PS1 games deteriorating...

Vinny

Vinny

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I saw this on Reddit and thought it was really... bad.
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34037

Apparently, if you ever stored you discs with the slightest amount of dirt/oil/fingerprints/crap on them, they're beginning to deteriorate. Even if you clean the discs now, it's too late and the damage has already been done.

Some of my discs already show signs of degrading. I always thought those were imprints from the pressing of discs...:whistle2:(

EDIT* This is supposedly a new Lunar 2 disc... So I guess it's all discs.
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34037&page=3
 
There goes the PS1 collector's market, I guess :whistle2:| Good thing I don't have many PS1 games (and most are Greatest Hits releases from late in the system's life), but I feel for those who do. Come to think of it, I do have a couple of PS1 rarities... argh.

I guess this here is the argument for download services and other such rereleases, but realistically, the PS1 has a pretty big library, so they can't account for everything...
 
I just checked my new Lunar 2 discs, on most of them you can barely make out those lines on the disc, but on the making of CD they're plainly visible. None of them are frosted over or anything though.

My copy of Grandia isn't so nice though, definite discoloration but it still works perfectly. My oldest ps1 game is probably Carnage Heart, still looks flawless. Environment probably has a lot to do with how fast they degrade, games I've owned for a long time look better than things I've bought more recently.

I was wondering why someone offered me a copy of Grandia for so little... Sony likes to build their products to fail eventually.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']I just checked my new Lunar 2 discs, on most of them you can barely make out those lines on the disc, but on the making of CD they're plainly visible. None of them are frosted over or anything though.

My copy of Grandia isn't so nice though, definite discoloration but it still works perfectly. My oldest ps1 game is probably Carnage Heart, still looks flawless. Environment probably has a lot to do with how fast they degrade, games I've owned for a long time look better than things I've bought more recently.

I was wondering why someone offered me a copy of Grandia for so little... Sony likes to build their products to fail eventually.[/QUOTE]

Most of my discs look ok... but I haven't checked all of them. With summer classes wrapping up in a few weeks, spare time is minimal for me. I'm going to have to go though 150+ discs (mostly due to multi-disc games) under an LED light to check for issues. I've put way too much time and money behind my PS1 collection for them to just die out due to Sony's business practices.

[quote name='Scorch']Surely this can't be ALL discs. I've got mine stored away, I'm sure they're alright.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure how the discs were stored and how clean the were kept plays a role but it sounds like the black dye Sony used is the main culprit here as Saturn and SegaCD are supposedly not affected by this.
 
Most of my discs (including my Lunar 2) look just like they did when I last took them out- well, maybe a little dusty here and there, but that's all. The few I found that are discolored don't look like the photos shown- sort of light brown/copper color distortion. This is on former rentals, heavily loaned, and discs I know where resurfaced/scratch repaired.

I'm thinking this is defintely a case of YMMV based on useage and storage conditions (for reference, my discs are stored vertically and I live in a mild climate.)

Edit: Also, the copper spots came right off with a cotton round and some gentle rubbing. I suspect it was a residue from buffing that became more visible over time.
 
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Yeah, my 10 year old copy of FFIX isn't deteriorating, though it is a little dirty.
 
This looks like total bs to me; yeah, so you lightly wipe off a disc and the thumbprint doesn't come out 100%, whoop-de-doo.
 
A lot of my discs look fine under normal light too.


But with a LED, you can see the part directly under the light is fogging up.


[quote name='Indigo_Streetlight']This looks like total bs to me; yeah, so you lightly wipe off a disc and the thumbprint doesn't come out 100%, whoop-de-doo.[/QUOTE]

It very well might be... I hope it is but I've already seen it on a few of my discs. They're not thumbprints, they're areas that are literally fogging up.
 
I dont think theres much to worry about really. It could be that some of the older PS1 games were made with inferior plastic or something similar. My ancient copy of FF9 that I bought at release still looks pretty damn good(under normal light). My FF7 looks good too, so not sure whats up
 
[quote name='Vinny']A lot of my discs look fine under normal light too.


But with a LED, you can see the part directly under the light is fogging up.




It very well might be... I hope it is but I've already seen it on a few of my discs. They're not thumbprints, they're areas that are literally fogging up.[/QUOTE]

Hmm, that is strange, I do believe there are the occasional factory defects floating around out there--but in Lunar games?

Here's something else, I've noticed that when receiving cold discs in the mail they have the tendency to temporarily fog up when exposed to warmer air. There's always variables to consider before hopping on the panic-bus...
 
I've had music CDs start to go bad. You can't hear any differences but there are little clear windows on parts that were formerly solid silver. The issue seems to be more prevalent on discs from indy labels. None of my more mainstream stuff, even Metallica CDs from like '92 seem to have any problems.
 
[quote name='Indigo_Streetlight']Hmm, that is strange, I do believe there are the occasional factory defects floating around out there--but in Lunar games?

Here's something else, I've noticed that when receiving cold discs in the mail they have the tendency to temporarily fog up when exposed to warmer air. There's always variables to consider before hopping on the panic-bus...[/QUOTE]

You know... now that you mention it, maybe you're right. Most people who've mentioned this issue mentioned Lunar 2, and specifically Lunar 2.:whistle2:k

Either way, some of you may think people are over-reacting to this but it's better to be safe than sorry. And not to mention that PS1 games are fairly difficult to emulate smoothly- I can never get the sound output right.
 
[quote name='Vinny']You know... now that you mention it, maybe you're right. Most people who've mentioned this issue mentioned Lunar 2, and specifically Lunar 2.:whistle2:k [/QUOTE]

I imagine that's got less to do with the problem being most common on Lunar 2, and more to do with that nasty picture of the 'new' Lunar 2 disc. People see that and rush to check their expensive RPG and ingore the $5 "I'll just get a new one" games.
 
[quote name='Vinny']A lot of my discs look fine under normal light too.


But with a LED, you can see the part directly under the light is fogging up.




It very well might be... I hope it is but I've already seen it on a few of my discs. They're not thumbprints, they're areas that are literally fogging up.[/QUOTE]

Hate to break it to you but the discs looked like that when they were new twelve years ago. Nobody gave their discs as much scrutiny as I did back then though. No game I ever saw this on had any playability problems whatsoever. This is a complete non-issue since the marks have been there since manufacture.
 
I am curious about this myself. I have never owned a PS1..but I do own Castlevania:SOTN that I use to play from a friend's borrow PS1 back then.
 
I have a sealed copy of Lunar 2 sitting in the game room right now... wondering if I should open it up and take a look.
 
[quote name='Nogib']Hate to break it to you but the discs looked like that when they were new twelve years ago. Nobody gave their discs as much scrutiny as I did back then though. No game I ever saw this on had any playability problems whatsoever. This is a complete non-issue since the marks have been there since manufacture.[/QUOTE]

It appears that you are right. I checked my other copy of Lunar 2 and the discs have the same exact pattern. It seems highly unlikely that corrosion and/or oxidation would form in exactly the same perfect pattern on two separate copies.:whistle2:k

Boy, that's a relief. I would hate to lose my PS1 games and all associated nostalgic factors.:D
 
I'd better get through my backlog before it is too late. I still have some PSone games I haven't gotten around to playing that I bought used. Hopefully, all these games will be on the PSN or whatever it will be called in the next ten years.
 
Just looked at all my discs, they're all good thankfully. I was able to clean off the few fingerprints that were on them.
I don't have a copy of Lunar 2 though...
 
Commercially produced PS1 discs should last a LONG time. Any commercially produced CD-ROM media should probably outlast the devices used to read the media.

I did some looking into this on google and from what I can tell nobody is sure but the lowest estimates are around 50 years and more generous ones run into the 100+ year range before any discs should start to degrade.

In my experience PS1 discs are much hardier than PS2 or other systems with CD based media. For some reason I've had very scratched copies bought very cheaply read just fine on PS1 that would never have worked on other systems.

As for CD-R type media produced at a consumer level, those are created in a different way and may degrade as soon as 3-5 years after creation.
 
[quote name='Vinny']
EDIT* This is supposedly a new Lunar 2 disc... So I guess it's all discs. [/QUOTE]

Someone used a Disc Doctor on it. You can see the swirls.
 
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