this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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How common was video game piracy in the 90s? (piefed.social)
submitted 2 weeks ago by SilentStriker@piefed.social to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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This is during the era when the N64, PS1, SNES, Dreamcast or Sega Genesis were popular. Games back then were released physically via disc or cartridge, meaning distributors or publishers would've implemented anti-piracy (like Lenslok) measures onto physical copies but some knew how to tamper with anti-piracy if they have a computer using other sources of capturing data (floppy disks).

Also, games at the time were 'simple' to torrent but with a catch (dial up was still a thing at the time meaning downloads could take a while if you have a PC). Discs were more straight forward than "torrenting" cartridges (unless you have connections with the manufacturer on smuggling circuit boards). Like with movies, games that came on discs were "torrented" through CDs by using a PC.

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[–] goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

@SilentStriker I was one of the Gen X “computer babies”

About 95% of the stuff I had was pirated throughout the 80s and 90s.

It was common as hell.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 5 points 2 weeks ago

My junior high computer lab (full of Apple IIs) was basically one giant copy party.

[–] elfpie@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

If it wasn't free, it was pirated. I remember asking a teacher for a copy of clipper to practice at home and he reacting strangely and saying we would have to ask the director. I don't remember the details, but I got my copy and learned piracy was okay.