I suddenly remembered that there was a technology called Labelflash in the past.
I think it was included in the Gateway PC I bought around the time Windows Vista was released.
Labelflash was a technology that allowed a laser to write text or images on the side of the DVD opposite the recording surface. Instead of printing and attaching a dedicated label, you could directly apply the design to the disc surface using the DVD drive.
Back then, being able to do something like this was pretty interesting.
It would have been fun to use on doujin CDs
Since you could put titles and artwork onto CDs and DVDs, I thought it would be nice to try it someday if I ever released a doujin CD.
Having the design printed directly on the disc itself feels a bit more special than simply sticking a label onto a plain white disc. Moreover, because it was written with a laser, the resulting label turned out quite nice.
However, I never really got a chance to use it.
Even if I eventually made CDs, there were increasingly many ways to print directly onto the disc surface, and, to begin with, Labelflash‑compatible media became hard to find.
It turned out to work only with DVDs
Recently, I suddenly thought, “I wonder if using Labelflash on a doujin CD would be interesting,” so I looked into it.
That’s when I first realized that Labelflash was a DVD technology, not a CD one.
I had recalled it with the intention of using it for doujin CDs, but the type of media was completely different.
Further research showed that production of the compatible media had ceased in 2016. It’s not something you can start now by gathering the necessary hardware and media.
Back then I thought, “It would be nice if I could use it someday,” but the technology disappeared before that day ever arrived.
Only the DVD drive remains
By the way, thinking I might use it someday, I took out the Labelflash‑compatible DVD drive from my old PC.
I don’t have the PC itself anymore, but I’ve kept the DVD drive somewhere.
I guess I truly intended to use it back then.
Remembering what’s gone
I think Labelflash was an interesting technology for its time.
In fact, as a middle‑schooler back then, it struck a chord with my slightly pretentious, middle‑school‑age sensibilities.
It let you not only write data onto a disc but also give the disc itself a visual appearance. Because it required compatible media and compatible drives, it wasn’t a feature anyone could use, but it was something that made you want to try it if you had the chance.
Well, it never caught on, and that’s just the way it is.