What are things to look for when ID'ing a prototype disc compared to a bootleg disc? I know with cart prototypes looks can vary quite a bit. I'm new to the proto disc scene so help a brother out please. 

Following. :-)

I have handled literally thousands of discs sent to the media for preview and review.

- Dreamcast games are always on official GD-R
- Gamecube games are always on official NR
- Wii games are USUALLY on official Nintendo media, but there are exceptions
- Activision and EA builds are USUALLY on official CD-Rs they had manufactured with the company names on them, but there are exceptions
- Sega CD and Sega Saturn have official pressed media as well from Sega, but there are exceptions

...and in addition to those exceptions, there is nothing preventing someone from buying unused official CD-R and burning them. There are tons of surviving unused discs out there.

Those are the easy ones though. In truth, the majority of builds sent to the media from third-party publishers were on generic rewritable discs. As in, a PR person would run to Best Buy, buy a spindle, and burn copies. So, there is no cheat sheet for this stuff other than common sense.

Luckily it's really easy to see if the data is different from the retail disc just by investigating the modified dates on the files. You could have the seller put it in their computer and take a screenshot of the files, and you can compare them to what you see on the retail disc.

Awesome, thanks Frank. How about PS1 discs?

Particularly this one: I won and was backdoored so I'm sure it's fine to post. Resident evil 3 proto, do you guys think it's legit?

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/253054798...

That game is on a silver CD, not a CD-R, so it's either just the final game or a bootleg. You can't do a small run of silver CDs, you have to actually manufacture them in the thousands.

I'm leaning heavily toward bootleg. It's not the same label as final, it's not black on the bottom, and it looks shoddy.

You dodged a bullet with that one I would also say it's a pirate disc

That's good to hear. For the first time I appreciate being backdoored.

Someone on AssemblerGames was caught making counterfeit Dreamcast prototypes using official GD-Rs, so that is certainly something to keep in mind. The thread might still be up over there, would be a good idea to look it up and see what all he was bootlegging and what his handwriting looked like if you plan on tracking down DC prototypes.

Personally I'd be highly suspiscious of any disk-based game until I burnt it and compared the data against an official ISO.

I don't have any experience in this area but a disk is way to easy to fake to not be hyper-skeptical.

I've seen those kinds of discs at flea markets before. Pretty sure it's a bootleg.

Heck I probably still have some of them sitting around here somewhere, and I know some were various Resident Evil games. I remember them looking eerily similar to that one.

Such a bootleg, look at the compact disc logo.