Demonstration Discs: Spotting the Real and the Fakes

Interactive Dreams took a pretty good stab at how to identify fake "Demonstration Disc"s, but I've had a hankering to do a guide with more pictures.

Behold, a real / official Philips CD-i Demonstration Disc.

White Label "Demonstration Disc"s are particularly vulnerable to faking, because A) There are known to be real / official Zelda ones and B) Blank, White Label CD-Rs are available to buy readily.

Print your own Zeldas and you too can become rich!

So how do we know what is real and what is fake?

Here's a look a a couple tell tale aspects of a real, official White Label Demonstration Disc.

Above: Unlike white label CD-Rs, Demonstration Disc labels don't extend all the way to the edges, leaving a silver ring at the center and the outside. Sometimes the center ring is slightly off-center even, which is fine.

Above: Near the ring codes, you'll find a very distinctive USA CD-i way-of-doing things. One long bar with two little square dots. I've seen many ring codes in my life, but none I remember with this pattern other than CD-i. Sometimes there will be additional text such as "MADE IN USA" and/or a random letter stamped as a ring code in addition to the main mastering code style you see above.

Additionally, you'll notice that the above color of the data side is a clean silvery color, whereas CD-Rs usually have an aqua or rainbow color:

Distinctive CD-R data side color.

------------------------------QUIZ------------------------------

Here's a question you won't find in 3rd Degree, which of the following sets of discs off eBay are real and fake?

Set A

Set B

------------------------------ANSWERS------------------------------

Set A is fake.

Set B is real.

The giveaway, is the distinctive silver rings in the center and outside of the disc label.

------------------------------Scammed? Fight back!------------------------------

Have you been scammed on ebay? Report the seller and start a refund. You will get your money back. If you do not, you're just setting up another person to be scammed and are as bad as the scammer yourself. Sending pictures of the CD-R side to ebay support and sharing this article with the ebay support should be a reasonable enough evidence.