When did you first learn/discover pirated software?

[ddaniels]

My first gaming system was an Intellivsion (my friends had an Atari 2600). Obviously these systems used cartridges and back then I never heard or knew of a concept of anyone copying cartridges. Sometime around '83 I received a C64 and months later finally got a 1541 drive. I don't think I learned about pirated C64 games until one day in high school this guy was actually handing out a typed list of copied C64 games that he was selling. He had everything listed in alphabetical order and had what seamed like 100's of games. His pricing scheme was something like $5 for the first game then it went down in price as you purchased more. You also had to provide your own disks so he could copy what you wanted. Yes, looking back that was stupid/illegal but I must admit I recall buying Ms.Pacman from him for $5. I never knew until then you could copy games. I also was not familiar with BBS's where apparently this was going on??

 

What stories do you guys have or recall of pirated software?

Edited March 18, 2010 by ddaniels

[Ransom]

I first learned of it in high school, in the two-period class on structured programming (Apple ][) I was taking for an easy "A".

 

Everyone was passing around tons of cracked games. I'd had no idea such existed before that point. But it didn't take me long to come up to speed.

[+save2600]

This is going to sound a little naive, but I was not aware of anyone with pirated software until the early 90's. System was the Amiga. I traded a guy a couple of SNES games (R-Type and Final Fight) for two long Baseball Card boxes of the stuff. lol Hmm... even though SNES games were $60-$70 each back then, let's see... 2 games for about a hundred or more? I did the math and made the trade. lol That was also back in the day of 1200-2400bps modems. No way was I going to sit and rack up a helluva phone bill, just to pirate games I wouldn't value. I guess it was worth some peoples time, but I always found it easier and quicker to just go out and buy what I wanted. I always had a decent selection of games to choose from and back then, nobody I knew was bent on owning thousands of titles like almost all of us are today. lol

 

Have never taken crack'd software seriously and to this day, prefer to own the real deal. Boxed if I can help it

 

By reading mags and such back in the day, I was aware that pirating was going on and knew of devices that "backed up" your stuff - but somehow, it was never a big deal to steal games or whatever. Just wasn't geared that way I guess and besides the one kid I knew (that lived in Chicago and met at Montgomery Wards whilst trying to sell Amiga systems!), I was not aware of any of my friends pirating software. Not even for the C64, Apple or TI systems I had back in the day.

Edited March 18, 2010 by save2600

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

I remember copies of games on cassette for the VIC 20 I think?

[darthkur]

The first time I got to play games on my step-fathers C64 I discovered the wonderful world of media pirating. This is how I was first introduced to Lode Runner, H.E.R.O., Ghostbusters, Miner 2049'er and Track 'n' Field. Yearrgh.

[+Random Terrain]

A very Christian family friend had a boatload of pirated games for the VIC-20 and the Commodore 64 back in 1983/1984 and beyond. That's when I discovered it.

[AtariLeaf]

Almost all my old Tandy coco software was pirated. Back then nobody I knew thought of it as stealing anymore than making a copy of my friends Cinderella and Europe LP's on a cassette to play in my portable radio while driving my dads old Ford POS.

 

In fact the old coco club I used to go to once a month was really nothing more than everyone bringing their software and a bunch of blank discs and making copies and playing games all night. Good times

 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm suddenly in the mood to listen to "The Final Countdown"

Edited March 18, 2010 by AtariLeaf

[Tom-Lynx]

Apple II disks.

 

After my father brought home an Apple \\e, we started buying 5¼ inch disks in lots of 100 and punching both sides to double out copying capacity.

 

We had every copy program there was, although "Copy II Plus" or "Locksmith 5.0" or "Locksmith 6.0" was usually able to take care of the job.

 

My father started by bringing home disks from work that were circulating around the office for everybody to copy, and then in high school I hooked up with other Apple II owners and we all swapped disks....even some of the teachers. My copy of "Olympic Decathlon" came from my Geometry teacher!

 

About 8 years ago I GAVE away over 2000 Apple II disks with every program you can imagine (copies and originals) to a neighbor kid. Now I regret it.

[desiv]

Oh, that would be when I snagged that code Ada Lovelace wrote...

 

Boy, Charles B. was furious about that, I can tell you.. :-)

 

Semi-seriously tho, I think the first software I worked on in CP/M was pirated, so it goes way back for me..

 

And yes, I bought (and still do) lots of software..

 

desiv

[+wood_jl]

(I told this story before somewhere else)

 

 

8th grade. Atari 800. Knew nobody else with Atari, so nobody to pirate from. Knew of Commodore users doing it (since there were so many more of them) and Apple as well, and watched them do it at school - the kids with Apple IIs.

 

Then some kid wanted to bang my sister. He had Apple II. (They were both a couple of years older) He used to come over, and he saw my A800 and said his friend had one, and he could get me some games. Gave him blanks. He thought this was an "in" to help out the little brother. Came back with several discs, CHOCK FULL of the latest games - and disc-notched (hadn't done that yet) so both sides were packed. Included EXE files of everything I already had on cartridge plus everything I wanted!! Can't remember what it all was as there have been too many games and years since, but will never forget that ARCHON was the capper. ARCHON!!!! I don't think he banged my sister, but I wouldn't have cared anymore as I was too obsessed with Archon. [He was a nice guy, sister didn't like him....think he's an M.D. now so maybe she should have]

[Rybags]

First "heard" about it.

 

Probably a mate who owned a 2600 told me about someone his old man knew who'd copied a pile of ROMs, then built a box that plugged into his machine and had a selector switch.

 

That was probably around 1980/81.

 

So far as the computer goes... well, for starters the game retail distribution here was always pathetic, so many people just imported games themselves. Of course, that was a minor thing - most of the games we ever saw or aquired were copies.

Edited March 19, 2010 by Rybags

[NE146]

Let's just say I never owned one frigging piece of legitimate Apple II software. And it's been the same way ever since

[Shannon]

Learned about it in 7th grade from my typing teacher who got them from, egads, the middle school vice principal. Used to go over his house all the time to visit his son and copy disks. Later on I got into Bulletin Boards. His son went to a different school in a different county, though.

[JamesD]

The first I personally saw pirated software was my friend's Apple II+ in 1982.

I had read about it before then but I'm not sure when I first read about it.

It could have been as early as 1979.

 

I don't think I received pirated software until '86.

Before that I or my parents purchased it all.

[oracle_jedi]

What stories do you guys have or recall of pirated software?

 

Early on it was kids in the school play-yard swapping tape casettes for their ZX Spectrums, VIC-20s and Dragon 32s.

 

Low-tech solution using the twin-deck ghetto-blasters of the early 80s, place original tape in slot A, blank tape in slot B and tada - instant clone every time. There was no money changing hands. Distribution was on a swap-by-swap basis. With all the immature inter-platform rivalry of the age it was inevitable this led to yet more friction, with kids claiming they were cheated because their cloned-game was good and the one given in trade was crap/non functional/a magazine type in/etc etc.

 

I had a VIC-20 and a few copied games obtained with this method, but I always wanted an Atari 400/800 system. Eventually I got an 800XL in Dec 84 and that made me the first kid in the school to have an Atari. Everyone else was buying Spectrums or Commodore 64s. But I still wanted a real 800, and by luck one came up in the local newspaper a few months later. It was a pivotal moment, because whereas I was excited to finally own a real 800, the package came with a dozen tapes of games.

 

These games were not the usual simple tape copies, but dumps of cartridges. I had the entire Atari cartridge collection on tape. I never even knew that was possible back then! And there was more - one tape had "The Last Starfighter" on it - wow - that didn't even exist!

 

By chance I had bought the old 800 of a member of a hacking/piracy ring. He had upgraded to an 800XL and needed cash for another disk drive, so sold his 800 to me. I wanted the 800 for the cool looks (I still own that machine) but the software that came with was the real prize.

 

I guess the interesting part of this tale is that I used that collection of pirated games to tempt other kids to the Atari platform. In the brutal competition between the Spectrum and Commodore 64 camps, each one offering a collection of copied games provided you provided a title-for-title match, the Atari camp (just me) went from a collection of basically none to the biggest inventory of any camp. What's more I decided to just give the collection to anyone who provided a blank tape or ten.

 

In the following year the Atari 800XL became the most popular platform at the school.

 

Jack Tramiel would claim it was his aggressive cost cutting in 1985 "Power Without the Price" that did that, but I think it was my "free software collection" that was the real reason behind Atari becoming a major sales force!

[Seob]

I should say when did you first learn/discover original software. In 1984 or so all i friends i had had copied games only. My friends had msx's and c64's and all they had where loads of cassettes with games. When we got or schneider cpc464, i had copied games. It was so easy, copy with a double deck tape, and you had new games.

It was only later when i realized that this where pirate games. I never thought about it. When my friends had videopac's and 2600's they had original cartridges, but when they swapped to msx and so, i didn't know that most of these tape games where pirates. Just thought that was how you got new games. Didn't know they where selling them in shops.

Later when i moved to pc all i had where copied games. And when i did buy a game, most of it where bad, because i didn't have the money to buy top range titles.

[Tempest]

I never cracked/pirated software myself, but I sure did benefit from it. When I was younger my neighbor was none other than the notorious Al Ralsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ralsky) who at that time was busy pirating Apple II software so I don't think I bought my first legitimate Apple game for over 4 years after getting my system. Other than that I don't think I ever used pirated software unless you count downloading abandonware games in the modern age.

 

Tempest

[+save2600]

With all this talk about Apple ][ stuff... I need to retract what I said about not knowing pirated software in the 80's. My memory is super hazy here, but I do indeed remember cutting the notches out to make the disks double-sided, bringing blank disks to school (Jr. High) and copying games that other kids had already copied. BUT... I can only remember a few... Moon Patrol, Pick Axe Pete (or some kind of platformer) and this porn game. Sorry, can't remember the details of that at all! lol One thing I do know though... I didn't copy many and remember NOT really valuing the games or even my ][+ shortly afterwards. I did not have an 8-bit Apple for very long. Can't say I was ever impressed by any of its "arcade" titles

Edited March 19, 2010 by save2600

[Herbarius]

Well, when I was a kid, both my father and my uncle had an Amiga. Also my uncle had a C64.

 

So maybe it is not surprising that copying games seemed to be something completely normal to me. I vividly recall when my dad told me that copying games is not legally allowed, and how surprised I was about it, because that's all I had known until then.

[jhd]

I had a Coco growing up. Unfortunately, nobody else I knew had one, so there was really nobody to "share" with.

 

I recall exchanging cassette tapes of games with a few people by mail. Finally, by my senior year of high school (1987), I met someone local who also had a Coco. By that point, however, my interest in Coco games was lagging. I got my first PC shortly thereafter for Christmas 1988.

[Pyromaniac605]

A very Christian family friend had a boatload of pirated games for the VIC-20 and the Commodore 64 back in 1983/1984 and beyond. That's when I discovered it.

I can see it now the missing 11th commandment...

Thou shalt not steal, unless you make money out of it.

 

I was first introduced to pirate games when i was at a market once and somebody was selling games with badly printed disc and the words "Demo Disc" on them they obviosly weren't demo discs and i was playing games when i got home that weren't a demo i was amazed! (I was only 6 or so)

 

-Darren-

[shadow460]

The first time I used or saw pirated software was when we had our Ace 1200. We got copies of games from friends and family members. I didn't know it was illegal until much later.

[jeremysart]

Like most others in here, I discovered piracy with the advent of 5.25 floppies, so from the very start for me (the 5.25 era was nearing its end and mostly replaced by 3.5 floppies by the time I was old enough to be using a PC.)

 

Lots of memories of copying my favorite games to one or several floppies and walking over to my friends. Of course I was less of a pirate and more of a shareware distributor, as I copied the shareware versions of games I bought and gave them out to my friends. Of course for close friends I would install full version games on to their HD.

 

One thing I would love to get a hold of is Doom on 5.25 disks..

[cimerians]

Circa 1984 with the C64.

 

5.25 floppies, disk notchers and disk copy programs. They were all common in high-school with kids that had C64's where I lived.

[Tickled_Pink]

Early in 1986, just after I got my XL. I was in a local college after just leaving school. I was one of the relatively few people in the UK with an Atari Disk Drive. A school friend put me in touch with someone he knew who'd been an Atari owner for a few years (he originally had a 400). So he got me a Rob C menu disk from this guy ... which I promptly formatted over.

 

Anyway, I met the guy a few days later and we've been friends ever since - through thick and thin. He killed my original copy of Operation Wolf on the ST a week after I'd bought it. I returned the favour with his original Gauntlet. Great fun.