Sega Dreamcast burned games

[Joelius]

We all know that you could burn games for the Dreamcast via your normal burner and DiscJuggler or what not, buy my question is, Do your own personal burned games create a higher wear and tear on the Dreamcast system then the manufactured GD-ROMs, or is it the same. I don't want to mess up my Dreamcast in a hurry and take it apart to fix the laser again like the last one i owned.

[omnedon]

Prperly burned backups should be fine. A poorly burned backup (data scattered all over the disc) can make the laser seek all over the place, increasing wear and tear dramatically.

[Joelius]

Ok, well how do you know when you burned it the correct way over the wrong way. Is that with the file itself or is that with the burning procedure?

[omnedon]

It's all in how the image was ripped from the original, and how the files are laid out sequentially on the ISO.

Unless you are using the special equipment needed to rip the backups from the GD-Roms themseleves, there is nothing you can do. Either the inage is good (and laid out properly) or it isn't.

One that isn't will be noisy, with the laser moving laterally, constantly, making for longer load times too. If you have an image like that, it's best to ditch it, and aquire a better one.

[MrKitt]

well actually the laser is more torn if you do duplicates since they have worse reflection then orginal GD-ROM discs have, also since the unit itself uses the CDROM laser over the whole disc insted the GDROM laser like it should on all information beyond the 20mb boot track + the dummy sega copy ring.
unless you burn it to a real gd-rom cd-r disc. (they do exist but require special burners and they aint cheap)

[Flack]

I have been playing burned DC games since they were released and it hasn't harmed my DC at all, for what it's worth. I've always just used the images out there on the 'net -- I've never moved files around or any of that stuff.

I'm at five years and counting on my DC. I guess if it ever does die then I will have learned my lesson and I'll buy another one for $20 or so.