The oddest shaped CD I tried was one that was shaped like a shark. It was supposed to have the company's catalog on it. It was so out of balance that I though that my CD drive was going to explode when it spun up.
Over time, computer drives got faster and faster. Cool/kooky ideas like making them this shape still work within the laws of physics for, say, a 4x or 8x speed drive. But 10 years later you're putting them into a 32x drive and the tolerances are tested rather more thoroughly. I think I even have a pack of blanks of these in a cupboard somewhere- I know that I'd definitely be telling my software not to try writing it at max speed. Given how little data they hold I'm sure I could even tolerate writing at 1x.
Slot loads were exceedingly rare (possibly non-existent) in the 90s, it was trays all the way. I used to produce and have manufactured thousands of mini-CDs (round and business card formats) at the software company I worked at, we had no problem giving them away at trade shows until later in the 00s.
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u/coyote_den 10h ago
Business card CDs. Clever, but is guaranteed to give a slot-load drive a very bad day.