I just read this on GAF and am now sick to my stomach.  Years ago people warned me that CDs decay over time.  I thought I had done everything right storing my older (very rare games), but it appears that this is all too real.  Anyone else have ruined CD, DVD, etc. games?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=555026 

Wow disk rot. I've never had it happen to me. Just how old are your games for that to happen?

Sega CD, Sega Saturn, PSX, PCengine CD Rom, etc.   As I said I still can't believe it but it's real.

i have more ruined CD/dvds than i have working ones. though that probably isnt attributed to disk rot

I would probably feel better if it was my fault, but for now it feels like

At some point over the summer I'll download ROMs of everything that I own, and trust that enough people care to maintain emulators for them for the rest of time.

I would most miss my Gamecube controllers, if they break. Since they're on duty for every GC, every GBA via GB Player, most Wii, and everything NES->N64 via VC.

My friend you might also want to check your GBA games as well.  On a whim I just checked some of my carts out on my GBA player and Mario Kart is locking up during cup races.  I read the GAF thread and some were mentioning Bit Rot.  I really hope that's not happening to me with my GBA games as well.  Now I need to check my Super Nintendo and Genesis games.  This just keeps getting better and better.

I have had burned data discs go bad lots of times.

Surely DVDs and particularly Bluray discs last much longer right? I mean in the grand scheme of things 20 years is nothing.

The irony of it all is that physical storage is picked over digital/cloud storage precisely to extend the lifetime of the product. I guess there really is no way out, no matter what, our games are doomed.