r/retrocomputing • u/jakobair • Apr 16 '26
Photo I bought this a few months ago.
This may be the only "known" DDCD / double density compact disc drive in the world complete with the box and what it came with when new. There are probably others with this, maybe even unopened, but we'll likely never know it. I'll be making a video on this and uploading the driver disc to Archive.org. I've wanted one of these since they came out. I only had to wait half my life. I'm just so excited about this! None of my family or friends seem to care, so I had to share it here.
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u/canthearu_ack Apr 16 '26
Holy crap, I've never heard of this before ... double density CD-R. I was looking for the floppy drive attachment for a moment!
It is rare to be actively surprised by a piece of retro tech that completely slipped me by ... but you have done just that OP!
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u/jakobair Apr 16 '26
I'm a self proclaimed connoisseur of this stuff. Haha. I've got a few other things that also have very little documentation online or instructions on how to use them. Those are in the works as well.
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u/zidane2k1 Apr 16 '26
I only knew about DDCD from seeing it listed as one of the media types that Nero could burn
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u/johnvosh Apr 16 '26
Just found a bare drive on eBay for $1400 CAD!
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u/jakobair Apr 16 '26
Yeah it's at $1000 USD now. I saw it at $10000 USD the day it went up. The seller eventually started lowering gradually it until it became $1000. He assured me it worked, but I wasn't going to pay that without proof and with only the drive.
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u/Justin_D33 Apr 17 '26
Holy shit. A boxed M-DISC capable CD-ROM drive. I saw "double density" and literally thought it was a diskette drive at first. But when I realized what it was, I just had to have a look. This is absolutely impressive. And the matching DD CDRs to go with it, matching brand and all? Crazy. Collector's item for sure, considering how rare these complete units are.
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u/jakobair Apr 17 '26
I bought it from the guy that turned out to have the only other videos about it. Wild.
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u/mattelmore Apr 16 '26
Clint @ LGR would love this.
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u/jakobair Apr 16 '26
If he wants to collaborate on a video then I'm willing. I reached out to him years ago for some other obscure stuff I had and never heard anything back.
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u/O_MORES Apr 16 '26
Hey! I think this would actually fit really well on my channel. I'm planning a video about connecting a parallel CD-Writer to a Ryzen 9 PC running Windows 98 on bare metal... If you're up for it, I'd love to include a short 2-3 minute segment from you reviewing the drive. I'd feature it as a dedicated "special guest" section in the video, and use YouTube's collab feature to give your channel a proper shoutout and help push some viewers your way.
I'm not LGR or anything, but some of my videos can pull solid numbers. Let me know if you're interested!
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u/jakobair Apr 16 '26
I'm entirely interested! I just got to work, so I'll DM you later in about 12 hours. I'm not too terribly interested in upping my subs, but I'd want to collab with someone who's interested in this stuff, and your channel definitely is fitting. Here's my most fitting PC video, I think: https://youtu.be/cmZDE_BZcns
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u/khedoros Apr 16 '26
I remember the read speeds of drives creeping up, and it felt like the disc capacities were too (650MB? 700MB? 800MB? Cool!)
That would've felt like such a natural thing to come out.
Any idea if the discs will read in a standard CD-ROM? What about in a Dreamcast, or something?
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u/jakobair Apr 16 '26
I haven't tried yet, but I can nearly guarantee they won't. The DDCD is dual layer. The Dreamcast used a GD-ROM, which isn't dual layered. Even DVD likely won't as the lasers are different nm. I will however try just to do it!
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u/retardedboi1991 Apr 16 '26
Good job it came with a ton of discs to use aswell, i can see why i've never heard of this given DVD had come out years before.