Hi all, 1st time poster, long time reader and recently decided to build a retro games collection. 1st thing on the agenda was to get my A1200 out of the loft and let it see the light of day again

Cut a long story short, many moons ago when XJ220 came out my friend gave me a copy which upon booting always said "cracked by skidrow" Now, this game worked flawlessly all the time, every time.
Fast forward to last week when I bought the game of eBay. The game refuses to run. I bought another copy of the game which does the exact same thing..... nothing. I will also point out my Cannon Fodder and Elite 2 discs work fine.
Reading around the net, it would appear XJ220 is not compatible with A1200? So my question is this.
Why on earth did a dodgy copy work back in 92 and now when I got the original, it refuses to even load?
My A1200 does not have a hard drive, everything is stock (desktop dynamite bundle baby :afro:) I have pressed both mouse buttons up boot and played around with some settings to no avail.
please help me play one of my fave racers again... i have the mega cd version, but i really cant stand it in comparison lol
tia
Sly