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Or you could live in Poland and only get C64 and (clones of) NES in 90s. And copyright only started being a thing in like 1993. So before that public radiostations broadcasted computer software sometimes :) And there were open air markets with pirated games in the center of most big cities. That's where CD Projekt RED guys started - by selling games they got by paper mail from abroad on these markets.



Copyright reform was in 1994, remember after that date tables full of floppies started turning into kids running around with paper catalogues and asking "gry uzytki, co potrzeba?". CD Project guys did a bit more than just sell games :). Marcin Iwiński aka S.S. Captain might have cracked Amiga games himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x_Q4L99ZrY

„Again S.S. Captain. Again of Katharsis. Again the No. 1 in Poland and again with a new import/of co2!/. Mini intro by Raf. Wonderful tune by Martin Galway. Font/logo by Jerry. Why the Polish scene is so boring??? ; no copy parties. No cool demos. No quality groups with quality stuffs etc. Its' a big shit! isn't it???”

https://spidersweb.pl/plus/2021/07/cd-projekt-story-witcher-...

They went legit in 1994. I think theirs was one of the only few tents selling original games at the Warsaw weekly computer trade fair https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=88993 'History of Polish computer trade fair 1986-20xx. HD video/hires images from Giełda Komputerowa na Grzybowskiej (1993).'

There is maybe 5% chance CD Project founders Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński

https://spidersweb.pl/plus/2021/07/witcher-cdprojekt-cyberpu...

were captured in this picture selling pirated games in 1993 :)

https://c7.alamy.com/comp/2HADG1M/warszawa-031993-centralna-...




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