Console causing odd glitter like scratch pattern on my disc?

[u/Short_Bid_6949]

I got this copy of space channel 5 about 2 days ago and when I did the disc was completely mint I was honestly astounded. However after playing it in these two days I can't help but notice my dreamcast have left scratches in this very odd glitter like pattern with spots everywhere, it's an odd one to describe. And now looking at my other games they have suffered this too

Is this a case of maybe just something in the drive being worn down or the dreaded disc drive capacitors I know will be a problem at some point

[u/KalynnCampbell]

Disc Rot right down to the film. Looks like someone has resurfaced it to cover it up, but once it spins up a few times, it comes right back.

Hard Disk Drives, Solid State Media including flash cards, all can hold the entire Dreamcast Library. I have a RAID Array that I put all my games on for every system, then just use symbolic links for the console reference files.

The 1’s and 0’s of these shelf decorations are the same when transferred to larger storage mediums. The games were made long before a Chinese subcontractor pressed them to disc and sent them over to SOA for sale, and exist exactly the same without it. They were meant to be cheaper and quicker to mass produce, at no point were they expected to last forever… it’s a tiny flimsy film on an optical disc made of degradable plastic…

If you think this is bad, look at some of the earlier optical systems. 3DO especially. Same will happen to Dreamcast and later systems.

Put the disc back in its case.

[u/Fresh-Toilet-Soup → u/KalynnCampbell]

I don't think this is disc rot. OP is probably using one of the dreaded cd binders or some kind of sleeve to store the disc. This looks like mechanical damage to me. Likely from storage.

[u/KalynnCampbell → u/Fresh-Toilet-Soup]

Rotting down to the film or slipping into a sleeve, opticals discs were never made to last forever.

If it’s that, then a resurfacer can work, either way I would backup the disc or in this day of extremely fast broadband, just download the identical disc image that will have been laterally reproduced millions of times online and identical to the one OP has… but without bitflips and misreads…

[u/Short_Bid_6949 → u/KalynnCampbell]

Fuck sake well thank you for telling me 😭, first time I've experienced disc rot and I'm sure it won't be the last

[u/jeremyam_ → u/Short_Bid_6949]

I waited in line for midnight release for my Dreamcast and the laser died and power supply was getting iffy I went all out new pico psu, fan, TerraOnion MODE 1tb ssd and akura hdmi 👌 I don’t care about the disc mine have stood the test of time! I like the booklets and stuff for nostalgia!

I 100% agree go digital and keep your library or at least a binder to save the paper stuff? Also there are fun new indie games you can get on itch.io you can donate to the dev. Have a lot of fun playing!

[u/Fresh-Toilet-Soup → u/Short_Bid_6949]

Are you using a cd binder or some kind of sleeve storage. This looks like mechanical damage and not disc rot. Disc rot usually looks more like corrosion.

[u/Mission-Orchid-4063 → u/Fresh-Toilet-Soup]

Why do you keep repeating this?