There was actually a trick for the PlayStation that allowed you to play pirated games without any hardware mods. It involved starting a game with the CD case open, and using your finger to stop the CD from spinning at certain points. I was quite young at the time and never mastered the method, and we got a hardware mod for the console at a later point.
Wow, that brings back memories. IIRC, you actually had to (while booting/disc spinning) pull out the a retail disc at a certain point, put in your burned disc, and do that exchange once more.
I remember a hardware mod that was just a spring you put in the door latch sensor to prevent it from knowing that you had opened the lid. There was a special loader disk you put in first that got it started, then stopped the disk so you could swap in your burned copy.
