Uhh, because I have a working optical drive. Am I in the minority now? Doesn't get a ton of use but every now and then I have to rip a DVD I own because it's starting to die.
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
457 points (99.4% liked)
Gaming
21387 readers
73 users here now
Sub for any gaming related content!
Rules:
- 1: No spam or advertising. This basically means no linking to your own content on blogs, YouTube, Twitch, etc.
- 2: No bigotry or gatekeeping. This should be obvious, but neither of those things will be tolerated. This goes for linked content too; if the site has some heavy "anti-woke" energy, you probably shouldn't be posting it here.
- 3: No untagged game spoilers. If the game was recently released or not released at all yet, use the Spoiler tag (the little ⚠️ button) in the body text, and avoid typing spoilers in the title. It should also be avoided to openly talk about major story spoilers, even in old games.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Not sure about the minority now, but you will be in a few years if not already. Prebuilt PCs haven’t included optical drives as standard for years now, and good luck buying a new laptop that has one.
Optical media isn’t dead but it’s on life support and will become functionally obsolete in the next decade, same as what happened to magnetic media.
I have one as well in my PC of Theseus, it's been an ongoing part for more than a decade now. But, I also haven't used in in a year or more.
It's kinda funny to think back at how excited I was when my father first installed a CD-ROM drive in our home PC and knowing I could now get some of the newest games which were coming out on PC at that time. And now, I don't even know if my optical drive is still working.
PCeus?
I used mine 3 days ago. Admittedly, it had probably been a few years since the last time that tray opened, but all was good!
I got an external Blu Ray drive. It's pretty sweet
I have two that are constantly hooked up to my mac! One for ripping and burning CDs and DVDs (which I still do regularly, in fact I ripped five audio CDs just today) and one for ripping/burning 4k/blu-ray. I occasionally use both at the same time to make copies of discs, but my need for that is for part of a hobby project.
I got an internal BDXL drive and flashed firmware to make sure I can rip the 4K discs I started getting as part of physical bundles. Still need to start getting NAS drives to be ready for when my main PC stops being my daily driver+Plex Server before I had to get a new TV that could view them (still don't have a dedicated player and annoyed the PS4 Pro didn't ship with 4K playback). For now I can at least hook my PC to the TV if I really want to watch a disc.
My pc sonetimes doesn't start up, i assume the psu is wonky or something stupid like a wonky power button connector. I started to look into it and was shocked when i saw that my pc has a optical drive hidden behind a little hatch. I completely forgot about that. But also shows how much i need it.
No, my pc doesn’t have an internal optical drive…. But doesn’t everyone have a usb portable drive?
Who isn't keeping multiple vintage pcs? I keep a core2 system with a floppy and disc drives to deal with old media. It even has parralel and serial ports in case I need to deal with old hardware like zip drives. It has internal sata so it can boot from an ssd.
vintage pcs
core2
:'(
Ok, not vintage yet, but released 18 years ago an discontinued 12 years ago.
I used to have a USB floppy drive too. Now I just have disk images.
I got one and I've been watching old DVDs on my puter
External drives are cheap. Got one working on the Steam Deck.
I pulled one out of an old laptop and bought an adapter for that purpose. :p Adapter was like 5 bucks.
What else am I supposed to fill my shelves with? Books?
Pfffffffffff
added a cd/dvd read/write on my pc for $25 new, mostly so I could install my old permanent license Photoshop CS6
Played the absolute shit of of midtown madness when I was a kid. Such a throwback.
Same
It's not like I do it or have like almost the same stack of boxes.
Guilty. I have half a bookcase of legacy PC games
Who else wishes there was more semi-attractive PC cases with an 5.25" bay? I have ripped many CDs and Blurays with my optical drive
For real. Given how many of the "attractive" cases are becoming very modular/config swappable, It would be cool to see even an add-on option for them that allows changing the faceplate and mount points for a 5.24in bay. Not expecting to see all the "fish tank" cases do this, but some could make it work. Maybe ones that are wide dual chamber ones with metal plate space could have a vertical option.
Get into boardgames. Now you have big-ass nerdy gamer boxes in your library which actually have a reason to exist.
The problem with those is finding people to play with.
Because i'm too lazy to back them up.
Where is freelancer?!?!
Freelancer was so fucking fun!
Can't believe there was never anything like it again.
Everspace (rogue like) / ES2
Is that half-life generation? Damn, I bet kids these days haven't even heard of that one.
Just looked it up and it was basically Orange Box before Half-Life 2
At one point recently I bought a two pack of USB Blu-ray burner drives for $25. Optical media is so dirt cheap now that the readers are BOGO. Gave one to my partner, the other is still serving my physical media needs very well.
Where? That sounds like a good price as internal SATA BD-RE drives tend to be $60+
Called out
People who collect have entered the chat.
Keep them! Don't ever throw them away! Someone will find them very interesting some day.
I think they can be used to reclaim your steam account if you lose access, so that's why I like to keep mine. And it's neat.