Every CD player I've ever stuck a videogame disc into has played the data track as completely silent. Never is there a blast of loud data. Where are the CD players that prompted all of these warnings in Turbo CD games?
I had two CD players from the 80's that played data tracks--just random digital noise--and if you quickly skipped the track I figured nothing bad would ever happen (nothing bad ever happened to me).
Some games have alternating Red Book and data tracks (some Telenet games, IIRC)...these are the CD's that I would often have to skip the data tracks on. Thankfully, most games stuck the data on track 2 (and sometimes a redundant data track at the end of all the audio).
I've heard the horror stories about damaged equipment, but I have never met anyone who has actually had this happen to them.
There was some silly band who purposefully included a data track and warned (huge disclaimer on booklet/insert):
DO NOT PLAY TRACK 11 "Doom March" because it will destroy your equipment. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.TANGENT: I don't know if I still have the CD (because it was mediocre grindcore, and that's saying something)...but, the production was way too slick for my tastes. Joe, as a fellow connoisseur of hardcore, noisecore and grindcore, I'm sure you'll agree that there should be a "raw" and "rough around the edges" feel to these genres...otherwise, they come across as far too sterile. YES STERILE. I don't want super-clean-slick production. I want messy, organic and real.
QUESTION: What happens when you put modern games (PS1 and above) into a traditional CD player. I don't think I've ever done it.