Just read a video game console thread that gave me some highschool PlayStation memories.

PlayStation was the goto system because it utilized CD-Roms instead of circuit board based cartridges. PlayStation& #39;s ROI per sold game was huge doing this instead of the cartridge.
Fuck their ROI said the young hackers mind back in 1995. I forget the year, but someone somewhere figured how to by-pass the CD& #39;s boot sector, which was Pirate Proof by using a small programmable PIC. Online purchasing and the Internet for that matter was still in its infancy.
I was part of a BBS that would "share" information about anything electronics. In there I found the schematic for soldering these PIC& #39;s to the PS motherboard and where to buy these PIC& #39;s
I scrounged up all my lawn cutting money, gave it to my dad and told him to order 50 of these pre-programmed PIC& #39;s(Online, with a Credit Card-Taboo in the 90& #39;s). He asked no questions, being an electrical engineer, he loved that I fucked with electronics.
The start of my first highschool business. I was proficient in soldering and decided to "mod" students PlayStation& #39;s for $50 a pop. This was cheaper than a game at the time and parents jumped all over it knowing they could save huge on purchasing games.
After I made my first $500 I started buying the black CDz available at Future Shop, rarely in stock because I wasn& #39;t the only local pirate. The young sales guy finally asked why I want blackones, so I told him. "SICK" was his response.
We made a deal. I mod his PlayStation and provide him with free games. He buys all the black CDs before they even hit the shelf. I was rollin. Doing 3 PlayStation& #39;s a week.
Blockbuster game rentals. At Blockbuster you could rent a game for 3 days for $5.99. I re-invested more money and bought 6 hard drives, two more CD Burners, and massive tower case.
So I rented 3 games at a time and made 3 ISO files of the games over the next 3 days. Saving the game as an ISO saved time over the burning process since it was using the HD instead a CD-ROM drive to read the data.
Selling Games out of my locker. I wasn& #39;t being a cheap fuck when it came to selling the games. $5-$10 per copied game. CHEAP. People in the adult world were charging $20+

Return customers are more valuable than high prices.
Anyways, this is how I bought my first car at 17. I closed up shop 6 months before my 18th birthday and have never stopped finding ways to bend the system.
I never aspired to become an engineer or comp. sci guy. My certain skill set in "always finding a way" benefits me greatly as a Maintenance Electrician. If the down time is Electrical or Electronics related I always get the machine running if replacement parts are not available.
I would like to thank Blockbuster, PlayStation, Capacitor/Resistance filtered PPV cable, and the brown Bell payphone for my desire to bend the rules. (I might share the Brown Bell Payphone story one day)
Before I get a snowflake response.

Bill Gates "stole" from Gary Kildall

Steve Jobs "stole" from Dennis Ritchie

Two of the OG software pirates.
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