The trays had a groove for a CD. So placing it in the groove it would work because its edges would always fall into that groove correctly all the way around the tray.
This, however, wouldn’t work on a slot loaded drive since they worked by having a set of arms with rollers that grab the edge of inserted disc and another arm with a roller that pushed it the rest of the way in from the opposite edge when it’s inserted enough.
So there’s only ever 3 slim points of contact which is fine as long as it’s a circle. Yet the irregular shape here would cause it to get partially in and then pushed by the arms into the edge/internals of the drive.
Apparently it could be played in many cd roms that had trays, but not ones where you had to insert.
You’re right.
The trays had a groove for a CD. So placing it in the groove it would work because its edges would always fall into that groove correctly all the way around the tray.
This, however, wouldn’t work on a slot loaded drive since they worked by having a set of arms with rollers that grab the edge of inserted disc and another arm with a roller that pushed it the rest of the way in from the opposite edge when it’s inserted enough.
You can see how this worked here on a DVD drive that uses the same setup. https://youtu.be/qi3v7X6BpAA
So there’s only ever 3 slim points of contact which is fine as long as it’s a circle. Yet the irregular shape here would cause it to get partially in and then pushed by the arms into the edge/internals of the drive.