4 ms·

> pull the genuine disc and insert the pirate disc you had Confused... so you'd pull out a spinning CD? And the insert one while the spindle was still spinning

> pull the genuine disc and insert the pirate disc you had Confused... so you'd pull out a spinning CD? And the insert one while the spindle was still spinning? And you'd do this safely, and fast enough that the game wouldn't have time to start reading the disc contents before the swap? And you'd do this every single time you're trying to play the game? This sounds pretty impossible to pull off without hurting yourself and damaging everything... what am I missing?

spydum 3y ago
They didn't spin that fast and it's not as sensitive as you think. CD-ROMs are used to dealing with bumps and skips and retries.
- glenstein 3y ago
  I distinctly remember fancy add-on features, such as my Philips CD player having ESP, electronic skip protection.
rplnt 3y ago
The CDs are super light and the motors are super weak. You can stop a spinning CD with a light touch of a finger.
dtech 3y ago
You're severely underestimating the robustness of CD systems. They were fully made with the assumption that a spinning unstable plastic disc continually handled by humans would go wrong often. Look up for example Philips SBC444A test CD for the kind of things CD players were required to handle for certification.
- dataflow 3y ago
  This seems like the complete opposite of my experience for CDs. I've had so many CDs go bad on me without any mishandling or visible damage. DVDs were more like what you're saying.
  - ska 3y ago
    Re writable CD's were pretty flaky, but regular ones were pretty solid I think.
    - dataflow 3y ago
      Both were flaky in my experience.
      - Andrex 3y ago
        Optical disc technology was newer for CDs than for DVDs.
        devilbunny 3y ago
        And CDs had the data on the metal film on top of the disc, while DVDs sandwiched it between plastic layers. It is much easier to damage a CD. Short of breaking it in pieces, almost any damage to a DVD can be buffed out.
  - glenstein 3y ago
    Both can be true. I take the parent commenter to be talking about reading data off of the CD in a way that accounts for the irregularities from inconsistent spinning speeds, (I distinctly recall a friend pulling a CD out of the CD player and placing it back in to resume spinning, while a song was playing without any break in the song). Perhaps, additionally, the was some degree of accounting for resilience to things like blemishes and fingerprints. It can nevertheless be true that the CDs were failing all the time. So robust error correction is real to achieve the degree of functionality that we did enjoy during the heyday of CDs, and despite this, the fragility of CDs as an information medium meant that they were still disappointing us.
ssl-3 3y ago
The PSX's CD-ROM drive was a pretty sleepy thing compared to the screamers that came at peak CD-ROM in the PC space. The PSX's 2x drive can spin, at most, at about 1,000 RPM. There just isn't much momentum (kinetic energy) there. And IIRC, the wobble-track detection happened at 1x (or a maximum of about 500RPM). There was nothing particularly iffy about the hit-swapping with PSX's CD-ROM. It could have, at most, less than 0.2 Joules of stored kinetic energy. You can just put your finger on it and stop it with no particular danger. The PC drives, meanwhile, generally topped out at around 8,000RPM. That's getting into the realm of scary, with something in the realm of 64x the kinetic energy -- which is more energy than a rather competent air rifle might provide. (Beyond 8,000RPM, CDs often had disintegration issues, and exploding CD-ROMs were also sometimes reported at somewhat slower speeds. But at 500 or 1,000 RPM? Nah. It's a really boring amount of kinetic energy.)
- razodactyl 3y ago
  Yeah I've had CDs explode before. My sister was heavily into mixed tape burning with her friends. When I got a CD burner she used it all the time. I'm not sure on the why? But the tray eventually would eject with the CD still spinning? Bad braking system? You could hear the drive go nuts and speed up to weird speeds and one day a disc exploded inside. Remember the warnings about not inserting X format discs into Y drives. Does anyone know why this happens?
  - Uvix 3y ago
    The warnings about not inserting X format discs into Y drives were usually about not inserting non-circular discs (or sometimes mini-CDs) into slot-loading drives.
- bonton89 3y ago
  I remember swapping back to a yellowed 24x drive from a newer 72x back in the day. The 72x could copy large files faster but the time it took to spin up meant if I was reading an single file (like with a games CD check) the latency was horrible and it sounded like a jet engine while doing it. The 24x was much quieter and quicker to spin up. Honestly, even moderate file transfers didn't seem any faster once you accounted for the spin up to me but that just a feeling. I imagine the teeth chattering sound biased me against that drive. I think the 72x drives were really just another example of "big number marketing" that was even more prevalent in desktop PCs back then than it is now.
risenshinetech 3y ago
The best part of this is that you think stopping a spinning CD is an any way, shape, or form: dangerous.
- dataflow 3y ago
  Yes? Obviously depending on the CD and the speed it's spinning at. Pretty sure you could injure yourself with the edges of some CDs at higher speeds.
  - socks 3y ago
    I used to do this CD swap as a kid - you wouldn't touch the CD - you would put your finger on the mount that you clip the CD onto, and then when it had stopped, pop the CD off.
joenot443 3y ago
I’m chuckling to myself as I wonder how one might go about hurting themself with a spinning CD.
- razodactyl 3y ago
  Some CDs I recall were damn sharp around the edges. Not that it would be a problem with PSX. Those discs were soft and rounded at the sides.
razodactyl 3y ago
Yes. You may damage things if not careful but the PS1 disc has obvious feedback when the lid is open while reading the disc. When authenticating it slows down considerably then displays the PS logo screen. You would watch it slow down then speed up then slow down (happens for a few seconds) and you'd simply grab the disc and replace it.
- dataflow 3y ago
  Ah, thanks, this makes way more sense.

spydum 3y ago

They didn't spin that fast and it's not as sensitive as you think. CD-ROMs are used to dealing with bumps and skips and retries.

glenstein 3y ago
I distinctly remember fancy add-on features, such as my Philips CD player having ESP, electronic skip protection.

rplnt 3y ago

The CDs are super light and the motors are super weak. You can stop a spinning CD with a light touch of a finger.

dtech 3y ago

You're severely underestimating the robustness of CD systems. They were fully made with the assumption that a spinning unstable plastic disc continually handled by humans would go wrong often. Look up for example Philips SBC444A test CD for the kind of things CD players were required to handle for certification.

dataflow 3y ago
This seems like the complete opposite of my experience for CDs. I've had so many CDs go bad on me without any mishandling or visible damage. DVDs were more like what you're saying.
- ska 3y ago
  Re writable CD's were pretty flaky, but regular ones were pretty solid I think.
  - dataflow 3y ago
    Both were flaky in my experience.
    - Andrex 3y ago
      Optical disc technology was newer for CDs than for DVDs.
      - devilbunny 3y ago
        And CDs had the data on the metal film on top of the disc, while DVDs sandwiched it between plastic layers. It is much easier to damage a CD. Short of breaking it in pieces, almost any damage to a DVD can be buffed out.
- glenstein 3y ago
  Both can be true. I take the parent commenter to be talking about reading data off of the CD in a way that accounts for the irregularities from inconsistent spinning speeds, (I distinctly recall a friend pulling a CD out of the CD player and placing it back in to resume spinning, while a song was playing without any break in the song). Perhaps, additionally, the was some degree of accounting for resilience to things like blemishes and fingerprints. It can nevertheless be true that the CDs were failing all the time. So robust error correction is real to achieve the degree of functionality that we did enjoy during the heyday of CDs, and despite this, the fragility of CDs as an information medium meant that they were still disappointing us.

ssl-3 3y ago

The PSX's CD-ROM drive was a pretty sleepy thing compared to the screamers that came at peak CD-ROM in the PC space. The PSX's 2x drive can spin, at most, at about 1,000 RPM. There just isn't much momentum (kinetic energy) there. And IIRC, the wobble-track detection happened at 1x (or a maximum of about 500RPM). There was nothing particularly iffy about the hit-swapping with PSX's CD-ROM. It could have, at most, less than 0.2 Joules of stored kinetic energy. You can just put your finger on it and stop it with no particular danger. The PC drives, meanwhile, generally topped out at around 8,000RPM. That's getting into the realm of scary, with something in the realm of 64x the kinetic energy -- which is more energy than a rather competent air rifle might provide. (Beyond 8,000RPM, CDs often had disintegration issues, and exploding CD-ROMs were also sometimes reported at somewhat slower speeds. But at 500 or 1,000 RPM? Nah. It's a really boring amount of kinetic energy.)

razodactyl 3y ago
Yeah I've had CDs explode before. My sister was heavily into mixed tape burning with her friends. When I got a CD burner she used it all the time. I'm not sure on the why? But the tray eventually would eject with the CD still spinning? Bad braking system? You could hear the drive go nuts and speed up to weird speeds and one day a disc exploded inside. Remember the warnings about not inserting X format discs into Y drives. Does anyone know why this happens?
- Uvix 3y ago
  The warnings about not inserting X format discs into Y drives were usually about not inserting non-circular discs (or sometimes mini-CDs) into slot-loading drives.
bonton89 3y ago
I remember swapping back to a yellowed 24x drive from a newer 72x back in the day. The 72x could copy large files faster but the time it took to spin up meant if I was reading an single file (like with a games CD check) the latency was horrible and it sounded like a jet engine while doing it. The 24x was much quieter and quicker to spin up. Honestly, even moderate file transfers didn't seem any faster once you accounted for the spin up to me but that just a feeling. I imagine the teeth chattering sound biased me against that drive. I think the 72x drives were really just another example of "big number marketing" that was even more prevalent in desktop PCs back then than it is now.

risenshinetech 3y ago

The best part of this is that you think stopping a spinning CD is an any way, shape, or form: dangerous.

dataflow 3y ago
Yes? Obviously depending on the CD and the speed it's spinning at. Pretty sure you could injure yourself with the edges of some CDs at higher speeds.
- socks 3y ago
  I used to do this CD swap as a kid - you wouldn't touch the CD - you would put your finger on the mount that you clip the CD onto, and then when it had stopped, pop the CD off.

joenot443 3y ago

I’m chuckling to myself as I wonder how one might go about hurting themself with a spinning CD.

razodactyl 3y ago
Some CDs I recall were damn sharp around the edges. Not that it would be a problem with PSX. Those discs were soft and rounded at the sides.

razodactyl 3y ago

Yes. You may damage things if not careful but the PS1 disc has obvious feedback when the lid is open while reading the disc. When authenticating it slows down considerably then displays the PS logo screen. You would watch it slow down then speed up then slow down (happens for a few seconds) and you'd simply grab the disc and replace it.

dataflow 3y ago
Ah, thanks, this makes way more sense.