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.
Not necessarily… If you had an older model PS1 (forget the serial number), you could use a gameshark-like device that plugged into the back.
Also, I’m unsure if this was only for early models, or all PS1s, but there was a little plastic button under the CD tray that is how the system determined if the top was open or not. If you put a little twist tie or paperclip in there to keep it pressed down, you could do the disc swap trick.
You would use a real PlayStation game to load the Sony splash screens, with the top open. After that, the disc will pause for a moment, before loading the game. If you quickly swapped out the real game with the CD-R at that moment, then the CD-R would load just fine.
It was awesome.