Some PS1 and 2 just had shitty laser assemblies that had trouble reading even non scratched discs.
My PS2 would randomly decide not to read the disc sometimes. IIRC, we were pretty careful with both the disks and console.
From what i remember, the issue was the laser was either dirty or otherwise shotty and sometimes wouldn’t read the disc
THIS. 100% THIS.
Simple rule for discs: always touch the edges, never the surfaces! It’s…it’s not that hard. I never had PSX disc read problems.
Not throwing shade at the kids who did because of shoddy lasers or something, of course. :)
(I did have OG Xbox disc read problems… because those crappy Thompson drives shredded discs over time)
Seeing people hold the surfaces of discs with their snack-greased fingers would infuriate me. Same with seeing them put label-up on the dusty VCR / cable box / dvd player rather than back in the case to switch games.
Nowadays it seems even more common because people don’t seem to know how discs work.
On that note, It’s the same thing with RAM. Watching tech review channels where they’re just pinch-holding RAM sticks or fanning them out like playing cards makes me twitch.
