Jump to content
IGNORED

do Dreamcast games just stop working?


Recommended Posts

I've never heard of that before.

 

Get a Dreamcast. Get a stack of cheap-ass CD-Rs. Learn to burn emulators. Have fun.

 

But do be aware that the first pressings of some of the original games (like Blue Stinger) were DOA. I don't know why they didn't work, they just didn't. They were just bad pressings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, I did have a disc suddenly "stop working" for me on the Gaycast...err...Dreamcast. It was one of the last ODCM demo discs. Worked fine for the first few demos and then suddenly the disc just wouldn't load for some reason. What was odd was that I never took the disc out of the system or anything like that. It just stopped working and no amount of reboots would get it to play.

 

In the trash it went.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, I did have a disc suddenly "stop working" for me on the Gaycast...err...Dreamcast.  It was one of the last ODCM demo discs.  Worked fine for the first few demos and then suddenly the disc just wouldn't load for some reason.  What was odd was that I never took the disc out of the system or anything like that.  It just stopped working and no amount of reboots would get it to play.  

 

In the trash it went.

 

Yeah game systems get to know their owners and if they think the owner is a dick they tend to do that.

Weird I know.

 

Don't worry chrishicks there not some mass degradation of Dreamcast games going on. I had my DC fired up a couple weeks ago and every game I plugged in worked A-OK!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My DC games all have worked perfectly from the day I got them. Even a horribly scratched game I got from Blockbuster for free due to their "Save $3 on used games sale". The game was $2.99 :) They had to give me a penny!

 

(Waits for a certain someone to say something stupid...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an issue w/ Re-volt when I first got it. It played but would stop and lag continually and eventually freeze altogether. It actually turned out to be the CD laser in the Dreamcast. I took the unit back and they replaced it for me and the new one read the disc perfectly every time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had an issue w/ Re-volt when I first got it.  It played but would stop and lag continually and eventually freeze altogether.  It actually turned out to be the CD laser in the Dreamcast.  I took the unit back and they replaced it for me and the new one read the disc perfectly every time.

 

whoever told you that was lying his pants off.

 

i had teh same problem. so i took wd40. opened the dreamcast, just cleaned 3 pins,. putted everything together. and guess what. not a simgle problem since! :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never had any problem with any game, scratched or not.

 

I have every US release and have done extensive, extensive playtesting of new homebrew games on my system. It has played a few games for over twenty hours straight (checking for memory leaks -- I wasn't playing that long).

 

My Dreamcast has played most of my music collection too, including a few CDs that don't work on _anything_ else because of how scratched up they are.

 

I have over 15 different Dreamcast consoles right now, and none of them have ever had any problems playing games, even scratched ones.

 

My brand spanking new laptop is much more picky about the CDs that it plays.

 

Maybe I'm just lucky...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dreamcast games don't stop working, but the dreamcast can... it has to do with the optics, certain games will be effected before others, but eventually, it wont read discs anymore.... the dreamcast is the only system I've ever had to replace due to malfunction. And that's what happened to me.... I would either replace or possibly look into repair options... (replace, replace!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was going to pick up some games but was told that they just stopped working so I had to take my chances. do they just eventually crap out or could they just use a good cleaning?

 

Hadn't had a problem with mine. DC chugs along just fine, and that's even with the "questionable" practice of burning emulators and using them in the DC (I've been told that can hurt the machine, but haven't seen any evidence of that). The machine seems very well-built, but other folks may have had different experiences.

 

By the way, I haven't been around much lately, but I'm glad to see Adrian's still around to piss all over any parade that's not being led by Microsoft. Some things never change, I suppose.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that is false. (fortunately) :)

 

I don't see how using a burnt copy could damage the system. If any software could ever actually damage hardware, it's only the most sofisticated and evil of computer virus', and even then, they usually attacks the BIOS or CMOS software, so it's not even attacking hardware. Unless they flash the BIOS to run the CPU 10x faster than it's supposed to and melt your CPU or burn out your mobo.... :x :)

 

Software should not be able to hurt hardware.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that is false. (fortunately) :)

 

I don't see how using a burnt copy could damage the system.

 

I'm inclined to agree. The argument seems to be a burnt disc somehow makes the DC "work" harder, thus shortening the life of the CD rom drive.

 

But, some people have always been odd about electronics. I still remember back in the days of eight-bit computing when some TRS-80 Color Computer owners swore that cutting of the RF shielding around the CPU was essential to keep it from overheating if the processor was sped up through the use of a "poke" command.

 

Such advice should be taken with a grain of salt.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm inclined to agree. The argument seems to be a burnt disc somehow makes the DC "work" harder, thus shortening the life of the CD rom drive.

 

This was a rumor began by Sega (and it was very successful) when the Dreamcast warez scene was taking off in early 2000. It is partially based in reality though:

 

Sega alleged that the burn process of the CDs meant that the data was all located in the center of the disk and the CD mech had to work "harder" to pull the data off of the disk, where with original games the data was located further away from the center and therefore the CD laser had to move less.

 

That's all true, but the fact is that the CD laser doesn't move *that* much more at the center than at the edges of a CD, and especially gaming consoles are meant to handle this sort of random data access just fine anyways.

 

The Dreamcast can handle it just fine from what I have seen. Eventually, the motor would probably wear out a little quicker from CD-R's... but not much at all.

 

It has _nothing_ to do with the actual laser having to "work harder" which was what the original allegations were.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

right, using the burnt disc may cause a LITTLE more wear over time from movement of the laser assembly, but that's not the problem that people are having... people are having problems with the laser not being able to read discs and I don't think the same thing is happening there.. I would imagine that to be a bad IC, or a defective laser itself, (neither of which could be caused by a CD-R) but not the whole assembly that allows movement. Granted, if the laser can't get to the part of the disc that it needs to, then there would be a problem accessing the information on the disc, but I really really don't think that's whats happening. Because as Goatdan said, those systems are designed specifically for random access like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...