Funny thing about the punisher... the reason it won't boot now is because the disc is damaged. It looks as if someone tried cleaning it with a rough cloth, a couple of files are damaged (it was like this when i got it). I've been debating weather or not to run a disc doctor on it to try to recover the data... i haven't made up my mind yet. When i get it working, you all will be the first to know.
May I recommend you to use the discdoctor ? even though I don´t know what it is And well I would say your past isn´t the worst to have, heck I don´t know why, but I just get so proud of people who really can do some serious stuff, in RE or something else in programming ways. To me I think it awesome in some strange way, I can´t explain it more exact, heck maybe XerdoPwerko could do some more UK English than me. But I just get proud of knowing people, who have done some "serious" stuff. In many ways, and it is not always the cracking scene of things, but many things
I have never, ever seen a Disc Doctor recover data on a game disc. They've always made it worse for me. If you can, I'd suggest trying to get it resurfaced professionally. Some flea markets have people that will do that or you can make friends at Blockbuster and use theirs.
Have you tried backing it up first through you PC? Its worth a shot before you attempt to resurface it.
as for disc doctors, do NOT use them, as someone else recommended, get it professionally resurfaced, my local (non chain) game store does it for $2 a disc, saved several discs that a disc doctor screwed up
That's great news that you cracked the key. I recommend you look for someone with a nice resurfacing machine. I've had good luck with my "GameDoctor", but it's not something I'd use on a prototype.