Games degrade over time

[tigersty1e]

So do you guys find you can't install some of your old games because of errors?

Maybe because of scratches or some other stuff?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Not really.

Pressed CDs can easily last 20+ years without problems unless you do scratch them up, it's burned CDs that are iffy after a few years.

Sometimes there are pressing errors, or discs shipped loose or in bad holders, but then you'll have problems right away not years later.

 

[Bateluer]

Any games that I once had on floppy disk are long since compost. Nearly all of my CDs still function although some are looking pretty scratched. I've 'backed up' those suspect disks to mountable images.

 

[Eeezee]

This is why I've started heavily supporting digital distribution. Maybe I won't want to play Half-life 2 in 20 years, but I'd still like to at least own a copy (just in case)

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
This is why I've started heavily supporting digital distribution. Maybe I won't want to play Half-life 2 in 20 years, but I'd still like to at least own a copy (just in case)

I am betting that there is a higher chance of Steam being shut down in the next 20 years than there is of me damaging one of my physical disks. I would support digital distribution if my software wasn't tied down to some random company's software. Think of all of the giant development houses that have been shut down or reduced to mere shadows of their former selves in the past 20 years. Valve isn't too big to fail, no one is in this industry.

 

[MikeyLSU]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: Eeezee
This is why I've started heavily supporting digital distribution. Maybe I won't want to play Half-life 2 in 20 years, but I'd still like to at least own a copy (just in case)

I am betting that there is a higher chance of Steam being shut down in the next 20 years than there is of me damaging one of my physical disks. I would support digital distribution if my software wasn't tied down to some random company's software. Think of all of the giant development houses that have been shut down or reduced to mere shadows of their former selves in the past 20 years. Valve isn't too big to fail, no one is in this industry.

if that happens, I would hope the game would become freeware and be openly downloaded from anywhere.

 

[Zenoth]

I've never experienced a media read/write failure on any of my game CDs or DVDs ever since I own a PC and play games and listen music on it, not a single time. I just leave my media in their original boxes or protective casings, or sometimes I buy one of those vertical CD/DVD holders staking them on top of each others, or one of those booklet-like media holder with plastic "pages" (I'm sorry the name of those products are getting away from me, and English isn't my native language, but you guys get the point I think).

I just never leave any CD/DVD media alone on a desk or sitting idle inside my media drives, and I also try my best to never directly touch the read/write area of the CD/DVD with my fingers to avoid leaving any skin oil or dust particles, etc. In other words I take care of my stuff, and the day it will fail reading or writing because the media is physically damaged it will simply be due to time itself, such a moment will happen, but by the time it happens I will certainly have made multiple back-ups of it within that life span.

I can take one example of the PC version of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter which I still own to this day, and I bought it back in 1999, brand new, it's been 10 years, and I still own the retail box, the instruction manual and the cardboard casing in which the CD-Rom was contained, which I placed in a generic plastic CD-Rom holder I bought later, and the CD-Rom itself has very small and barely visible scratches on it.

 

[Martimus]

Only old data CD's have stopped working for me (CD-R's) after around 3-5 years or so, but actual pressed CD's have lasted at least 10 years for me (I just reinstalled Under a Killing Moon a few weeks back, and that is nearly 15 years old.)

 

[MustangSVT]

most old games I dont care but my mint condition ( no scraches!) BG2 keeps on giving me crc error during installation.

 

[TidusZ]

My Diablo 2 play disk was not allowing me to install so I took it to blockbuster where I worked at the time, used the disk grinder/cleaner, and it was as good as new. It was a pretty expensive little machine, but I imagine you can get cheaper versions for home use. BB also lets you use theirs for a couple dollars.

 

[shortylickens]

Nope. I've still got some of my original CD games and they work (in DOSBOX).
Knights of Xentar
Hell
Doom on CD
Diablo (that came later, in windows 95)
Warcraft
Wing Commander 3 & 4

CD's last a long time, IF you take care of them. For god sakes dont ever leave them in direct sunlight.

Also, some of the music CD's I got are still good too, again because I took care of them. We got our first CD player in 91 or 92 (I think). But we got some CD's from my uncle that were pressed in the early 80's. They still play without a skip or crackle.

Also, for poor Mustang and his faulty Baldurs Gate 2: You should probably just get the Forgotten Realms Collector Pack. I had 2 of the games (and add-ons) but I still got it for the convenience.

 

[sandorski]

My Drives die before my CDs. Also, a bigger issue IMO, newer versions of Windows have a habit of rendering older Installers kaput.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
I am betting that there is a higher chance of Steam being shut down in the next 20 years than there is of me damaging one of my physical disks. I would support digital distribution if my software wasn't tied down to some random company's software. Think of all of the giant development houses that have been shut down or reduced to mere shadows of their former selves in the past 20 years. Valve isn't too big to fail, no one is in this industry.

That is certainly a risk, but I think it's less likely than people think. The license rights that Valve own are valuable and if they were to go bankrupt they would sell them to another company. The Steam software itself is also valuable, not to mention the large customer base that visits the store regularly.

I think you would need to see a failure of the digital distribution model itself to really jeopardize Steam products and I personally don't see that happening. Bandwidth continues to increase, customers still place a high value on convenience, and companies like Netflix have already announced they are adding a plan with only digital download viewing. I think it is more likely to see companies merge digital distribution across industries than we are to see digital distribution disappear.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Originally posted by: JoshGuru7

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
I am betting that there is a higher chance of Steam being shut down in the next 20 years than there is of me damaging one of my physical disks. I would support digital distribution if my software wasn't tied down to some random company's software. Think of all of the giant development houses that have been shut down or reduced to mere shadows of their former selves in the past 20 years. Valve isn't too big to fail, no one is in this industry.

That is certainly a risk, but I think it's less likely than people think. The license rights that Valve own are valuable and if they were to go bankrupt they would sell them to another company. The Steam software itself is also valuable, not to mention the large customer base that visits the store regularly.

I think you would need to see a failure of the digital distribution model itself to really jeopardize Steam products and I personally don't see that happening. Bandwidth continues to increase, customers still place a high value on convenience, and companies like Netflix have already announced they are adding a plan with only digital download viewing. I think it is more likely to see companies merge digital distribution across industries than we are to see digital distribution disappear.

All it would take if for another company to come along and do it better. Think of Netflix getting into digital distribution of games. Steam could go belly up in no time, and while they might sell the rights to distribute the individual games it is unlikely that the steam DRM system would be supported by whoever bought them, and it would not be cost effective to strip all the DRM form all the old (and therefore rarely used) games.

 

[Sam25]

Except for my old Hitman Contracts CD (had to buy a new one later), all my old game CD's work great.

 

[BladeVenom]

Many of my old floppies have degraded.

 

[Pelu]

Some Disks have a crappy manufacturing... or impurities that cause them to get some strange marks...

I had some CDs and some DVDs that develop some sort of black circles between the plastic surface and the metal one... those turn into useless crap...

but yeah some disk get screw up fast... depending the condition of storage and quality of manufacturing...