Did you copy most of your computer games/software back in the day?

[BillyHW]

No judging going on here. Nor am I trying to have a debate about intellectual property and piracy. I'm just curious. How many of you actually purchased most of your computer games/software back in the classic era and how many of you copied most of the stuff for your computer.

 

Votes are private.

[JamesD]

I think all mine were purchased for my CoCo until I was in my 3rd or 4th year of college.

[atari181]

Used to use a bunch of copying software that bypassed the copy protection. I am sure I had 50 copied games to every one I purchased. I had a Tandy 1000SX(an IBM clone) so software was easily available.

[The Usotsuki]

Most of my software has always been pirated, though if I see something and have the money for it, I probably will buy it legally. (I'll never buy pirated software, though, that's just evil.)

[NE146]

Absolutely 0% of my Apple 2e software was legit. Just saying.

[Emehr]

I purchased all of my games for my Mac back in the day. I'm talking System 7.5 to Mac OS 8.6, not OSX. I'm a sucker for packaging, manuals, and media though. Plus, I figured my dollars would encourage companies to keep supporting the otherwise meager Mac gaming scene. I still keep an eye out for older games and software for the classic Mac OS. Not game related, but about four years ago I found a sealed, boxed suite of Adobe production software for Mac (Photoshop 6, Illustrator 9, After Effects 4.1, and Premiere 5) on ebay. Discs, fat manuals, and reference cards. It was glorious. It even included a VHS training tape.

 

I'm not against downloading software for obsolete hardware or operating systems though. My conscious is perfectly clear on that issue.

[atarian63]

The user group I was involved with in Florida used to meet once a month at a local library for a total 3-4 hour copy session,people showed up with multiple suitcases of discs, sometimes there were meeting for actual stuff but mostly copying

[Keatah]

I used to pack my Apple II, drives, and disks in the Radioflyer and go aroud the neighborhood.

[goldenegg]

For my Colecovision Adam, most of the software we had was purchased. The exception were a couple tapes a friend of the family gave us with 7 or 8 cart games on them.

 

For my Apple IIe, all my software was copied. To be honest though, there were times when I did go out with the intention of buying games for it, but I was never able to find a store that sold Apple II software.

[desiv]

Considering my financial situation back then, I'm amazed how much I legally purchased...

Probably should have spent some of that on more reasonable things...

 

That said, I had many many many more pirated games...

 

desiv

[potatohead]

About 30 percent purchased overall.

 

I would typically buy tools, copy games, buy really good games.

[Mr SQL]

I was in a users club when I was a kid so I had access to an immense library of software which of course we all copied. Users groups were basically for sharing software and getting information on hardware mods and programming.

 

Back in the day BBS connectivity facilitated further sharing too but I would point out none of this kept me or any of my friends from buying plenty of new software either - you know the carts, the new releases, the stuff you just had to have. Sharing/Piracy just increased diversity by providing you with a far more expansive range of software titles than you would otherwise maintain.

[BydoEmpire]

For my c64, I'd say 95% of our games were copied. My brother is 5 years older and would always come back from school or users group meetings with a few disks full of games. I still did get purchased games every chance I could, for birthday, Christmas, etc.

 

When I bought myself an Amiga I ended up buying the majority of my software because I only had two friends with Amigas. I was also 16 and working so I could afford it.

 

Voted "more copied than purchased" overall, because of the boxes of c64 stuff, and it's more relevant to "back in the day."

 

 

Once I got in college and beyond I bought petty much everything - I wasn't playing as many games so I just bought what I wanted. Also, copying 8 floppies for a PC game wasn't practical.

[jaybird3rd]

For us, it depended on the machine. I had a 2600 and a TI 99/4A, as did my grandparents, and we did buy quite a few cartridges for those; in those days, we obviously didn't have the means to copy cartridges, particularly TI's weird GROM-based carts. But on my uncles' Atari 800 machines, most of the software was copied. Around 1984-1986, they had a neighbor who apparently had access to a BBS, and I remember seeing them go over there with boxes of blank floppies ... which were not blank when they came back. I still have most of those floppies, along with their original 1050 drives, and yes, they all still work.

[Mirage]

I had a huge collection of only-pirated C64 copy utils.

 

(No joke, dead serious... copy utils are still a strange retrocomputer fetish for me).

 

The C64 games I did have were 90% copies also.

 

Before that, on the Vic-20, it was all legit, mostly cart. At that point, I don't think I was even aware of pirating. Getting a C64 and a VicModem 300 was the loss of my computing innocence.

[AtariLeaf]

Almost all of my Tandy coco software was copied. Never gave it a second thought back then. Our local coco user group usually ended every month with people making copies of software. I'd just go with a brand new 10 pack of 5 1/4 floppies and leave with dozens of new games to play.

 

I did eventually buy some games and software as time went on though.

[cimerians]

90% copied on the C64 and what I could not find I bought with what little money I could get. I had a small collection of originals but everyone in school in the mid 80's was trading disks and copying. Tons of disk copy utils and disk notchers!

[+Gemintronic]

I was always legit or shareware/freeware. The pirating stuff was more a hobby for some people back then. One friend actively bought disk duplicator cards and found xerox machines that could copy oddball print colors. Too much effort, I say.

[SlowCoder]

CopyIIPC was my friend. Sort of a souped-up diskcopy on DOS. I honestly can't think of ANYONE who didn't have at least a couple of illegitimate games/apps in their disk holder.

 

I eventually went back and actually purchased a lot of games I played most.

[icbrkr]

I ran a WHQ for many C64 groups back in the day. Uh... yeah I might have pirated a few things.

[+thegoldenband]

100% legit, but only because I didn't know anyone else who had a CoCo 2/3. One of those user groups would've been a godsend, since my collection of 3-4 carts plus RAINBOW type-in games really didn't cut it after a while, and my parents couldn't afford to buy much of anything.

 

We also had a borrowed Model III in the house for a little while, but I think all the games were also type-ins from magazines.

[20ohm20]

The only software I remember buying for the C64 was Ultima III and IV, the Bard's Tale series, Adventure Construction Set and C-Net BBS software. I also bought a couple dozen inexpensive games on cassette during a trip to Ireland in 1985; the majority of them were never loaded more than once (i.e., most of them were crap). Everything else was copies.

 

The Apple //e was my dad's "work computer" so I never really had any games for it. The only ones I remember was Zork I and some turn based RPG, not Ultima or Wizardry (the title escapes me at the moment), both of which were purchased.

 

Everything before then (VIC-20, TI-99/4A) was on cartridge and purchased.

[Keatah]

But on my uncles' Atari 800 machines, most of the software was copied. Around 1984-1986, they had a neighbor who apparently had access to a BBS, and I remember seeing them go over there with boxes of blank floppies ... which were not blank when they came back. I still have most of those floppies, along with their original 1050 drives, and yes, they all still work.

 

BBS was simply another way to spell warez.

 

I had a huge collection of only-pirated C64 copy utils. (No joke, dead serious... copy utils are still a strange retrocomputer fetish for me).

 

Not really. I had (still have) one of those impressive red missile-launch-codes 3-ring binders with all my versions of DOS, copy utlities, crack tools, and terminal programs. Along with it were parameter charts for each and every game in the library and notes and hacks. While I seemingly went overboard with it, all my buddies has something similar. It was like the dick thing. Gotta have something big and awesome to whip out in every situation. In the Apple II days, this was it! I remember I kept pestering non-computer people to come "check it out" and see how cool it was.

 

I always liked to imagine I was part of an elite commando squad or something. Ready 24/7 to handle your copy needs and ready to work under the most harshest of conditions. If those Space Marines from Aliens needed warez or copies we'd be ready!

 

 

 

Regarding other platforms, well, let's see..

 

All cartridge based systems, intellivision, vcs, o2, astrocade, all legit - it was too much trouble to dump and burn real rom chips.

 

TRS-80 Pocket Computer 1 - legit - we didn't know anybody else with one of these. And the software was cheap to boot. The library small enough to acquire all of it, even the type-in programs. Still have all of it!

 

"Hybrid" cart/disk systems like 400/800, C64, CoCo - a mix. At first, we bought everything, but when I started hoarding and accumulating shit, then it turned to disk copies.

 

TI-59 - a mix of store-bought stuff and PPG shareware library. This was just too cool for school, but I brought it with me anyways.

 

Apple II ?? Well, who didn't copy warez and gamez on that platform? That was a major scene at the time. Elite k-kalico-kewl wHaRezz waz everywhere! There was software that I had "acquired" and never even booted up. A psychiatrist specializing in virtual hoarding would have had a field day with the whole neighborhood.

[+FujiSkunk]

I did both. When I first aquired an Apple II, and shortly afterward a Commodore 64, my first games for both were mostly copies from friends. But very quickly I started buying original disks for each.

 

Considering I got the Apple in 1990 and the Commodore in 1991, I don't think too much business was lost due to my piracy.

[JonB]

Ha ha! Bognor computer club, one room with grown-ups talking about Acorn computers and peering at their BBC Micros, the other full of spotty teenagers all with STs, swapping disks like crazy. Trying to find out which copy program could defeat the protection on Captain Blood....

 

Happy days...