racketboy.com

Hi all,

I've been having some issues with my Dreamcast games not reading properly. I've tested on multiple systems, cleaned lasers etc. and I'm fairly sure it's the discs themselves that are the issue.

I've heard mixed stuff about whether you can/should resurface Dreamcast games. Some have said they end up ruined. I'd rather not risk my copies of Shenmue and Shenmue 2 if I can help it.

What's the consensus - is there a good way to resurface GD-ROMs or should I just stick to trying to clean them. I'm assuming rubbing alcohol and a non-abrasive cloth would be the best option for cleaning?

Some people have recommended fixing scratches using Toothpaste. Does this actually work? It seems like it could cause issues down the line to me.

Toothpaste is an abrasive, it's made out of rocks to scratch stuff off another surface. I've never understood why people suggest using it on optical discs. Maybe they polished the scratch out? But that's just a sloppier version of getting them buffed.

This probably isn't too hard to figure out, if you research what GD-Rom's are coated with, and see if that's a suitable plastic for resurfacing on industrial machines. You'll probably need to find the thickness as well.

I thought GD-ROMs were basically just CDs, and it's the way the data is packed on the disc that requires a special drive to read. I even read once that the GD-ROMs in Dreamcasts are just modified CD drives.

But anyway, yeah, I wouldn't put toothpaste on a disc I cared about. If you wanna try a wacky internet suggestion, try peanut butter.

Try the Novus scratch remover set of 3. It has worked for me. It won't get rid of every scratch but it should get them to playable condition again. Use #3 at a right angle to the scratches to start and it will make the deeper scratches ready for the #2 solution.

My brother got Shenmue buffed at Game X change and it works great now.

My original copy of disc 3 of Shenmue 3 is dodgy now. Last year it started crashing part way through the disc, rendering it unplayable once you reach that point. It's a bit annoying, since I've owned it since new, have looked after it and can't see a single scratch on the disc. It still looks in pristine condition.

So I bought a copy of disc 3 off Ebay last year that works fine, yet that copy is scratched to fuck... Meh.

I hadn't thought about trying to get the disc resurfaced or anything. I might have to look into it, since it would be nice to have my nice looking disc working again.

Reprise wrote:My original copy of disc 3 of Shenmue 3 is dodgy now.

Thanks for letting us know Shenmue 3 will be multiple discs! valuable information from the future!

How the hell did that happen?

I meant Shenmue 1

CRTGAMER has posted a guide on the topic of buffing CDs.
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=29530&p=398336#p398336

I just sent in a couple of Dreamcast discs to Game Disc Repair (link goes to their eBay store). They use industrial resurfacing machines that cost thousands of dollars and do not leave resurfacing rings. On the site you can select the quantity of discs you send in, mail them out, and get them back well packaged with paper sleeves for each one or a cake box for larger orders. They also have a 100% feedback rating.

So I recently decided to send in 2 discs. One was a King of Fighters 99 disc that I got off eBay years ago and was very badly scratched, it would only play when it felt like it, the other was a copy of Giga Wing 2 I just scored for around $13 because the seller showed the damage, a half inch long deep scratch on the outside coming in.

Throughout the process I was told when the discs arrived, and they also let me know that the GW2 disc had a very deep scratch that possibly penetrated the data layer, and they ran that disc through their machine a second time to try to fix it.

I got my discs back today. KOF is like new with absolutely no traces of what the condition was previously and plays perfectly now. The GW2 disc's deep scratch was improved somewhat but it still doesn't play (it was a low-risk investment for the SOTM this month). They will refund the cost of that one disc, and they have been honest and professional all the way through.

They do disc repairs for all consoles as well as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray. I highly recommend them so check them out, the more discs you send in the cheaper it is.