There are a couple archival optical disks that use much more stable materials (
M-DISC and
DiamonDisc), which I found searching for a link for micro-etched nickel storage (
pictures), that is used, for example, in the
Rosetta Project. The optical disks supposedly have a lifespan in the hundred to thousand year range, while the Rosetta Disk (and the Long Now Foundation in general) is intended to last 10,000 years.
I bought a game out of a bargain bin before getting my first computer (Win 95, which came with 3 boxes of floppies, so the computer could make 30 recovery disks the first time it booted), and actually checked it out a few months back when I was doing some organizing. It came on floppies, which were fine, and had a 10 minute intro on a VHS tape, which was a little grainy, but (other than the first few seconds) was also fine. I didn't mind the graphics, but it had a 'look up a word in the manual' copy protection system that got triggered too often, and the screen flickered when moving around, so it only lasted a couple minutes.
