What do you do when your favorite DVD movie, or game disc (Wii, PS2, or Xbox 360) is scratched beyond recognition? Buy a new game or yelled clenched fist shaking at the sky?

I recently loaned my copy of ExciteTruck to a friend of mine. He’d had it for so long that I forgotten that I even had a copy until the kids yelled and screamed for truck driving game. Yes, even I was surprised by a 3 year old’s specificity on the matter, but I was inclined to oblige rather put up with a screaming 3 year old. I’m a big softie when it comes to video games anyways.

Once I tracked down and got my game back, I noticed it was scratched up pretty badly. So badly in fact, that I said my hail-marys before putting the disc into the Wii for the kids. It didn’t work. Bombed like you wouldn’t believe. So poorly, that my Wii actually told me to call Nintendo’s customer support or look in my manual on how to fix the matter.

Yikes.

So what to do? For me, it was a tough decision. I was pretty darned skeptical of disc repair solutions as I tried them in the past. The so-called fancy polymer based “liquid-fix” solutions rarely (read: Never) worked when I tried them. On-line solutions suggesting using super-glue and sand-paper fix just seemed too scary for me to even try. Still, there were so called scratch fixing machines that you usually cranked. These devices basically resurface the disc by scrapping an ever so small amount of plastic material off the top layer of the disc.

SkipDR is one latter devices. Any “fix” beyond buying a new disc altogether, seemed pretty dangerous, but I was pretty desperate.

But, what choice did I really have? Upon visiting my local electronics retail store, I found tons of fixers from $3.99 up to $59.99. SkipDR came in at $39.99, and ExciteTruck new? Well, that came in at $39.99 too.

I’m stuck. Do I pay $40 for a one-time use device that might not even work? Or, do I pay $40 for a new copy that’ll work for sure? While I was walking out to check-out with my new copy of ExciteTruck, I realized one thing. My friend also had my copy of Wii Zelda. So, I went back and got SkipDr. Asking at the check-out if I could return it if it didn’t work and get my money back (yes with a 15% restocking fee!) and then promptly praying all the way home.

There were several models. A hand crank rotary version, a non-rotary sort of slide around a central gear version, and a mechanical “automatic” version. I opted for the more expensive “automatic” version thinking at least I can minimize my involvement if something goes wrong. I dunno why that thought made any sense, but it did at the time.

First, this unit is well designed. There’s a slot in the device for everything, the cleaning/revitalizing formula spray and wipe down cloth. You plug it in, slide a disc on top and it goes about doing its thing.

The warning here is that make sure you buy the model that comes with the AC Adapter. I found two units that were “automatic” powered units, both were $39.99 and only one included the AC adapter in box. The other model you had to purchase it for $10 or send in a voucher for a free AC adapter. I’m not really sure exactly, just make sure you get the $39 with AC adapter included.

Resurfacing is really easy. Spray disc, let sit for a little bit, slap the disc in (data side towards the orange wheel), and watch in awe as a cool blue light comes on and SkipDR does its thing.

Now, you might expect that the worked over disc is going to look smooth and clean. It doesn’t. In fact, the disc looks like it’s been sanded down, which essentially it has. You’ll still see some scratches, but they’re definitely smoothed out. I had some slight gauges here and there and those were still visible as well.

But, the test is that ExciteTruck plays without any problems in my Wii, so I have to say SkipDR worked.

Fair warning though, your results might not be like mine (successful). There’s always a chance that the scratch is just too deep for repairs and SkipDR obviously won’t get rid of serious scratches completely. However, it does do what it says which “lessen” a scratch’s depth, making it more likely it’ll be read. Now if you’ve got a disc that’s scratch so bad you can see through to the reflective data film, then SkipDR will probably (nothing really will) not fix it.

To me though, it was better than a super-glue then oven broil fix that I read about on-line. Yikes, the things people will try these days because they read it on-line..

(Editor’s Note: I’m generally a nice guy. I let people borrow my games and I really don’t worry about it. At least with SkipDR, I’ve got some insurance that I can “fix” scratches. After all, I haven’t gotten my Wii Zelda back yet)