Reproductions of CD games

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

Cartridge reproductions seem very popular these days, so why not CD games?

I've been making my own "repros" of games for CD based consoles for a while now. I try to print out the manual, jewel case front/back, and I burn my games onto unbranded 650 mb cd-r's at 1x. I even draw the original game logos as closely as I can with permanent markers and include the release date, region, developer, and publisher on the disc.

When it's all complete it really feels like you you have something in your hands, like a real product compared to just a CD-R with some sharpie writing on it that you stash in one of the soft cd binders.

I've been looking into ways of properly putting art on the discs, but the options aren't really that great.

Stickers are awful and can unbalance the disc or make it work poorly in slot loading drives.

Lightscribe drives can make really nice looking CD's, but the discs are not always easy for old systems to read. And they have to be in shades of one color. Probably pretty good for making a greatest hits looking disc.

How do printable CD's do for systems that have lids? Does the paint flake off?

I guess a lot of people would think these are just flat out pirate copies, but there are a number of games that have been translated or hacked for CD systems. It's nice to put them on the shelf next to your copies of Secret of Mana 2 or Super Metroid: Redesign.

[Parodius Duh!]

Most repros are of games that were never released or Translated from Japanese.

So, as long as you are copying prototype or translated games thats fine. People were selling bootleg CD-Rs of Sega CD games at classic gaming expo, like The Smurfs transferred from PAL to NTSC... so whatever...as long as the buyer is fully aware of what they are receiving or just doing it for yourself is no problem.

I have a DVD-R printer and it works great, nothing flakes off, just make sure that it dries fully.

[Edmond Dantes]

Actually, there are "repro" CD games, and I mean good ones--that are actually pressed, not burned to a CD-R.

One such example is the rare PC-Engine game Sapphire, which some Swedish company printed copies of not too long ago. Sharp-eyed collectors can tell these repros from a real legit copy, and the repros are so common that for awhile, people on PCEngineFX were just GIVING them away.

I could swear there was a company that was releasing unreleased Sega CD games as well.

[wiggyx]

I use printable media. Works great. The prints are very permanent. They use ink, not paint. You don't have to worry about that sort of thing at all.

The other thing is that you might consider NOT using generic media and there's NO reason to keep burning games at 1x. That was an issue in 1997, but it's not at this point. Save yourself some time

Most repros are of games that were never released or Translated from Japanese.

So, as long as you are copying prototype or translated games thats fine. People were selling bootleg CD-Rs of Sega CD games at classic gaming expo, like The Smurfs transferred from PAL to NTSC... so whatever...as long as the buyer is fully aware of what they are receiving or just doing it for yourself is no problem.

I have a DVD-R printer and it works great, nothing flakes off, just make sure that it dries fully.

Are you implying that burning unreleased or translated games somehow sidesteps copyright?

If so, that's absolutely NOT correct. It is just as much a copyright violation as a direct copy of a commercially released title. Those properties are still owned by someone. If they weren't, then anyone could simply modify some text in any game and then it as their own without consequence.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

Yeah, the copyright laws are pretty well established. Any repro is technically illegal (in the USA at least). It doesn't matter if it's the original game, or a hack/translation. One is just as much against the law as the other. Some may claim an exception for a single personal backup copy. It's all been discussed MANY times.

So aside from the legalities that we are all aware of, how do we feel about them?

Personally, I think a few years down the line this conversation will be coming up more and more. CD-ROMs are not a long lasting medium, and many games that are sought after will end up in the hands of collectors who don't wish to part with them. Video gaming is a constantly growing hobby, and as the number of people who become interested in retro gaming grows, the number of copies of CD games will dwindle. Addtionally, the collectors market for 32 bit stuff is really open right now, and many betas/unreleased/unfinished games are showing up all the time.

At some point there will be Sega Saturn (or even ps1) clones on the market, and they probably won't require modchips to boot CD-R's.

[wiggyx]

I tend to agree, especially as the tech require to produce disc-based media becomes cheaper and cheaper. Sorta like how repro and flash cart makers have the ability to create custom PC boards without having to purchase a million or more in order to make it happen.

Hell, there were HK PS1 bootlegs well over a decade ago that didn't require a mod. I'm sure that we'll see that sort of thing again as the 6th and 6th gen games become REALLY collectible like the classic stuff has.