I need your help!

Hey guys and girls.

You are my proffesinal opinion.

I had Mario Kart: Double Dash on my Christmas wish list for 2005, so my parents went to our local EB games and got me a "new" game that had supposedly had it's display case stolen. They man behind the counter took 3 bucks of the price, so they got the game in a geniric pre-played case.

So I open it on Christmas day, and after the gift-opening thing is over, I enthusisticly rush to my Gamecube to try it out. I get a "Problem reading disk" error message when I turn on the Cube. I think "Ok, that's weird, it must need to be cleaned", so I cleaned it. It still didn't work. I cleaned it again. Still nothing. "It must be scratched" I thought. So I took it back and they replaced it with a "new," although dirty and unsealed, game disk. I go home and try it. It worked! I burned through the 50cc Mushroom cup (I've played the game before) and got to the award ceromony... and I got a "Problem reading disk" message! I tried cleaning it again, and I didn't get past the start menu before the message appeared after I retested. My Mom proceeded to call EB games and get all over thier ass. They promised to refund the game, but we haven't taken it back yet. So...

Question #1: Was it my Gamecube or the game that was flawed, is EB games in the wrong, or am I?

My story isn't finished yet. I found out through experimintation that if you opened and closed the dick tray Cube lid whenever the random "Problem reading disk" message appeared, the game would continue like normal and the screen would go away. So now I am enjoying Mario Kart by opening and closing the lid whenever the message pops up. So...

Question #2: Is this opening and closing of the lid hurting my Gamecube or the game or anything else?

Which leads to...

Question #3: What is the difference between the cc things on Mario Kart?

So there you go. Please help me. Just post here if you need further dettails or clarification of my situation. Thanks in advance!

1. I sometimes have that problem. I reckon it's my GC that's dodgy, and I also reckon it's yours.

2. Wouldn't count on it.

3. As you go up the CCs, the karts get faster and the AI gets harder. Mirror Mode is 150CC with the tracks mirrored (lefts are right and rights are left)

Hope I helped.

1. It's probably a problem with your laser. Get it checked out somewhere.
2. Probably not, but I wouldn't be sure.
3. Dalek pretty much explained it.

I've never had problems like this with any other games. But question #2 is most important. If I can just continue my course of action, then I'll be happy. Thanks for #3, Dalek. I'm still accepting opinions, though.

The problem is most likely the disc, though my friend has a perfectly good SSBM disc but his Cube is so messed up. Don't open the dang cube when it's turned on!