this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025
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Do you still play any PC games on a physical disc? Or, when did you last do that? (feddit.online)
submitted 2 weeks ago by tuckerm@feddit.online to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
64 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Like many people, I've been thinking about physical media lately, and how our entertainment items -- movies, albums, books -- used to be things that sat on a shelf that someone else could see and say, "Hey I like this thing on your shelf."

PC games were one of those things, once. I have a few. And I've scrounged them up from their various moving boxes and parents' houses to see if they still work.

Does anyone here still play a game from an optical drive? A game where your regularly-played copy isn't the Steam version?

For me, Morrowind was the last game that I was still playing on a disc. I have newer games on discs, but just played those once or twice and then put them back on the shelf. But I was still playing Morrowind from a CD up until 2023, when it went on sale on Steam for $1, so I bought it. I almost didn't get it, since I liked the fact that I was still playing a game on a CD.

I plan on taking inventory of which games still work and what it takes to install them today.

What were (are?) some of your favorites?

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[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago

I think it might be Star Craft for me.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I don't have many disc based PC games anymore. Last I played one was less than a month ago ( don't know exactly how long ago ) and it was Luxor. I have a few others on disc, but I either don't have them installed or haven't played them in a while.

Not including Luxor because I already listed it, I also currently have Super Collapse, Morrowind and Oblivion ( both with expansions ), Brok The Investigator ( have it on Steam so I don't play the disk version or use the official collectors edition USB containing an installer either ), Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and one of the expansions, some Dosney rollercoaster builder game that is pretty bad, and a normal blackjack game.

As for my absolute favorite, that's the easiest question ever: Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum.

I also have another one that I loved that I cannot remember or find basically anything about it anywhere in the web because it was probably some demo to a full game that wasn't out or didn't release. The whole thing was a mini-golf like hole where it starts you off in front of a drive-in movie theater with cars parked parallel to the screen, like they're parking in a parking lot at a grocers. You had to hit the ball up a ramp and into the screen, which was showing a black and white swamp film. You'd be sent into the movie and had to put around the water to get to the hole. Camera wouldn't move unless you entered a different area. Anybody know literally anything about that?

[–] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

Peter Pan in Disney's Return to Never Land (2002).

A friend brought it over and, as was usually the case, I burned a copy to keep for myself. It was my first encounter with DRM, and for completely unrelated reasons, the last time I interacted with physical game media of any kind.

[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

Very few games were playable from a CD (thrash loading speed).Usually the CD was required after install for DRM purposes only.

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

I have some small games on hard drive storage, do hard drive platters count as discs?

[–] Sendpicsofsandwiches@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

The last time i used physical media for apc game would have probably been to install WoW back in like 2012

[–] warbond@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

2007, I think. I had recently moved and didn't have internet hooked up yet, so I bought BioShock as a physical disc so that I wouldn't have to wait. Imagine my frustration when I learned about the online-only authentication bullshit it used for DRM, so having the disc didn't even matter; without Internet I couldn't play the damn thing at all.

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[–] Zefirpo@feddit.it 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Last one was oblivion in 2011. New home no internet and the pc towen on the lunch table. Good memories

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