Sonic Adventure disc could be broken??

[BigPortal]

Hi, I just recently bought a Dreamcast from a local game store of mine, and also recently beat Sonic Adventure. When coming back to it to show my friend the game, it wouldn't load any levels. I could access the menu and character select just fine, but as soon as I select a character, it's just an endless black screen. Is my disc faulty? My Dreamcast seems to be working fine. I haven't got any more games for it so I can't test anything else to see if my Dreamcast's broken.

[stackbundles]

Look at the back of the disk. Does it have any scratches or cracks? The Dreamcast's disks, GD-ROMs (gigabyte disk, as opposed to compact disk), are wound more tightly than normal CDs. Even if there's a small scuff/scratch/crack, there might be an entire portion of the game you can't get to. My Sonic Adventure 2 has a very small crack, and I can't load Final Chase.
Then again, it could just be a problem with the disk. As much as a coded mess Sonic Adventure is, I've never heard of parts not loading.

[BigPortal]

Dang. Turns out, it does have scratches that I've got no clue how they got there. Oddly enough, the disc had scratches when I bought it, and I fully beat the game.

[stackbundles]

You'll have to try another game just to be sure it's not your laser

[OGDCFAN99]

Check for disc rot. Hold the disc up to a really bright light and see if any pinholes of light shine through. Since all these original discs are approaching 20 years old its getting increasingly harder to find ones that aren't affected by disc rot.

[SMiTH]

Check for disc rot. Hold the disc up to a really bright light and see if any pinholes of light shine through. Since all these original discs are approaching 20 years old its getting increasingly harder to find ones that aren't affected by disc rot.

I do this for all optical media.
You would be surprised how many disks suffer from disc rot.
If i see even one pin hole on a disk, I never buy it.

[OGDCFAN99]

Absolutely, same here. Have you found that blu ray and dvd media including gcn discs tend to be more durable and suffer less from disc rot?

[SMiTH]

Absolutely, same here. Have you found that blu ray and dvd media including gcn discs tend to be more durable and suffer less from disc rot?

yes, blu ray and dvd's seem to be more durable.
at least blu ray has a protective layer..
gcn disks are almost always in bad shape, not from disk rot though.
and resurfacing gamecube disks nearly every time results in an unplayable game.

[Ragfish]

I've known about disc rot for a while but haven't made up my mind on how big of an issue it is. I own hundreds of discs and none of them have it no matter how hard I look for it. And while I often hear that it exists, I only hear once in a while from people who've actually experienced it. Maybe it has to do with how old the disc is and how it's stored? I really don't know.

gcn disks are almost always in bad shape, not from disk rot though.
and resurfacing gamecube disks nearly every time results in an unplayable game.

Gamecube discs in my experience are occasionally weirdly fickle for no real reason. Scratches and resurfacing sometimes play a role but other times they don't. Sometimes I've gotten them to work by cleaning them with water. My Soul Calibur 2 and Metroid Prime had consistent disc read errors in certain spots no matter which console I played on, but after a quick rinse they worked fine.

[mistamontiel]

..I just learned about disc rot I mean months ago, really realizing how bad GameCube discs age I guess it's a hot environment issue

RE4.. Twin Snakes.. they have a webbing cracking on the top label.. and stuff I know happen in em ain't really.. really damning