Funguses are eating my WC games

Starkey said:
Finally, do CDs deteriorate with age or can a CD be kept functional for decades if well-stored?
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I might've read that same USA Today article. It turns out that the 100 year shelf life of CDs was just a myth, at least with low quality manufacturing. Other factors, such as super high humidity, might exacerbate the problem.
 
I´ve tracked down the WCP damage and it basically affects movies2.tre in CD #2... I´ll copy it into a CD-RW and if the file doesn´t work properly I´ll find a kind soul who can send me the file.
 
I never read the article, but I've seen many experts do interviews and they all say the same thing. CD-Rs have an average shelf life of about 2~5 yrs depending on quality of the CD-R, storage and wear. Apparently any CDs with a stick-on label tend to go bad earlier. I imagine a regular production quality CD would last a bit longer than that.
 
dextorboot said:
Actually, Alcohol 120% is just a demo (try-before-you-buy type thing). It only makes 1 copy of something. I highly recommend it though.
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Are you sure?
 
Alcohol (the program) should be bought, but a quick visit to certain sites might liberate the program from its ahem, comercial limitations. Officially it's just try-before-you-buy, though.
 
ChrisReid said:
I might've read that same USA Today article. It turns out that the 100 year shelf life of CDs was just a myth, at least with low quality manufacturing. Other factors, such as super high humidity, might exacerbate the problem.
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I remember in the mid 1980s when I first saw audio CDs in music stores. Salesmen in the mall retailers were rubbing them on the carpet, stepping on them, and tossing them around like frisbees in an attempt to show the buying public how "indestructable" they were. Kind of ironic now that they've found out they were wrong. Heck, I still have 3.5" floppy disks that are over 15 years old that work just fine.

I've found the other problem with "cheap" CDs (and DVDs) is that they will crack around the center if removed and replaced from their cases often enough. Last year I bought the Star Blazers "Comet Empire" series boxed set and have had 2 of the 6 DVDs start to crack. This was after I returned the first set I was sent because of manufacturing problems.....
 
The solution to your problem is simple:
Get a new house (I mean, really; What's more important: Wing Cmdr or some dank old house?...).

:D
 
BigsWickDagger said:
I remember in the mid 1980s when I first saw audio CDs in music stores. Salesmen in the mall retailers were rubbing them on the carpet, stepping on them, and tossing them around like frisbees in an attempt to show the buying public how "indestructable" they were. Kind of ironic now that they've found out they were wrong.
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Also, back in the 1980s when they looked at the scratched and cracked discs they'd been stepping on and throwing around.
 
Actually on thing that really crack DVDs is when you have a "normal" DVD box with that extra plastic disc holder inside... The particular pressure lock mechanism on those really cracks DVDs inner rings. Was that clear? When you buy a double disc DVD movie and it's in a single spine box, with an extra piece that clicks in the middle...

Double spine boxes are ok, though.

All my Extras discs were removed from this shit and are kept on regular cd jewel cases.

Note that factory pressed discs live a lot longer than CD-Rs. This fungus stuff is not found in all countries. And the good thing about Digital Discs (DVD, CD etc) is that they are NOT damaged everytime you play it, like it happens with Vinyl and analog tapes. Picture the diamond head fucking up the delicate grooves of the Vinyl every single time you play it. Same thing with the magnetic head and the VCR or cassette music tape... Ugly. Actually, VHS tapes are widely known as getting fucked up quite fast.

A decent DVD disc stored correctly can last for a good while.
 
Hello,

Fenris Ulven said:
I made a back up on all of my wc3 cds i while ago just in case...
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that sounds like a pretty good idea. We gotta copy our gems to a save place.
But where to store? Privatly burned CD ' s, they don't hold forever. Or better as an Image on an HDD? Headcrashs are not uncommon. It looks you need a couple of places to store.
 
In another post regarding Brad's Privateer model I mentioned my copy of 3d Studio Release 2 of 1992 vintage. For the past eight years the three manuals, eight floppies and one demo CD resided in the original box on a shelf at room temperature, low humidity. Not only is the CD in excellent condition (save a few scratches from misuse as a child), but all eight of the more fragile floppy disks survived and were hastily copied to my hard drive, every bit intact. Happy day, happy day...
 
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