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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[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Dreamcast and Genesis were not very popular. Most people had an n64 or ps1, most people did not have a dreamcast or genesis. To my knowledge, torrents did not exist in the 90s. Downloading games was prohibitively bandwidth expensive, you were lucky enough to download a single image in the 90s. Digital music piracy didn't really catch on until 2001. Hell, digital music didn't even catch on until 2001.

Pirates existed, but it was extremely rare. Most people knew it existed for consoles, but most people didn't do it.

It really wasn't until DSL and cable broadband internet connections to the home made downloading a game remotely feasible that piracy was really even possible. Keep in mind, even piracy is a kind of market, and if nobody's buying, it would be foolish to be a seller. This stuff HAS existed, definitely, as long as time has been a thing, but buying bootleg copies from a dealer wasn't popular in the 90s to my knowledge, in MOST circles, or at least in any that I was in. It was like.... In The 2000s when buying porn magazines was viewed as cringe and only for old people. Bootleg copies existed - people buying porno mags existed - but it was wildly unpopular and being replaced by waaaayyyyy cheaper and more convenient methods, or not at all.

Also, mod-chipping a console as a kid was too risky and not worth it, so most people just only had a few games and watched tv and played in other ways, like using your imagination, possibly with friends, possibly even oUtSiiiDe~ oooOOOOoooohhhh~