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ChadOkada on 08 May 2013
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Michael-5 said:
ChadOkada said:
Michael-5 said:

I thought disks took 30-40 years before the Earths Megnetic Field cleared their data...

I haven't played my only Sega CD game (Sonic CD), but all my PS1 games work perfectly fine, and all my NES/SNES/GB cartirdges are fine too.

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Maybe your console is broken? It's too early for disk rot.

I wish you were right.  If you hold your game discs up to a bright light a small pinhole will show that a flaw caused in the manufacturing process years ago finally took it's toll.  If it's in the right spot your game is ruined no matter how well you take care of it.  Read the article that I linked at the top of page 2.  It seems the Dreamcast is the worst offender and PSX games are harder to see flaws due to the dark color on the discs.

Even games sealed in the original plastic could be ruined and you would never know it unless you check them.  Imagine all the ebay and Amazon buyers and sellers losing business over this.

Oh wow, I'll check my Dreamcast library out, but I've never seen a small pinhole in any of my games before.

Either way, my advice is get a USB - Controller Adaptor for the Sega CD and PS1, and play your favorite games off ROMs. In Canada it's legal to own a ROM so long as it's a backup, and so long as you don't distribute it (Can't download using P2P since they upload a bit, you need to direct download).

So yea. Anyway, working or not, your old games are still worth a ton, and nice to have. It's like an old car, even if you can't drive it, having a mint condition shell is still worth a lot. It's also pretty to look at, imagine just having a 1969 Corvette C3 Stingray in your driveway. That's one heck of a lawn ornament. A good, nicely displayed collection is just as nice too, even if no one else you know appreciates it like you do.

However as more break, a working original is worth even more. There was an unrestored 1952 Mercedez Benz SL 300 Gullwing at the autoshow this year. Its sticker price was $750,000, but I've seen restored ones sell for half the price.

Those are good point's.  My games still look brand new and have many memories associated with them.  I still have most of the receipts for much of my collection.  In the grand scheme of things it's not that important, but I thought people might want to check the condition of their games if they are planning on selling them one day.