Vinyl Game Machine

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Finmann
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Vinyl Game Machine

Post by Finmann » Mon Feb 18, 2013 7:57 pm

I was looking for a sort of 'lounge thread', but I'll just ask here.

I was wondering if anyone has made a game console that loads games off vinyl records ?
A quick referencless search on google and someone spouted a vinyl could hold 150MB?

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Re: Vinyl Game Machine

Post by Metallica Man X » Tue Feb 19, 2013 3:18 am

:facepalm:
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Re: Vinyl Game Machine

Post by ProgMetalMan » Thu Feb 21, 2013 9:58 pm

I tried to make a 70mm film game machine... it didn't work out so well...
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Re: Vinyl Game Machine

Post by ttsgeb » Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:23 pm

There are way too many problems with using records as a digital storage medium. If you wanted to build something like this, I'd honestly look into using lazerdisc instead.

Anyway, I doubt one has been built, but if you wanted to make one, here's how it would need to work:

First off, you'd need to find a way to interpret your game data as an analogue waveform that could be reliably read with a turntable and needle.
After that, you would have to load the game into the RAM of your device. There are a couple of ways you can do this. You can have a 45 minute loading time, as the turntable scans the record; or you can put all the information chronologically on the disc and close by to what it needs to work. From here, you'd need to make sure you game is paced to limit the amount of loading screens encountered as you go. This is a lot like the play as you download options on modern systems.

Now for the problems:
1: Records degrade with each play
2: Strictly ROM means no saves
3: Horrendous read speeds
4: Terrible data density
5: Data compiled as a waveform likely won't be very easy for a turntable to read
6: Extremely easy to damage
7: If you can HEAR the clicking from overuse, imagine what that would sound like to a computer

Now, in comparison, if you were to do this with a laserdisc, it removes all but a couple of those issues, and greatly improves the rest.
This also retains the nostalgia/novelty appeal you're looking for.

As you might have guessed, moving on to a CD, furthers improvements... and a DVD keeps em coming... BluRays make it even better, and high speed mass storage devices such as HDDs and SSDs pretty much provide the best experience you can get right now. This is all pretty apparent if you look at how gaming is today.

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