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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[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 6 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

quite common. i vividly remember friend doing careful calculations whether to buy double or quatro speed cd rom burner and whether he will be able to make up for that big price difference with a number of cds he can burn and distribute among his friends...

before that when it was floppy disks, it was even simpler, because any floppy mechanic was able to both read and write. some of them had some clever anti piracy features though, like asking you "what is the fifth word on page 27 of the manual?" 😆

that is for pc, i have no idea about consoles.