Reproductions

General Dreamcast discussion applies here. Before posting here please check the other forums in the Dreamcast section to see if your topic would fit better in those categories.

Moderators: pcwzrd13, mazonemayu

Forum rules
Please check the other forums in the Dreamcast section before posting here to see if your topic would fit better in those categories. Example: A new game/homebrew release would go in the New Releases/Homebrew/Emulation section: http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5 or if you're having an issue with getting your Dreamcast to work or a game to boot it would go in the Support section: http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=42
User avatar
OlivusPrime
dirty sailor
Posts: 177

Reproductions

Post#1 » Tue Aug 09, 2022 4:56 pm

With the VA0 and VA1 model consoles being able to play CD-Rs right out of the box, the Dreamcast is maybe one of the easiest consoles to produce reproduction games for.

Obviously there are two sides to reproductions - sometimes they offer a great way to add rare and high-priced games to your collection, but other times people will try and flog them off as originals to unsuspecting buyers.

What are your experiences with reproductions, or do you have any strong opinions on the matter?

I myself recently got a reproduction copy of Yu Suzuki Game Works from the online store Nights into Dream, who do both Dreamcast and Sega CD reproductions. I figured that a legit copy of the game is so rare and pricey (not to mention that the book it comes with would probably sit on my shelf gathering dust) that it was a good idea, and the games from this store seemed decent quality, not to mention region free.

Unfortunately when it arrived today, the print quality on the box art and disc was severely lacking, and the CD seems to be of a low quality. It makes some nasty noises upon booting up the console and sometimes never even loads the game, despite my Dreamcast being fine with all my authentic games and Verbatim CD-Rs. I won't be buying from them again and I'll investigate to see if a better reproduction can be found elsewhere.

User avatar
mistamontiel
Shark Patrol
Posts: 1941
Contact:

Re: Reproductions

Post#2 » Tue Aug 09, 2022 5:22 pm

Image

My repros

Three are elsewhere

User avatar
OlivusPrime
dirty sailor
Posts: 177

Re: Reproductions

Post#3 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 4:29 pm

mistamontiel wrote:My repros

Three are elsewhere


That's quite a collection! Which CD-Rs do you tend to use? I'm hunting down some more metal azo Verbatims because they seem to go down very well with my console.

Regarding the Yu Suzuki Game Works repro above, Nights into Dream have agreed to refund me on it, so I can commend their customer service even if I wouldn't recommend their products.

User avatar
mistamontiel
Shark Patrol
Posts: 1941
Contact:

Re: Reproductions

Post#4 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:06 pm

JVC Taiyo Yudens always

I tried some Verbs I don't know if they're *the* Verbatims but the dye looks caked on thick like what I first tried yucky Sony Supremas

JVC Taiyos superb reflective, also Staedtler disc pens ('CD/disc pens/markers' either/or may be the better search) as Sharpies can dig into data layer. Nice color coding with those too red Dreamcast green Saturn blue PS1 black CD

User avatar
Ian Micheal
Developer
Posts: 5980
Contact:

Re: Reproductions

Post#5 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:46 pm

Adjust your laser proper and dummy the cdi image correct unlike the crap for sale you get a much better game..

User avatar
Dreamtastic
lithium
Posts: 37

Re: Reproductions

Post#6 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:48 pm

Have a full binder of CD-Rs myself, i use Verbatim that you can get on Amazon for a reasonable price. They are sometimes hit or miss as i will burn and sometimes won't boot. But for the price you really can't beat it.

I used to be a person that needed all of the legit GD Roms and complete games. But with the rise of the internet being so much easier to use now, CDI are on Internet Archives nowadays, and the remaining DC games i don't have are insanely priced for games i probably won't get much play time in. I settle for a having a complete collection via CD-Rs with some homebrews and emulators. I dread though all of the effort of burning one day will be of no use if my laser ever dies out though.

I don't really mess or by reproductions unless it is a brand new indie DC game as in your situation that most are low quality and are just the same thing that you can get on the internet somewhere. I do understand the appeal having next to other DC games though with the package and all. But for me if it's a game that didn't get an official release i don't mind at all.

User avatar
Ragfish
St.Jimmy
Posts: 393

Re: Reproductions

Post#7 » Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:13 pm

I'm not a fan of reproductions. Either I buy the original, or I find a more efficient way to play a "legal backup"

User avatar
dark
Shark Patrol
Posts: 2077

Re: Reproductions

Post#8 » Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:11 pm

Not a fan of repros. For me there's either owning the commercial product, which is neat from a collector and an enthusiast standpoint because its the highest quality and supposedly exactly the way sega and the game's creators wanted the game and its packaging to look and feel physically and how they configured the files on the disc, or else there is just focusing on playing the game through any means necessary, of which there are many free and efficient ways to do so, such as burning your own CDR or using a gdemu or something like that.

Repros are this awkward middle ground between buying the commercial version or just playing a downloaded pirate copy of the game, where you are buying something that is supposed to replicate the commercial product - how sega and the game's creators wanted the game to look and feel, but this can never work on the dreamcast because such "repros" are all burned on CDRs, which will always be lower quality than a pressed disc such as a gdrom. No matter how high quality the repro looks, you will always know its lower quality and fake every time you flip the disc over and see that its just a burned disc. The CDR copy also often requires re-ordering files on a disc or downsampling aspects of the game such as sound or movie files, so the actual game files on the disc wind up being inferior and not a good facsimile of the commercial product in that way as well. At the same time, it seems many providers of repros are quite lazy and will only give you a one page picture in the jewelcase rather than an actual complete manual and/or their printers are not so capable at printing high res images akin to the resolution of the commercial manual and packing... so at that point, it's like why bother? You're trying to get some semblance of the commercial product, but the repro product is so inferior in almost every way that it feels like its not worth it to me.


Its kind of like cars, where you really like ferraris but you can never afford one, so you go and buy a fiero that has been modified to look like a ferrari. It's lower quality in every respect, it doesn't fully look like a ferrari, it does not drive like a ferrari, you yourself know its not a ferrari, and everyone can easily tell its not a ferrari, so what are you really getting out of the experience and all the money you spent on it :lol:

Image

User avatar
Ian Micheal
Developer
Posts: 5980
Contact:

Re: Reproductions

Post#9 » Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:59 pm

Well said i dont think people buying this repo's know it's not as a good as the Gdrom.. Many of these releases are not as good as the real thing.. Also will degrade really fast..

User avatar
OlivusPrime
dirty sailor
Posts: 177

Re: Reproductions

Post#10 » Mon Aug 22, 2022 5:36 pm

...Aaaand now Retro Games Reproduction haven't dispatched a Yu Suzuki reproduction I bought from them a week or so ago, and aren't returning my messages.

Guess it's time to break out the Taiyo Yudens!

What's baffling is that in the meantime, I've burnt Yu Suzuki to a cheapo black-dyed Plasmon CD-R that I originally bought for PS1 repros (they didn't work on that console) and my Dreamcast actually prefers it to the Ritek one that Nights into Dream previously sent me.

Tbh making my own is probably what I should have done in the first place - my only concerns were printing artwork (which I guess I can probably just get done at a photo printer) and having disc art. I wonder if there's anywhere in the UK that can print on the shiny-style CD-Rs - from what I've heard, they require a silk screen printing process or something.

Return to “Lounge”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users