even games that are in better looking condition you can't tell when/if they are going to freeze. I remember buying a good condition FFIX from EB Games that froze on disc 3.......

If they load up and play for a while at least you did more due diligence than GameStop and Best Buy.
 
Usually, problems with scratched discs can show up at any time... but rarely show up in the beginning. I had a copy of Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete where the first disc would start showing problems within 5 minutes. Then I had a copy of ICO where the game stopped working just around the final hour.

But you should also look at the artwork side. The data layer is actually closer to the artwork side and even minor damage there could do more harm then damage to the underside.
 
Most of the games have light scratches on the top layer, just a little more than what is usual.

Ive played games with the similar amount of top side scratches all the way through.

Ive got a Zelda Ocarina / Master Quest that has I would say between light to moderate scratches on top, but has 3 deeper scratches. Heres a pic.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
[quote name='Vinny']Usually, problems with scratched discs can show up at any time... but rarely show up in the beginning. I had a copy of Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Complete where the first disc would start showing problems within 5 minutes. Then I had a copy of ICO where the game stopped working just around the final hour.

But you should also look at the artwork side. The data layer is actually closer to the artwork side and even minor damage there could do more harm then damage to the underside.[/QUOTE]

Most of the games have light scratches on the top layer, just a little more than what is usual.

Ive played games with the similar amount of top side scratches all the way through.

Ive got a Zelda Ocarina / Master Quest that has I would say between light to moderate scratches on top, but has several deeper scratches. Heres a pic. As for topside scratches, this is my worst disc. If this is my worst, do you think my others would all be fine?



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
[quote name='Artrigis']Most of the games have light scratches on the top layer, just a little more than what is usual.

Ive played games with the similar amount of top side scratches all the way through.

Ive got a Zelda Ocarina / Master Quest that has I would say between light to moderate scratches on top, but has several deeper scratches. Heres a pic. As for topside scratches, this is my worst disc. If this is my worst, do you think my others would all be fine?



Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/QUOTE]

I'd say you would have to play thru at least halfway to make sure it works,

considering that zelda is sort of a collectors item now, i would try to plow thru most of it so im at least 90% certain that there will be no issue in the transaction

Also scratches anywhere can mess up the game but it's up to you really. I wouldnt spend too much time on lower value items to be honest
 
None of those look too deep... it should be ok. But given how you described the underside and the look of the artwork side, you should probably thoroughly test all of them. It looks like the games you bought weren't taken care of at all.
 
You can have a disc covered in light scratches that works perfectly but have a disc with one small, but deep, scratch that makes it unplayable. You never really know. Also, I've noticed that some consoles are pickier at reading scratched games than others. This also seems true for resurfaced games (some consoles read them fine but then you can try playing it on your friend's system and it won't read it at all).
 
[quote name='Vinny']None of those look too deep... it should be ok. But given how you described the underside and the look of the artwork side, you should probably thoroughly test all of them. It looks like the games you bought weren't taken care of at all.[/QUOTE]

Yeah that is what I am thinking I should do. I think I will go back a retest the games. Put in 10-15 per title.
I just loadeed up the games and ran around for a few min, or do one race, one fight, etc.
 
I have same lack of first hand knowledge Artrigis, as I mainly buy new and handled games well enough to not know about scratched games playability. I do know that besides major scratches that damage the data layer of the disc, minor scratches are more of an issue if they are circular (same curvature as the disc is read), as this will interrupt the data being read for a longer period of time than random / radial scratches will (which is why you should always clean the discs radially and not circularly).

I remember my first PSone purchase of Resident Evil (good old longbox type) that had a piece of grit in the original packaging that spun along with the disc during handling, had tons of circular scratches, which I don't remember getting farther than the first few rooms. Any game that has significant scratching of this type I would definitely play for longer just to be safe.

Of course if you are selling the lesser titles on Ebay for only 5 bucks a pop I wouldn't invest the time and just put a disclaimer in there of how long you tested it, as is condition. It would then be their risk, not yours.
 
You could always put up the bundle on ebay as bulk salvage--ideally you would want a power seller with a disc-resurfacing machine as a buyer. Another way you could do it is Amazon trade-in's if the values are decent, NORAM will take pretty gnarly discs on occasion.
 
[quote name='Artrigis']Most of the games have light scratches on the top layer, just a little more than what is usual.

Ive played games with the similar amount of top side scratches all the way through.

Ive got a Zelda Ocarina / Master Quest that has I would say between light to moderate scratches on top, but has several deeper scratches. Heres a pic. As for topside scratches, this is my worst disc. If this is my worst, do you think my others would all be fine?



Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/QUOTE]


the scratches on the side where it says the title dont matter unless they go far enough into the disc where you could stick your fingernail in the scratch. Almost all situations where i had problems with scratched discs were at the title screen. you can allways just buy some scratch fixer at gamestop for like 5$ and clean the discs, that normally fixes all issues ive had with scratches.
 
If you live close to a hastings or family video you can take the more valuable games in and have them resurfaced, the hastings I went to I took in a GTA IV that was scratched bad enough that it froze within 5 mins of play and when I got it back from them it looked brand new, literally.

I don't know if they can do GC games though but wouldn't see why not. The cost of the resurfacing is around $2 but if they don't pass their check then they charge nothing, which happened to GTA but it played just fine. So keep the cost in mind for less valuable games but for something worth $10+ it may be worth the investment.
 
Typically my rule is if I can load up the game and play for 3-5 minutes it's good. If I can do that and I'l still concerned about the scratches (one I had looked like someone took a wire-brush to the bottom of it.. poor Fable 1 game for Xbox...), I will go get the disc resurfaced at a local place to make it look pretty.

Otherwise unless I feel like throwing $3 out on an attempt to resurface it if it doesn't work, I will just toss it. In those cases it's 50/50 if it works or not afterward.
 
Ah, played OOT last night for 20 min and it was fine. Just did 20 in master quest and it froze on me. This was the worst disc I had though for top side scratches.

But at least I learned to test badly scratched games for at least 20 min.

No hastings or family video within 100 miles for me. But I found a little store that seems to be decent, Ill give them a call. Most of the video game stores around here are sheisters.

So then, with OOT, resurfacing wouldn't help me though right? Cant fix the top side.
 
[quote name='Artrigis']Ah, played OOT last night for 20 min and it was fine. Just did 20 in master quest and it froze on me. This was the worst disc I had though for top side scratches.

But at least I learned to test badly scratched games for at least 20 min.

No hastings or family video within 100 miles for me. But I found a little store that seems to be decent, Ill give them a call. Most of the video game stores around here are sheisters.

So then, with OOT, resurfacing wouldn't help me though right? Cant fix the top side.[/QUOTE]

That is if it is caused by scratches on the top side. It can potentially be caused by scratches on the bottom. If it's by those, then resurfacing may be able to help. If it's from the top, then it's a coaster.
 
The way I used to check PS1 and PS2 games was to rip them. If they rip without error they're fine. I'm not 100% sure about ripping GC games, but since I have ripped Wii games, it should be doable.

As far as the law goes, you have to delete the ripped copy after you sell the game.
 
Unfortunately there aren't any video games stores around me worth going to. Theres one good looking one, but they dont resurface. The others ive been to are all sheisters.

Ill look into ripping the game though, thanks.
 
I had a copy of Super Mario Sunshine that was pretty heavily scratched, and even after resurfacing it, it played fine until just after the first boss battle, where it threw a dirty disc error. I've successfully resurfaced games from alot of systems (including deep ring-scratched 360 discs), but this is the first time where resurfacing didn't fix it. I don't know if it was a fluke, or GC games are much more susceptible due to the disc size.
 
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