I bought this back in in COVID times as I saw the writing on the wall for physical media, and I could sneak it past the ATO as a WFH deduction: https://www.pccasegear.com/products/48810/pioneer-bdrxs07tuhd-slot-load-4k-external-blu-ray-writer
Probably the best investment I could have made in terms of continuing to be able to use the media I’ve purchased.
I picked up a lil usb dvd drive years ago
Don’t use it much but it waits ready in the tech closet. Cost like $20.
Been moving the same DVD-RW drive to every new computer for like 20 years. I’ll be able to read Mechwarrior 2 until I die.
Look up your old favourite games. A lot of them have communities that have kept them updated so their playable on modern hardware as long as you have a (totally legal) ISO or disc in your possession.
For example, Project Magma has been keeping Myth The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter going for 25+ years now.
I loved this game back when Bungie was a Mac-only developer and it holds up pretty well with a couple graphics mods in addition to the work Project Magma has done.
I currently have 4 old Thinkpad T420s (nice) set up just to run this game on Linux with some friends around the kitchen table.
LibreQuake is another one. I’m not as familiar with what they’ve been up to, as I never had a computer that could run Quake in its heyday, so it doesn’t hold the same nostalgia for me. That said, I appreciate their work anyway.
OpenRA keeps Command & Conquer and its various sequels and spin-offs alive, including Dune 2000. Combined Arms is especially fun; a version that includes all the armies from all the games.
You can get USB drives for a pittance.
Anyway unless it’s something from the 90s, the DRM is one or all of those:
- Hardcoded for windows XP and refuse to run on anything else
- Must connect to an activation server that was turned off two decades ago
- Requires the installation of a rootkit
Time to grab a USB powered dvd drive? I don’t have a 5.25, but we’ve got a 3.5 and a zip disk what run off USB that hold our access to our old disk troves. I should probably move them all to a single thumb drive one of these days.
Steam allowed me to use the old security code for my physical copy of Medieval 2: Total War to allow me to download a digital copy updated to work on Windows 10.
I have a CD drive you can plug into your computer for CDs.
I have a disc drive in my computer. I’ve still torrented games that I have on my shelf because its easier.
They sell the drive as a USB item, buy one of those and enjoy.
I searched for and found an audio CD last month, and then proceeded to rip it on my PC as mp3.
No idea why some people don’t have CD drives anymore.
So many computer cases don’t have 5.25" bays anymore. But some do and those are ones I end up purchasing because I have a few CD/DVD drives kicking around that I’ll toss in my computers when I build them because I’d rather have it and rarely use it than not have it and have to turn to a noisy and slow USB DVD drive
This is why piracy is so important.
🤔 is it considered piracy if you’re downloading a copy of something you already own?
In the US it is. 🙃
Yes. Companies in the US get to sell the cake and keep it too.
I mean those are just rules that some asshole made up. Make up your own.
Nothing is illegal in any way that actually matters except harming another person. All other laws are just words. It’s just a question of whether someone is willing to hold you at gunpoint to make you stop what you’re doing or not.
Which, for downloading pirated copies of old games, is almost certainly a “no”. Especially if you use the most basic opsec but even that probably isn’t necessary. (Don’t use Torrent without a VPN though, ISPs really look out for that, especially shit-ass Spectrum.)
A usb cd/dvd/bluray drive is like $20 on amazon, nothing stopping you.
You can even get ones with spicy firmware for extra flavour that lets you back up your physical media (where allowed by law, of course… Naturally)
Do you need special firmwares to run a dd command on Linux?
I’d imagine that could make a backup of the whole disk, but it can’t decrypt it
I just flashed the firmware and used makemkv (when I was using windows…) I’m sure there’s a better FOSS way but I haven’t explored it since moving to linux
makemkv on linux for DVDs. abcde for CDs. dd of=game.iso for games.
I used to have pretty good luck with mplayer -dumpstream for DVDs, but its success rate started dropping a few years ago and I switched to makemkv.
No magic firmware required.
You do need magic firmware for BluRays.
Isn’t that only for UHD Blu-ray
Actually, yeah. Apparently the kind of lockout the replacement firmware works around has been defined for BD from the beginning but has only really been enforced for UHD BD.
Untrue. You can rip standard Blu-ray movies using MakeMKV with factory firmware. You do need special firmware to rip UHD Blu-rays unless you have a certain drive with older unpatched firmware. Also, Blu-ray data discs work as you would hope.
Must be a new thing. My 20-year-old BR drive has never complained.
Most newer drives won’t give you the kind of direct access you need for an accurate copy. Some disc areas necessary for dealing with copy protection are inaccessible except by specially blessed playback software.
Some older drives ignore this restriction but newer ones, especially all 4K-capable drives, don’t.
There’s an alternative firmware called LibreDrive that enables a low-level access mode where an application has direct control over the laser assembly. That plus ripping software aware of this mode (MakeMKV) will get the data off the disc. Add known decryption keys and you can get at the raw video files.
DRM is designed to prevent that, as I found out when trying to copy a CD that used securom
When I was in the market for one a few years ago, an internal drive and a USB enclosure was a safer bet for making backups than a USB drive. It’s usually not too hard to find out the recommended drives for the backup software.
Just a heads up-
Asus’ USB DVD drives ‘with USB-C’ are not USB-C, they have a crappy MicroUSB to USB-C cable included in the box.
So if you wanted one with USB-C on the device- DO NOT BUY ASUS.
Just curious how you think this will impact performance? Reading of a DVD or CD would not be a nottleneck due to what USB interface used, its always going to be the device its self so it really doesnt matter at all. If anything props to them for at least updating to the latest to maximize compatibility.
It won’t impact performance, but microusb is dead. Apart from this dvd drive, I haven’t used microusb in ~2 years.
Microusb might as well be proprietary to me at this point, I have ‘infinite’ usb-c to usb-c data cables (and at one point, I did for microusb too…) but only 2 working microusb cables now, I never wanted to have to buy another one.
Plus, you might also need to spin up virtualbox with a windows 95 iso.
It’s funny to me how people hate on ai but still use Amazon.
They’re both equally immoral.
and some people claim to be anti-capitalism yet they have jobs and pay for food and housing… curious…
No that’s not it. You are just too lazy to find online alternatives to the first ad sponsored hits you find on google.
Using Amazon isn’t a requirement for living comfortably. It’s a luxury that people could easily do without if they would just take the extra time to find an alternative.
I get what you’re trying to say but I don’t think it fits here.
I mean, I get where you are coming from, but they are also my backup durable medical equipment supplier. I have two options in my area and they are number two. If you rely on medical equipment and have ever been jerked around by a supplier, having one that is responding to your money and only your money is very nice.
Like, I bought some pink tape off Amazon a few years back. Someone had unspooled the roll until it was almost empty then put it back in the box, then sold it to Amazon to sell to me. Nice scam, right? Fortunately the equipment I need is not returnable like the pink tape. Since I need medical equipment and when I need it from them I need immediately, it makes sense for us to pay for prime. Comes out to about six bucks a head if I did the math right, and I didn’t even try
You’re wrong. Low income households were absolutely made dependent on it, solely because of prices.
Some examples:
- Certain food is way cheaper, especially spices. In the shop I get 30-50g of it for 3-8€. On Amazon I get 250g for about 10€. Doing without means worse food.
- A lot of tech is cheaper. Especially daily items such as cables, powerbanks, earphones etc., other shops usually are more expensive - often even for the exact same items.
- Clothes are cheaper. The very same shoes from a known brand (Hummel) were just 33€ there, but 50€ anywhere else.
- Some items you won’t even find anywhere else except shady shops or Ebay sellers, and especially poor people can’t afford to be screwed over. To know Amazon will just give you your money back is an unavoidable perk.
Now add more disgusting tactics to that:
- Amazon has certain ways to firmly insert themselves into e.g. poor people’s lives. In Germany you get free Prime (and therefore free shipping) if you’re on welfare. Combine that with the above, especially items like food or clothes. You have to save every penny, you do not have the financial freedom to just say no to that. Especially parents don’t.
- Local shops simply vanished due to online shopping, subsidized mega markets such as Amazon did the rest. For lots of stuff you’d have to travel long distances. Let it be because of no affordable public transport, slow ones or your old junker of a car falling apart, this isn’t an option either.
And it isn’t even just poor people. With the economical situation as it is more and more people don’t have the luxury not to use the cheapest, most easy option (you have to manage stress as well after all, and Amazon is easy). Even just spices and kitchen supplies probably saves dozens of € per month for a family, unless they really like bland food. Money available for healthy ingredients instead - or the washing machine that just broke.
Please be aware how privileged you are being able to say what you said.
Also, usually many shops won’t sell you things you need, especially in some countries and tech stuff! I think that i would’ve an hard time finding a blueray player that has some supported custom firmwares in the local shops, maybe i can find it on ebay…if i can find it in good enough conditions to be used at all
The unfortunate reality is sometimes you don’t have a choice.
Between Walmart and Amazon a lot of places have had their retail hollowed out.
I’m lucky in that there is an electronics retailer near me that I’m quite sure would have something like this but your local best buy is unlikely to carry such an item. Maybe a staples would have it for 3 times the cost of the same item on Amazon.
Amazon isn’t the only online store, so that is definitely not a good excuse.
I’ve completely eliminated my use of Amazon with retailers on eBay. It has worked out well where I am.
Blud, I have this problem. But with 3.5" floppy disks.
