I'm planning a couple of retro builds here using parts from my hoard. Just curious about the CD-ROM... I have several options, but Ideally I'd probably just like to use an IDE DVD-RW as a reader on the system.
Is there any downside to using a modern-ish IDE DVD-RW? I believe I have several, but LGs are the most common.
What driver should I use for it? With the standard Oak driver work?
bbking67 wrote on 2022-04-22, 20:09:Is there any downside to using a modern-ish IDE DVD-RW? I believe I have several, but LGs are the most common.
Hi! It..depends.
The normal stuff will surely work.
PC CD-ROMs (ISO9660, Juliet, UDF), Music CDs, Data DVD-ROMs..
However, if you're into going further down the rabbit hole..
Philips CD-i, Video CDs, Japanese CD-ROMs, Music CDs with karaoke subtitles, Mixed-Mode CD-ROMs, PC/Mac-hybrid discs, etc.
It could be that some more recent optical drives dropped one or more standards (socalled "books").
You can check the supported formats by using some utility from Nero Burning ROM, I vaguely remember.
Alternatively, there other tools out there that list supported formats.
Another issue is speed.
For a smooth gaming experience, you'll likely need to run a slow-down utility that keeps the CD spinning at a slow, but constant speed.
Like Nero Drive Speed.
bbking67 wrote on 2022-04-22, 20:09:What driver should I use for it? With the standard Oak driver work?
Yes, should work fine still. 🙂👍
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
//My video channel//
yeah no need for the weird formats... so ill probably just go for it. I do have a large number of original cd-rom games, so ill need a tool. I wasnt even aware that speed could be an issue.
The drives I have are newer than the 90's style pc, but still pretty old (I figure 10 years or older) given that they are IDE/ATA.
Thanks!
bbking67 wrote on 2022-04-22, 20:38:yeah no need for the weird formats... so ill probably just go for it. I do have a large number of original cd-rom games, so ill need a tool. I wasnt even aware that speed could be an issue.
The drives I have are newer than the 90's style pc, but still pretty old (I figure 10 years or older) given that they are IDE/ATA.
Thanks!
There are many a story where "downwards compatible" was a bit of a false promise. E.g. stand-alone DVD players would play CDs but some made for a really crappy Hifi component.
But, for the bread-and-butter reading of that game CD or installing Windows: Think you can't do too much wrong. One size fits all, pretty much.
The tricky thing begins if you like your machine to look authentic, of course. Some really generic looking drives of 2000 ff around, but even those look too modern once you've seen a few.
And, most period-correct older ones did not look generic. Silly headphone connectors, volume control wheel, play-pause keys come to mind. And of course, advertising the speed on the lid, somewhere between double speed and 56 x.
But, definitely not worth the trouble. Roughly 99 % of 1990s optical drives out there are fucked or about to croak on you the third time you use them. They may take weird formats but then again, they might not take formats that seem not weird at all, like CD-R, CD-RW or anything beyound 650 MB...
So, definitely, be content with what you have there.
I like jumpers.
