CD-Rs with Original CD-ROM Drive

[Lo-Res]

Hey guys,

I got my FM Towns II yesterday and after re-capping everything and putting it all back together I'm very lucky to have a fully working original cd-rom drive.  It's re-capped, laser cleaned, and rails lubricated so it's happy for now.

My question is do you guys play burned CD-Rs on your original FM Town drives?  or is it better to only play original factory pressed discs?

I have a collection of pc engine consoles and games and I've always only played original discs with those. I've always thought it was harder on a laser to play CD-Rs.  Opinions?

[kamiboy]

Burned CD's shortening laser life is one of those ubiquitous "facts" that one keeps running across. Alas, I've never been sure if it is actually a fact, or just a misconception.

The prices of FM Towns games being astronomical as they are I don't really see most people having much of any choice in the matter unless they have very deep pockets.

In any regard, the Towns laser mechanisms have a reputation to be rickety and prone to spontaneous failures no matter how they are used. So I guess the best thing is just to enjoy your machine while it lasts.

[kendrick]

Okay, replying with a couple of caveats. I don't own an FM Towns system and I don't have any particular or special knowledge about the CD-ROM hardware. With that said, there are a bunch of historical facts that we can consider, but pretty much lead us to the same conclusions Kamiboy already drew.

Writable CD-R only became common in the 1990s about ten years after the original Compact Disc format was invented. Throughout the 1990s the ISO 9660 standard that governed the file storage capabilities (and the maximum size of the disc) kept changing, which had the effect of annoying a lot of hardware OEMs into manufacturing only the cheapest possible gear they could to comply with the largest number of standard requirements. Every last CD and CD-R and CD-RW has roughly the same physical characteristics, and in practice CD-R media has shallower laser pits and CD-RW has only flipping reflective components and no pits at all. So theoretically, your CD drive shouldn't care one way or the other.

In the real world, your laser still doesn't technically work any harder per data bit. However, error correction activities for disc formats that your drive isn't designed to see means that the number of reads goes up and the number of spins increases. So the practical effect here is that you're using more of your laser operation life (and your various motors) to read the data off of a CD-R, as opposed to an original pressed CD. Is that bad? That depends on what your expectations are for the usable life of your optical drive, and how much media you think you'll get through in a lifetime.

So this isn't like driving your car on gravel instead of pavement. It's like driving your car on twice as much pavement. It's not worse wear, just more of it.

[Lo-Res]

Great info Kamiboy and Kendrick.  I managed to format 1.23mb floppys tonight, and was able to write FD Boot to a floppy.  I'll get a SCSI cd-rom drive and play CD-Rs in that lol.  The original drive is working so good I just want to leave it alone or maybe only play what very few original discs I'll be able to get in the original drive.  I ordered Splatterhouse and Rayxanber from PCEWorks (not original but factory pressed) now I just need to find Chase HQ original and I'll be happy burning the rest lol like Kamiboy said, games are really expensive for the system.

[Jehuty]

You can play Splatterhouse and Rayxanber via FDBoot.
And Chase H.Q. too but this must be patched and bootetr from a Floppy with the patch.

[megatron-uk]

... I ordered Splatterhouse and Rayxanber from PCEWorks (not original but factory pressed) ...

Are they still getting away with selling copies of games???

[kamiboy]

There is another guy doing pressed disc repros of Tatsujin Oh. I found him on a facebook FM Towns group. Would be nice if there were more pressed repros for the Towns.

[Lo-Res]

There is another guy doing pressed disc repros of Tatsujin Oh. I found him on a facebook FM Towns group. Would be nice if there were more pressed repros for the Towns.

PCEWorks is also making Tasujin Oh and I believe might be available very soon.

I've never bought a repro before, but when it comes to FM Towns I guess I gave in.

I only know of Splatterhouse, Rayxanber, and Tasujin Oh being reproduced.

Fortunately some of the games I'm interrested in are not that expensive to buy the originals.  I managed to get Dungeon Master Chaos Strikes back and Dungeon Master II for a decent deal just complete in jewel case.  The Alone in the dark games and Chase HQ seem afordable too so I'm after those ones

[Lo-Res]

... I ordered Splatterhouse and Rayxanber from PCEWorks (not original but factory pressed) ...

Are they still getting away with selling copies of games???

Yes sir they are.  I am guilty last week of buying the 2 FM towns games they have made.