How much pirated Amiga software did you have?

[ElPolloDiabl]

Hi, a poll for the old days, how many pirated games or productivity software did you have in your collection at it's peak. Don't count anything post 1997 seeing how it became hard to get a legal copy. If you replaced your pirated software with a legal copy in that time frame, don't count that either.

[koaftder]

Too much to count, I've never actually bought a single program in my entire life for any platform.

[save2600]

I never downloaded pirated games myself from BBS boards or wherever and can't think of anyone that did. But I did end up trading a couple of baseball card sized boxes of games for a couple of SNES games back in the day. lol

Thing that also discouraged me from copying disks among the few friends that had Amigas, was that the copiers themselves were usually $50+.  If I had that much money to spend on a game, I'd just as soon have the box, manual, etc. Guess I'm strange that way  

[som99]

well its hard to know exactly how many pirated games I had, but who could afford to buy all games? well I for sure had about 1000 disks containing copied software of some sort, since I was a bit into the scene back them Ihad  quite alot and was main distributer in the city where I lived. Im not prood but I had fun and I do not regret anything.

Tho I allways bought the great games that I loved and I thought was worth the money, so I had about 150 original games and still got about 50 of them even this day in my stoorage (a few prized games I loved is on display in my computer room)

But as said over 1000 disks and mabe near 2k its hard to keep track of. But nowdays I can afford all software I want on all consoles and PC, to justify it im a collector of many old consoles and I have alot of original games for most consoles ever made I even buy all RPG titles that releases for PS3 even if they are good or not

Edit: As many here knows we had some pretty nice BBSes in gothenburg at that time

[ElPolloDiabl]

Having a modem in the old days and you were still in school was like having a Santa Claus machine. When I got my modem all the pirate BBS had closed.

[skurk]

"15"?

How about times a hundred or so.  Today, even more.

[T3000]

If you replaced your pirated software with a legal copy in that time frame, don't count that either.

The try before you buy method.  
There may be some Toaster related apps and AsimCDFS on my system that were not legal distubution at the time.
World Construction Set. Very in-depth program that is tough to use without the printed manual.
Bootlegged a load of games through the Amiga club.
I'd have to say that all the titles that I had gotten as "back up" copies were eventually purchased new or used and the back-ups tossed into the product box.

[Phantom]

The problem is not if you had pirated games in the past, but why you had?

For example, in my country, even when Amiga was very popular, it was really rare to find an original game to buy, so the only option was a pirated copy.

[runequester]

My games collection weren't monster huge, but propably 10 games bought and 40 or 50 pirated.

These days I buy my games, since I want to ensure that developers who do linux games continue to do so

[som99]

The problem is not if you had pirated games in the past, but why you had?

For example, in my country, even when Amiga was very popular, it was really rare to find an original game to buy, so the only option was a pirated copy.

For me it never was a money issue, it was more the scene and the way I lived back then, the comunity and the great scene parties and gatherings. Oh memories *a tear runs down my cheek*

[Calen]

Alot!

I did buy the odd gem here and there  but  mostly i got copies. It was just to easy & readily available.
Back in the very early 90's,  everyone  local  to me bought the Amiga  not just because it was an Awesome machine,  but also as they could  get the games for nothing,  minus  the price of the blank floppies and postage costs.

While it may have played a small part in the Amiga's downfall,  easy access  to pirated  software  help shift quite a percentage of Amiga's to.

Going back  further though, my C64 , well i bought every single  game, i really cant remember any pirate  software there. I also buy  90+ % of my PC games  to, which is only a few  a year though.

Looking back, i wish i did buy more games,  but i was young,  broke and it was just easy.

[koaftder]

I've never felt bad about pirating software, quite the opposite actually. I've saved a lot of money! I used to have box after box after box full of discs. Back in the day I used to get up with friends on weekends and have copy parties. Everybody would bring their machines and we'd hang out and drink beer play games and copy copy copy. Those were the days.

[Karlos]

Very little, to be honest. I tried a few games and applications that I invariably got from other people. Anything I liked I bought (after all, manuals etc are nice to have), anything I didn't I just formatted over and reused the disks.

I was also quite into PD stuff at the time. One of my local computer shops used to stock Fred Fish and many other good collections of free/shareware.

[Pentad]

15?  Are you kidding?   Sheesh, we would get 15 in a night!


79th Track, Only Amiga, Fear and Loathing...so many BBS sites combined with PC-Pursuit rocked!

I didn't know anybody who didn't do this.  I'm sure it hurt the software market a great deal on the Amiga but with everybody coming from the Commodore 64 it was just the way things were...  I mean the Commodore 64 sold so well because of piracy!   I always heard that Commodore said "Piracy sells computers!"

It was the Golden Time of the scene...ESI, Bencor Brothers, Razor 1911, The Firm, boy times were much simpler...

79th Track had these awesome util disks that were just fantastic!

I know it wasn't right but at the time I was a 17 year old kid with no money.  I'm going to buy WordPerfect or Aztec C for the Amiga?   Yeah, right...

[Firedawg]

I spent a lot of money on software back in the day (early 80's and 90's), and pirating software was not an option for me.  Today, I take advantage of trial software and if I find it useful I purchase it.  With older software that is no longer being sold or available I find myself procuring it from wherever I can.

The Dawg