Pirated software in the late 80s

[baktra]

It was early/mid 90s. JRC was selling cassettes with 8-bit Atari games, openly and in their store. Using their Turbo 2000 system, they stuffed around 40 games on one cassette and sold for 99 CSK/CZK, which would be today $7.99. No license for the games, of course.

 

A mitigating circumstance for them is the fact that most of the games were from 1980s and in their domestic markets they wouldn't make any money, so they were basically selling abandonware for the price of cassette + duplication effort + some minor profit. Also this activity wasn't core of their business. Apart from other stuff, they've had their original hardware/software products for 8-bit Atari too.

 

This was probably necessary period in countries that were in the process of switching back to mixed economy. Times have changed, the company is normally selling original computer games for 25+ years.

[panamajoe]

5 hours ago, youxia said:

This is a great article about Italian pirates. They took it to a next level, a literally industrial scale: https://genesistemple.com/a-swashbuckling-tale-of-italian-software-piracy-1983-1993

great read! 

[atarialoha]

For a number of years as a child I lived in Asia and at the time, early to mid 80s, many Asian cities were just starting to popularize "home computers." Due to the demographics, most families could not afford the real thing, and there were quite a few hardware knockoffs (clones) of Apple II (the most popular clone category) and other 8-bits. As for software, the piracy was rampant and ostentatious. There were physical shops that blatantly sold warez. I remember seeing their walls and walls plastered with "screen shots" (you old timers will know what I mean, literal screen photos done with a camera and black cloth over the monitor) and you'd actually have to bring your own floppy to them, and have the particular warez copied onto your own floppy. BYOF. For a fee of course. One of the clearest memories I have is seeing the Apple II "unlocking" program LOCKSMITH being up for sale hahaha perfect digital irony. There were also many Atari warez, some copied onto floppy from cartridge.

[panamajoe]

16 hours ago, baktra said:

It was early/mid 90s. JRC was selling cassettes with 8-bit Atari games, openly and in their store. Using their Turbo 2000 system, they stuffed around 40 games on one cassette and sold for 99 CSK/CZK, which would be today $7.99. No license for the games, of course.

 

Was JRC behind the Turbo2000 mod? Did they develop it? Or did they simply use it, because most czech Atari users had it?

[baktra]

1 hour ago, panamajoe said:

Was JRC behind the Turbo2000 mod? Did they develop it? Or did they simply use it, because most czech Atari users had it?

The JRC founder developed the Turbo 2000 mod and published it in 1987.

[Khaizeka]

Years ago, there was a place in Florida, "Tampa Computer Orphans", I found in the ads in Atari Classics. He advertised as a seller of PD software, but his catalog had a lot of commercial software too.

[+slx]

I bought my first warez from a guy in Germany. Mailed him and he mailed me a list of software. I think he even included short descriptions, like a cheap catalogue. I selected the software together with a friend and we shared the cost. Had to obtain Deutsche Mark, put them in an envelope and sent them out and got floppies back. We then copied the stuff for both of us (plus others). Later stuff could be obtained domestically, never knew where the guys got it from, but I don't recall paying money for warez copied locally and I don't recall selling warez myself (I was somehow aware by then that this wasn't legal). I'll look for that list the next time I come across my pile of old Atari docs. Ads like those above were extremely common at the time.

[Mclaneinc]

I only brought Atari pirated software once, it was weeks before I was offered a job selling Atari's. I bumped into a guy in Silica Shop in Kent who offered me copied stuff, as my job was not paying well (lower end teaching jobs were stupid money) I took him up on the offer. Can't remember what I brought, but he had an 810 Happy. Later on I'd find out he was an ex armed bank robber (I did meet some strange folk back then). A few weeks later I got my new job, met a very connected pirate and the rest is history....Never had to buy dodgy stuff ever again..

[+Stephen]

Wow - you guys, so naughty.  I never bought pirated software for the A8 (or PC).

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When I stole my pirated software, it was free!

 

I shouldn't joke, but it was 35 years ago now.  I think we've all made up for it these past years with our support of so many hardware / software projects.

[R.Cade]

On 3/23/2022 at 8:35 AM, Mclaneinc said:

Nothing has changed

 

Ebay, AliExpress, different media, same goings-on.. My daughter collects Hello Kitty stuff from Japan where it's a BIG thing, the number of knock offs on AliExpress where they hide the bow the plush wears to disguise it as 'another' character, most definitely not a Hello Kitty at all . Between Blu Rays, DVD's and games the piracy situation has never been stronger.. (and that's ignoring the million and one other copies of everything).

 

Nothing will stop it as people are buying the knock offs, sometimes not knowing it's a copy (c'mon, if it's $100 cheaper than the shop based stuff then there's a massive clue) but many simply because it's cheaper..

 

In fact many folks see the knock off gear as valid, I've told this story before, I've always worked in computers and management, I worked in a shop in East London, selling games and PC's etc. We also sold second hand stuff and one day we had a couple come in and ask if we buy games, to which we said "some titles", they put a bag on the counter and took out loads of PSX games, every one a CD in a blank case for modded PSX's. We said that they can't sell those as they are copies, they we flustered and said "well that's what all my mates have" and "could we not buy them cheap".

 

Because they had purchased them from someone, they saw them as valid games.

 

 

Nobody is that dumb. They just "play" dumb. Same when I visit relatives and notice they have pirate IPTV. I don't even bring it up anymore because they get mad and embarrassed and defensive.

 

[Mclaneinc]

Sadly I'd love to agree but some people are so saturated in the murky waters that they actually believe its 'normal', I know it describes an incredibly dumb set of people but in some cases it's how it is..

 

Of course there are indeed those that 'play the game' and pretend, but it's shocking to have to admit there are people lower on the food chain..

[WizWor]

So many confessions!  What is the statute of limitations on software piracy?

 

My tale is much more boring.  I bought an Atari 400 for $149.99 at a local department store.  It included a $50 mail in rebate and I thought, "Who cannot afford a computer for less than $100?"  My first computer and my first mail in rebate.  The department store sold software for the computer and I bought up every cartridge in a short time.  (Pac Man was my last cartridge purchase because it was so terrible on the 2600.)

 

The rest of the games required a BASIC cartdridge and a 410 Program Recorder.  I could buy these as part of two kits -- one for gamers and one for programmers.  For $10 more the programmers' kit included a book on BASIC and a BASIC reference manual.  I splurged...

 

 

 

My first three cassette games were Energy Czar, Nuke War, and War of the Worlds.  I started reading the included book and was playing Energy Czar when I stumbled across some interesting information.  It turns out, if the game is not protected, you can hit the reset key to exit to BASIC then enter LIST to see the code.  I did.  I could.  Then I put a blank cassette into the 410 and saved the program to the cassette.  Then I loaded the game off the new cassette.  For me, that was thrilling.  From that point on, playing Energy Czar meant editing the code -- putting my name and dirty words in the code then playing the game to find them.  So, I guess I was a pirate.

 

When I was in college, we had a computer class.  The lab was Commodore 64s.  One of the guys in the class -- Bud -- asked if he could do his coding on an Apple computer.  The instructor said that was fine as long as he could bring the computer in to demonstrate his work.  By the end of the week, the lab was awash with a variety of home computers including that Apple, some TI99s, and a couple Atari computers.  The other Atarian told me he would get me some games if I got a disk drive.  I did.  He did.  So, I guess I was receiving stolen goods.  Just a couple disks.  He belonged to PACE -- the Portsmouth Atari Computer Enthusiasts -- and their logo was a pirate.  I never joined.

 

From that point on, my piracy was limited to backing up programs I purchased.  To a certain extent, I was more interested in defeating the protection than using the programs.  My favorite tool was called Chipmunk...

 

 

I remember defeating 'bad sector' checks by formatting a disk with a scotch tape 'handle' that stuck out of the drive.  If you put pressure on the tape as the disk was formatted, all sectors were bad.  The you could copy the contents of a program using a sector copier and bad sector checks would find bad sectors.  

 

I also knew a guy where I worked who had a special card in a PC that would 'copy anything'.  I used his PC to back up a lot of disks -- just because it was easier.

 

In time, I acquired disk drives that included copy capabilities (Happy).  I did duplicate disks with those, but only to see how that worked.

 

Of course, that was then and this is now.  Today, the ROMS are readily available and it's very easy to 'pirate' software.  What is so fun about that?

 

 

[TGB1718]

I wasn't a Pirate as such, but did enjoy cracking protection, found it more fun than playing the games.

I think the closest I got was cracking Cassette protection so I copy them onto disk, obviously to stop

using the cassette due to it's unreliability and long load times.

[Fred_M]

On 3/23/2022 at 3:16 PM, youxia said:

This is a great article about Italian pirates. They took it to a next level, a literally industrial scale: https://genesistemple.com/a-swashbuckling-tale-of-italian-software-piracy-1983-1993

Thanks for the link! That article confirms my suspicion that there was not a sufficient copyright law in Italy in those days, similar to Poland.

 

I have quite a bunch of those Italian releases for Atari 8-bit computers in my collection.

[+bf2k+]

On 4/10/2022 at 9:11 PM, WizWor said:

When I was in college, we had a computer class.

 

 

Oh to have had a personal computer when I was in college... (they didn't exist  )

[TGB1718]

5 minutes ago, bf2k+ said:

Oh to have had a personal computer when I was in college... (they didn't exist  )

I didn't do college until I was an adult (day release) the first college only had teletype terminals,

had a gap of a few years and later completed college, this time I had my 800 and did all my Computer

Engineering documentation on it, my hardware project for the course was a printer driver through the 

joystick ports on the 800 (got a distinction for it  )

[Ely]

I’d say 99% of my Atari 8-Bit software was pirated. It’s why I had an Atari as my mate had one and so I knew I could easily get a loads of free software for it. Then I went to college and met a guy who’s now my best mate and he had a whole load more software. The only games I bought were cheap cassette games that I’d immediately copied over onto disks. 

Edited April 14, 2022 by Ely