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I want to prolong the life of my PlayStation 2 games. How and what can I realistically do, GAF?

MiyazakiHatesKojima

MiyazakiHatesKojima

Banned
So I have a lot of PlayStation 2 discs that range from mint condition to acceptable condition. I have heard of companies that polish discs to become "brand new" condition and I want to know the risks and benefits of doing such a thing.

Should I keep them the way they are to prevent the chances of disc rot or should I send a bulk of these discs to a reputable company? I want to preserve these games for the next two decades as a gaming enthusiast (I'll be 47 by then).

Any advice for a weirdo who loves games too much for his own good, GAF?
 
Ellis

Ellis

Member
It's the foil layer that you are wanting to protect. Those polish machines only touch the outer plastic, so they won't prevent disc rot. They might even speed up the process of it happening.

I honestly have no idea how to best store discs dude, just try not to store them where temperatures are too warm, and humidity is high.
 
The Pleasure

The Pleasure

Member
The data layer is just under the label. As long as tjats fine resurfacing removes the scratched layer so the laser doesn't have problems reading. There is a limit to how many resurfaces you can do.
 
kingwingin

kingwingin

Member
One time I took a copy of spiderman 3 on bluray and sanded the label off until the disc was clear and it still played the movie.

I'm also interested in this topic aswel as I have been collecting original xbox titles for the last few years and 2 of the games already have cracks near the hole in the middle. I do mod my systems and rip the games but I want my discs to last
 
Verdanth

Verdanth

Member
Is this confirmation that Sony will only get backwards compatibility right twenty years from now?

giphy.gif
 
xpresstuning

xpresstuning

Member
MiyazakiHatesKojima said:
So I have a lot of PlayStation 2 discs that range from mint condition to acceptable condition. I have heard of companies that polish discs to become "brand new" condition and I want to know the risks and benefits of doing such a thing.

Should I keep them the way they are to prevent the chances of disc rot or should I send a bulk of these discs to a reputable company? I want to preserve these games for the next two decades as a gaming enthusiast (I'll be 47 by then).

Any advice for a weirdo who loves games too much for his own good, GAF?
Click to expand...

I suggest not being worried about it. Early "disc rot" is caused by either improper storage or faults in the manufacturing process of certain discs, which may affect one out of a thousand copies, as far as i know. "Disc rot" will inevitably happen because it is a real phenomenon (entropy is unavoidable) but it'll happen long after your passing.

I also recommend you never back up your video games by burning copies of them on other CDs/DVDs. Burned copies age significantly faster, those burned copies are very, very susceptible to early "disc rot". The best way to back up your games is by transferring them on modern storage. Emulation is the best way to preserve video games.
 
FranXico

FranXico

Member
jono51 said:
Toothpaste is actually a good remedy against disc scratches. Fill the disc holder of all your game cases with toothpaste, and make sure there is contact between the toothpaste and the disc when the disc is in the case.
Click to expand...
www.wikihow.com

How to Repair a CD With Toothpaste: 8 Steps (with Pictures)

When CDs were released, they were advertised as "indestructible." No one will believe that any more. While you can buy commercial CD repair kits to fix these fragile objects, it turns out there's an easier way. Squeeze that tube of...
www.wikihow.com www.wikihow.com
 
Pallas

Pallas

Gold Member
Probably nothing that hasn’t been said already but keep them from high temperature areas and out of sunlight. I wouldn’t even play them too much since that exposes yourself to accidental risks every time you remove them from the case. As someone mentions, you should keep digital copies, whether official like on PSN or emulation. So you can play them when needed.

Is it just me or did the PS1 compact discs held up better than the DVD PS2
 
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
danielberg said:
honestly emulation... or just modded playstation and burning lots of copies of your games.
Click to expand...
There is no need to mod most PS2 HW. A memory card with free mcboot loaded is all you need. And with that you can play games off an HDD. You can play off of USB too but as it is USB 1.2 it is not a great experience lol.

Well, you still need to mod a slim if you don't wanna use optical media and that is a pain in the fucking ass, requires soldering like 40 points iirc.
 
Last edited:
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
I would recommend at least trying out backups. You have nothing to lose. There is no need to do any hardware or software modifications. You are just using a memory card exploit to load some software. The only cost is that of a memory card.
 
DrJohnGalt

DrJohnGalt

Banned
I too collect old game discs, with PS2 being my area of focus. I've got a high-end resurface machine (the kind they use at retro game stores) and as far as I know this doesn't prevent things like disc rot, it simply allows you to clean up minor scratches so the disc can be read more easily. From what I've heard, disc rot is due to poor manufacturing or bad storage conditions.
 
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
I assume manufacturing conditions are the single largest factor. My 3DO collection suffers the worst from Disc rot, along with Sega CD, but my older and contemporary PC-98 and PCE CD titles have few to no issues.
 
Komatsu

Komatsu

Member
Buy a PS2 hard drive adapter, a nice 3,5'' SATA drive and use OPS2L to run games from the HD. It's not really legal but it's something I've seen legacy PS2 owners do with increasing frequency.
 
MeatSafeMurderer

MeatSafeMurderer

Member
Rip them all and make copies across 50 different archival grade tapes and then spread them out across the earth just in case any one continent should suffer total nuclear annihilation.
 
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
Birdo said:
By the time they rot, they will probably be available in some other form.
Click to expand...
Depends on the game. Like licensed games are unlikely to ever appear anywhere else, so if you want a go of Transformers Tatakai or Spiderman 2 or Warriors or games from defunct publishers like a True Crime Streets of NY or even just lower and mid-tier games like the weird remakes of Virtua Racing and Phantasy Star or smething like Rygar and Maximo or Psi-OPs or like Blood Will Tell, most games there is no incentive to rerelease anywhere adn are going to be stuck on their native platform
 
Birdo

Birdo

Banned
Ceallach said:
Depends on the game. Like licensed games are unlikely to ever appear anywhere else, so if you want a go of Transformers Tatakai or Spiderman 2 or Warriors or games from defunct publishers like a True Crime Streets of NY or even just lower and mid-tier games like the weird remakes of Virtua Racing and Phantasy Star or smething like Rygar and Maximo or Psi-OPs or like Blood Will Tell, most games there is no incentive to rerelease anywhere adn are going to be stuck on their native platform
Click to expand...

But by that time (We're talking 20+ years), emulation will probably save those licence-expired games.

It's one of the best things about emulation. It can archive games for future generations when they are no longer available by any other means.
 
Ceallach

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
Birdo said:
But by that time (We're talking 20+ years), emulation will probably save those licence-expired games.

It's one of the best things about emulation. It can archive games for future generations when they are no longer available by any other means.
Click to expand...
Emulation isn't technically availability. As far as emulation goes, PS2 is easy. You can make PS2 games look really good via eumalation on a modest machine. Hell, PSP runs great on Switch, I wouldn't be surprised to see PS2 emulation coming to Switch sooner or later.
 
stranno

stranno

Member
Fun fact: A new exploit for Playstation 2 has been released. It goes through a Yabasic discs vulnerability and it works in every model (including non Free McBoot compatible Slims). PAL only tho, since Yabasic discs are PAL exclusive.
 
P

Pinktaco

Member
Vacuum seal them. These can be easily bought and plastic backs as well. Not THAT expensive. The vacuum sealers are used for food, but they can easily be used for other things.
You can always open and reseal in time of need.
That should keep them going, right?

I actually think Angry Video Game Nerd made a video about this some years back, but I could be wrong..
 
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