Do scratches on a disc actually effect gameplay?

[dreama1]

Do scratches on a disc actually effect gameplay? or is it just a myth?

[turom]

They can prevent the disc from booting or make your game crash on a specific section of the game. They can also make your console having a hard time to stream content like music or textures, causing FPS drop in bad cases. I have only witnessed this on 5th generation consoles though when I found used discs in bad shape.

[burningdoom]

Is this a serious question? Of course. You haven't ever had a game's framerate start skipping around or freeze altogether?

[atarileaf]

I guess it depends on the severity of the scratch. Many discs have shallow or superficial scratches which won't affect gameplay but if the scratch is deep it could very well be unreadable.

[badATchaos]

If a scratch is deep enough to damage the binary inscribed on the aluminum (or other medium depending on the disc format) information could be lost or corrupted to the point that the game system can't understand it anymore; thus causing errors.

[dreama1]

If a scratch is deep enough to damage the binary inscribed on the aluminum (or other medium depending on the disc format) information could be lost or corrupted to the point that the game system can't understand it anymore; thus causing errors.

But if the game is readable still? I've seen some awfully scratched up ps2/xbox game discs that you would think would never work, but work like a charm.

[dreama1]

Is this a serious question? Of course. You haven't ever had a game's framerate start skipping around or freeze altogether?

Can't say I have. And it would be hard to know if it was the disc or the game itself. Skyrim, and oblivion had those problems.

[fazerco]

Buy a X-box, and scratches will come 

[atarileaf]

Scratches can almost be completely avoided if people treated their discs properly. There will always be some superficial scratches on discs from time to time but I can't fathom why some people treat their discs so poorly that they look like they've been dragged down a gravely road behind a truck.

[thecrypticodor]

A game disc would have to be pretty bad to not boot at all. What's more common would be skipping on files that need to be streamed off the disc in real time like CD audio or FMV where there is no time for the system to retry to read a damaged sector or use error correction. If the game is scratched bad enough it can cause the game not to boot at all or get stuck at a loading screen.

[tripredacus]

Black Playstation discs do not seem to be a problem is they are scratched. It more an issue with newer ones. I have Flipnic on PS2 and it gets all glitchy and freezes because the disc is scratched.

[Warmsignal]

Deep scratches do, not superficial ones. If you can run your fingernail across and feel the pit, then you are in trouble.

[sin2beta]

When I was training to be a teacher, I worked at a before and after school program that had consoles. The cd's and dvd's were extremely scratched. They can stop playing... even the black bottomed ps1 discs.

From what I understand of how the laser reads, it is mainly the scratches you can see when looking dead on straight at the disc (parallel to your face, basically). This shows far fewer scratches than when rotating the disc at angles when inspecting. This is probably why a disc can still be read well when there appears to be several scratches. Some disks look bad at an angle but pretty good straight on.