real

Somewhere deep down I'm a dragon. I need to hoard!

Is there no way to use them?

whoa whoa whoa unreal tournament is retro gaming ?

next you'll be telling me nirvana is classic rock.

I currently use an external optical drive. If someone doesn't own one, they could always buy one later…

Owns disk grabs pirate copy because it's easier 😂

Lemmings on 3.5" disk, will not ever throw away, too many memories

You can pry my broken sword 2 CD from my cold, dead hands.

There's really no reason not to have an optical drive beyond cost, and they can be cheap. Mine has a sata blu-ray burner. If you don't have a 5.25" bay there are USB ones.

My guy, I’m right there with you. I have a boxed copy of Unreal Tournament 2004 on my shelf, that I bought back in uni… more than half a lifetime ago!

Uhh, I still have a functioning dvd drive.

I still have all my discs from 20 years ago.

I also still have all my disks from 30 years ago.

I also still have all my disks from 40 years ago.

and I still have the drives to read them.

Don’t give a listen to Dexter and the Moonrocks, my guy, they have a song about how the ancient music of the 90s and nirvana in particular crafted who the singer came to be. It made me feel arthritic and shake my fist at the clouds.

I heard Red hot chili peppers on a classic rock station... Several years ago.

Was Baldur’s Gate 2 pretty good? I loved BG3 and Divinity 2(? Original Sin)

My Ryzen tower has a Blu-ray burner…

Mine does.

Very different game (if you've played the pathfinder games, it's a similar feel).

Honestly, my memory is too rose tinted to offer an honest review on bg1 and bg2... They were amazing for their time, and have aged well in my elderly opinion.

They're less dialogue driven than bg3 (planescape torment will scratch that itch), and a bit less forgiving, but they're damn good fun!

You can even buy an external floppy drive too! I got one for under $20 recently to listen to an album that was released on 3.5" floppies, lol

TIL albums were sometimes released on floppy disks.

To the Steam wishlist it goes! Thanks

Those things are clearly meant for laptops. It's always awkward to hook them up to tower PCs. Either you're bending the short cable to stick them in the top chassis ports and the cable tension pushes it halfway off the case, or your are letting the drive dangle from the back panel ports.

I kinda miss the beefy boys that came with detachable USB cables and their own power supplies.

I will not stand for this personal attack. It is not okay that you call me out like this.

I still have a box of 5.25" that I won't throw away.

Bart Simpson was 10 in 1989. He would be the POSTER CHILD of collecting cds.

Edit: Marge was 34 in 1989. Oh my god, Marge is a boomer.

He's also 10 in 2026

The portable BR RW I found last year has a USB-C connection on the drive so you can use whatever cable you want.

Though they do make USB extension cables so you don't have to bend it weird.

I do still miss the chonky boys though, but the nice thing with USB-C is that it doesn't needs a separate power cable and plug.

A common problem with older games is that the DRM isn't compatible with modern computers. Necitating the need for a crack anyways.

I just looked up an external 5.25" enclosure for sata disc drives. Nearly $50 and doesn't even include a drive. That's crazy.

I've got this idea of putting a slim bluray burner in my machine. I got the bay adapter that houses that and 2 2.5" drives but haven't finished the thought by actually getting the burner. 🤷 It's probably pointless though.

well did you take your onion off first?

I just rebuilt two older systems and installed my optical drives in them. One linux box and one Win 7. It’s honestly great having them back. I’ve started moving some DVD’s and CDs to backup. It was surprising how much better quality a decent bitrate rip of a CD is compared to music streaming services.

I never got super into BG2 but BG1 I go back to every 5 years or so. It feels like a DnD campaign, it's comfortable, and I like how brutal the combat can be if you roll in unprepared

I have a whole bunch of old towers I've accrued over the years, and family audio CD and DVD collections. Now hard drive space has become a premium for the backups, but I bought a whole bunch of powered SATA to USB adapters and a PCIe slot USB hub for my desktop. Had multiple CDs backing up at a time using every disk drive that still works. ExactRip, configure the drive, and then just swap out discs as needed while I worked from home.

Haven't moved on to DVDs yet. CDs are easy, you just use ExactRip to rip to FLAC. Haven't figured out a general use way for DVD ripping yet, especially because whether I want the special features backed up or not, or multiple audio streams, depends on the disc.

One day I will get a disc drive, then we'll see whos laughing.

Boxed UT1999 Game of the Year edition :p

Take my onion off, what, do you think I’m made of bumblebees?

heh same, although I was in college

Haven't kept any of them, because i digitalized them ages ago and never was someone who had any attachment to physical media, the content mattered for me. I preferred digital storage as soon as it was feasable.

I thought it was just me lol

That parrots sticker! 🦜 🦜 🦜 - classic!

Given that you have a broken sword 2 physical copy, I assume it won't take very long before we'll be able to pry it away.

I miss the large boxes that video games came in the early 2000s and earlier. The physical media, like manuals, maps, and tech trees were incredible. You couldn't just alt+tab or check the internet, you had to pin a map to your computer room wall, and keep real notes. Its easier now, but it takes some magic out of the experience.

Tracker music.

I'm glad I still have my physical copy of Freelancer considering you cant buy a copy of it any more.

I listened to bits straight off an audio CD yesterday!

Even if your PC doesn't have a disc drive by default, you can still enjoy the games by getting a USB disc drive. I literally got one originally for my laptop and have been using it with my current desktop. It's been a good purchase when audacious is allowed to read the disc.

My teenage bedroom wall was covered in game maps... and Christina Aguilera.

I kinda miss the beefy boys that came with detachable USB cables and their own power supplies.

I had an external SCSI CD-ROM drive that used caddies and had physical buttons on it, I used it for a long time as a CD player. It ran off 120.

Mine too. That's what I spent my one (1) 5.25" external bay on.

The old tower that's stacked full of other disk drives is in the basement, where I can get to it if I ever need it. I find myself needing it more often than you'd think, usually courtesy of others who just rediscovered some irreplaceable personal thing on some damn fool floppy disk or another that they want back.