Aaaaaaaaargh!!! My DVD is all scratched!!!
 

No more SH3 for me. :(

Joachim Steiner and his merry men are stuck in mid-patrol.


My young son, just past his first birthday, has done his father a grave injustice. I came home yesterday to find my SH3 DVD lying face-down on the wood floor near the computer. He'd obviously been dancing on it or something. I picked it up, knowing what I would see. Wood floors + no carpet = bad news. It's covered in scratches and lines. I tried repairing it with a liquid solution, but it was no good. When Starfarce tries to authenticate it, it won't work.

So... would Ubisoft ship me a replacement DVD? Does anybody know if they do that? Or am I going to have to buy another copy of the game?

Normally they should ship you a replacement against a small fee, if you send them the original DVD.

I heard toothpaste works...

When the dog bit and destroyed my AOD cd after 10+ years I just grimmaced and bought another copy (on E-bay)....even though none is required just for play or a copy is available for free download or it used to be..

I considered it money well spent. With SHIII I could only say the same thing.... only more so. SHIII hasn't begun to fill all it's potential yet.

It has been said, but it usually just makes things worse. What you want is a product called 'Pearl Drops Tooth Polish', which is where the toothpaste rumor got started I bet. Pearl Drops is an extremely fine abrasive, the kind you'd use to polish glass and such. If you can find that product, and a bit of Chamois cloth, you can likely fix that disk. (I have a handful of old game CD's that got 'repaired' with Pearl Drops, and a little elbow grease, the stuff works miracles). You can find it at just about any pharmacy, (at least here in the US).

There's also a product called 'Disk Doctor' that actually uses a liquid and a fine polishing pad to remove a bit of the plastic composite of the CD, which does actually work quite well, (but even it can be stymied if the scratches are more than a few millimeters deep). However this device/system costs around 29 to 39$us, Pearl Drops Tooth Polish can be had for a few bucks. I know which I'd choose. :D

<EDIT> has a no dvd patch that has been working fine for me as long as your game is already installed that is......

You're asking to get banned.

Besides, that's only good for SH3 v1.0.

CD's are made of an optical co-polymer whichis quite soft.

You can remove those dents and scratches by carefully using a light lint cloth and some Brasso

You must do this on a flat surface -- dont stress or bend the CD at all

keep rubbing till the scratch is softened or removed

Brasso has just enough abrasive to remove a layer of polymer -- but you wont go down to the substrate layer.

Polish the CD with paper kitchen towel and MrMuscle window cleaner or any window polish to finish

Hey presto -- one working CD again

you can "get" it and then use your own CD key.

How about the locals vid or gaming store. remember renting a baseball game (now I know I don't like baseball) but it had scratches on it like someone had rub it across bitumen( 4 u americans tar/asphalt :rotfl: ) I didn't beleive there machine would make it playable but it did. ANd that how I learnt baseball is not my game

So thanks for the feedback. I couldn't find Pearl Drops Tooth Polish over the weekend in the Rite Aid near me (I'm in NYC) so I'll give Duane Reade a shot.

I tried using a disk polishing liquid I got from Gamestop, but it didn't work. Not high-power enough I guess. So if I can't find Pearl Drops (the wife said it's one of the older tooth whitening products) I'll have to get some Brasso, or that disk polishing thing. Gamestop downtown has them. You can get a manual-cranked one or some bizarre thing like a circular saw that you plug in. But instead of a saw, there's a circular module you drop your scratched disk into, flick a switch, and it whizzes your scratches away.


Just so you know ... .I am jonesing for SH3 more than I have for ANY other game in years. And I've been simming since 1993. It just blows me away. It's addictive.

I feel for you man, I'd be seriously bumming if I suddenly lost the ability to play. Good luck getting all fixed up. :)

There is a gizmo called the "Skip Doctor" you put the cd in it along with some liquid and turn the crank and it resurfaces the CD. It is also available in a battery powered version.

It will not fix severe scractches though and probably costs the same as buying a new game copy.

I have heard mixed comments on its success or failure. Maybe drop into your local Elbo and they will let you try theres.

http://www.digitalinnovations.com/

Skip Doctor, eh? I think that's the device I saw. Sounds like it.
So Duane Reade (one of the larger ones) doesn't have Pearl Drops either. I can get it on Drugstore.com though. But at this point, I think I might contact Ubi and see if I can get a new disk. I'm going nuts here.

Click the link in my previous post :88)