When I was a teen and wanted pirated games I had to put a lot of time into it (downloading/getting the CD's) then hunt for working cracks and then later deal with the consequences of installing cracks. My time was free but as an adult now I could never justify spending evenings to make pirated games work.
Today's piracy is way more easier than piracy 15 or 25 years ago.
The key selling point of piracy is that it's free.
Cracking games from a user standpoint is usually a process of downloading a torrent, waiting a bit, then replacing a handful of files in the install directory the first time, and then you're usually not bothered again. Some include an installer that handles this for you.
Not exactly... you still need specialist equipment to do it ... even something like the analogue hole is too inconvenient for the typical user. Even for me it’s just not worth the hassle. Downloading is easy enough for video and music but you still have to find the dodgy sites (in my jurisdiction thus requires some ducking and diving).
In some way it’s easier in some ways it’s harder. It’s an arms race and has been ever thus.
Today's piracy is way more easier than any method of acquiring such games 15 or 25 years ago.
Physically transporting the CD's from the game shop (which was an hour errand to me) doesn't compare to downloading for days or hunting that guy whose brother maybe had it on a random CD in his room.
Side note: I agree entirely but I do miss those evenings! Even legit games were such a chore to install that when they finally worked, you were swept by a wave of pure joy. Looking at you, Little Big Adventure 2!
It became slightly harder for a period of time when CD sized games became common, and Internet speeds have not yet caught up.
Did you enjoy the process? A lot of people do it for fun.