Crackonosh; Cracked PC games infect over 200,000* systems with cryptocurrency miner malware

[CerealExperimentsLain]

Just now, MartinTheActor said:

I think it really could be luck of the draw. I have a Star Trek: Bridge Commander disc that has been used SOOOOO often, but somewhere along the line it got a crack near the centre of it. I'm so paranoid that it'll totally break that I've burned a copy just so I can still play what is IMO the best Star Trek game ever made.

I think it's worth saying though, those of us that still use discs for games are probably also the most likely to be the ones who've looked after them well. Like, my collection of games are all in their cases, all in plastic storage crates unless being used. When you consider the condition that most games have to be to sell in the retro market...I don't know it's fair to say that Quackers' experience is the atypical. At the time I remember having to constantly do everything from wipe carefully, to skimming the discs in some circumstances. 

I'll agree that's likely a part of it.  Most of my own actual game discs from childhood/being a teen, did not survive.  But they also lived hard lives.  I def found loose discs just piled with papers and things in old moving boxes as a younger adult that an even younger me had let get 'stored' that way.  Stacking bare discs atop the PC as I switched discs, ect.  There was a real lack of 'pride of ownership'.  In contrast, say, a game cartridge, that's something that'd survive a lot more abuse even if thrown in a toybox.  But these are still stories of optical discs being rather poorly taken care of.

 

But 'basic optical disc car' is not a hard thing.  Just a lot of people didn't do it, especially youth.  But the idea that optical discs couldn't survive 10 years is entirely false, you just have to not kick the hell out of them.

[ToboRobot]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

i have 30yo cds that still work just fine… they are actually  build to last "forever", but marketing was bad ,showing how "scratch resistant" cds are when they really arent, storage is important here.

The real problem  is draconian drm employed during the early 2000s, I have like 30 pc games on cd(dvd) or so and maybe 5 of them actually work on win10 , even though the cds themselves are in pristine condition.

 

 

It isn't just scratching that deteriorates CDs.  Disc rot - Wikipedia

[Quackers101]

yeah, makes it feel like it comes to luck. certain discs used for a long time still holds better than some that have been used less. to me, CDs just seems like a gamble in how long they hold under "normal" situations. ofc if you take very good care, I wouldn't deny it would last longer, not what I was talking about. Also to what kind of damage you have to apply to ruin it over time? That certain abused ones still holds up compared to less abused ones, But I think all of the blue-rays that are still around here, are all good? also if the reader could be or by movement to apply damage to a disc etc. so again very situational of how they last?

[MartinTheActor]

Just now, CerealExperimentsLain said:

I'll agree that's likely a part of it.  Most of my own actual game discs from childhood/being a teen, did not survive.  But they also lived hard lives.  I def found loose discs just piled with papers and things in old moving boxes as a younger adult that an even younger me had let get 'stored' that way.  Stacking bare discs atop the PC as I switched discs, ect.  There was a real lack of 'pride of ownership'.  In contrast, say, a game cartridge, that's something that'd survive a lot more abuse even if thrown in a toybox.  But these are still stories of optical discs being rather poorly taken care of.

 

But 'basic optical disc car' is not a hard thing.  Just a lot of people didn't do it, especially youth.  But the idea that optical discs couldn't survive 10 years is entirely false, you just have to not kick the hell out of them.

Oh totally agree there. I have all of my original discs for Sims (plus expansions), Caesar III, Pharaoh, HoMM. Even all of my Sega Saturn discs are in perfect condition. Speaking of, even a scratched version of one of the games I have in perfect condition was selling at an local retro game shop for £80 (Paradious). Got REALLY tempted to sell mine!

It just comes down to how they were looked after I guess.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

1 minute ago, ToboRobot said:

It isn't just scratching that deteriorates CDs.  Disc rot - Wikipedia

Let's cover this: One of the primary causes of 'discrot' is material deterioration caused by ultraviolet radiation.  That stuff is legit terrifying.  UV breaks down the pigments on the pages of books (That's how 'sun fading' happens).  UV breaks down the damn DNA in your skin.  UV, just from sunlight, is destructive stuff to a lot of materials.

 

There are also challenges with some discs due to manufacturing flaws but these generally effect entire runs of discs.  Like there are known pressings of music CDs where the majority of discs in those pressings suffer premature discoloration or even years.  There's also issues with earlier discs, this is particularly an issue with laser discs which were large and produced very on in the history of optical media.  Some entire European plants are known for subpar production.

 

However 'discrot' does not mean that every disc will simply begin to decay.  The vast majority of optical discs kept indoors, out of prolonged direct sunlight/UV exposure, won't show signs of deterioration for decades.

[Mark Kaine]

9 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

It isn't just scratching that deteriorates CDs.  Disc rot - Wikipedia

i mean it sucks if it happens, but afaik, with normal cds, it barely does, unlike other stuff like "video cd", i just feel this is really insignificant compared to how many people "hate" cds nowadays because  they didnt care about them enough  to not scratch them …

its been a weird mix of false marketing and a weird early 90s throwaway mentality…

 

 

 

[CerealExperimentsLain]

1 minute ago, Mark Kaine said:

i mean it sucks if it happens, but afaik, with normal cds, it barely does, unlike other stuff like "video cd", i just feel this is really insignificant compared to how many people "hate" cds nowadays because  they didnt care about them enough  to not scratch them …

its been a weird mix of false marketing and a weird early 90s throwaway mentality…

Also people using CDR and DVDRs, which do have not the mooost stability due to their organic dye data layers, which def have, on average, far shorter life spans than factory pressed discs. They start thinking that problem must apply to ANY disc of any type.

 

Meanwhile people who collect retro games on disc (Which now goes back 25+ years) or collectors of movies, including myself who have OOP anime DVDs that have no modern BD release, but the 15+ yo DVDs read just fine.

 

IMO the biggest risk of buying used optical media is you gotta open teh box and make sure the disc is actually still in there.   Seriously, check that. D: