Ah, video game pirates. Agree with them or not, they are going to be around for as long as studios keep making great games and downloadable content. According to basically every terms of service agreement (you know, the big legalese paper you don’t take the time to read but always click ‘I accept’), any kind of pirating is breaking the agreement and the company can basically do whatever to your account that they want. Game companies are smart and hire contract writers who make the conditions just vague enough that you can’t even take them to court over any decision.

While it’s hard to say that developers will ever be able to eradicate pirates from getting their hands on stolen games because of the ins and outs of the internet, it’s not hard to have a laugh at the ways game developers got back at the pirates by putting something extra in cracked copies of their games.

When that is not enough, sometimes developers and game studios have to simply ban the player’s account. Of course, this usually brings up some sort of outrage because the pirate thinks they have some rights to get unbanned. But remember that legalese from earlier? Maybe you should have read it closer before clicking the ‘I accept whatever punishment you want to give me for downloading this content that I really should have just forked over the money for’ button. There are more reasons for pirating than just not wanting to pay, according to some people. One of the biggest excuses is they just want to demo the game to see if they are going to buy it. Still, remember... pirating is theft.

30 A Missing Tripod

Grand Theft Auto is a game from Rockstar studios that allows you to live out all of your crime-based fantasies. Want to steal cars and drive them around aimlessly? Cool. Want to cause all sorts of destruction? Here’s a bazooka. But if you nabbed a pirated copy of that game, you’d better have a good sense of balance, because whoever is working the camera sure doesn’t. you’ll be fighting all of the usual enemies of the game as well as the camera that sways side to side as if it had one too many beverages last night.

29 A Spook In The Dark

Nearly every hard game that comes out these days is referred to be similar to the ever popular Dark Souls. Being a very popular game always brings the pirates. Knowing cracked copies of the game would get out, developers put in a little surprise for the pirates. Screamers are enemies with obnoxiously loud cries. In pirated copies, they can appear anywhere and at any time, even in the menu! If that’s not an effective piracy alarm, I don’t know what would be.

28  Poultry At The Ready!

When you don’t have bullets to use, there are plenty of other ways to finish your enemies and make it through your objective in a shooter. Chickens don’t usually make that list. Yet, that’s the only form of attack you can use in Crysis: Warfare when you decide to play the game without buying it. What’s worse is that the chickens do absolutely nothing to your enemies. Good luck getting through your first level, because that’s probably as far as you’ll get.

27 Some Light Reading

Before Disney’s cinematic take on Prince of Persia, it was a video game that came with a manual which was a little bit of paper you could read to find out about the game.

Before online walkthroughs were available, you had to use the manual that was included in your purchased game.

Since there was no internet when it came out, in order to stop pirates the game developers instead gave the player a room full of potions to choose from. They were all poison except for one, which was listed in your manual. So if you paid or read, you had no problem.

26 For Your Eyes Only

Once again, not having everyday use of the internet is a game developer’s best friend against pirates. The Secret of Monkey Island, ironically a game about pirates, also had a code in the manual that helped the player answer the question on screen before the game even begins. Of course, with no internet, players had a lot of time to figure out what the answer was, but it at least deterred those would-be pirates from thieving this point and click adventure.

25 At Least They're Polite

Square Enix is another company that doesn’t like to mess around with pirates. Instead of creating a ton of traps for pirates in Final Fantasy: Ring of Fates, however, they took a subtler route.

The time limit made the game a demo.

Pirates were able to play the first twenty minutes of the game, but as soon as that timer reached the end, the only thing that could be seen on the screen is a picture of two cute moogles and the words, “thank you for playing”. It is a passive aggressive reminder to pirates, if I ever saw one.

24 Five Nights Too Many

Even though the first game came out in 2014 (and here we are, six games later) Five Nights at Freddy’s got immensely popular when high-profile YouTubers decided to play it for their channels. Of course, that meant everyone else wanted to play it too. The game wasn’t even expensive and people decided to pirate it. They got the normal game for free, but something else was added to the code. Every time you exited you’d get an extra jumpscare. Fun at first, but then it would get annoying after a while. That’s what you get for cheating the system.

23 One Trick Monkey

Nintendo again makes this list with their game Donkey Kong 64. When the N64 was popular, these games were quite in demand. So naturally, people figured out how to get copies for free. Naturally as well, these games didn’t work properly. If you could beat the game in one sitting, old-school style, you had no problem. However, if you decided you didn’t want to finish all at once, you’d be sent back to the beginning because the game didn’t save.

22 Cosmic Golf

Nintendo is a company that basically says "feel free to enjoy our content, as long as you pay for it." Those who don’t are in for a big surprise. It’s no different for Kirby’s Dream Course. Pirates are able to get their hands on a cracked copy, but good luck trying to finish it. Not only do you not get any bonuses for finishing levels, the game crashes and erases itself when you get to the end. While it may seem harsh, Nintendo isn’t playing around.

21 Let's Do The Time Warp Again!

We all know that time travel has its own rules and doesn’t always make a lot of sense. But when a time loop opens up in front of you, you’ll take it. For those who bought Chrono Trigger, the time portal was a way to save the world.

Well, time stood still for the pirates.

For those who pirated it, it made a nice screensaver. You were never able to really even start the game because you got ahold of the game illegally. Guess the developers didn’t think it was fair to those who paid and supported the company.

20 Worse Than A Pinto

Another way Grand Theft Auto 4 punished pirates was coded into an integral part of the game- driving cars. If you could drive without crashing with the crazy camera, you’d be stuck in a time bomb. The developers arranged it so that any car you got into immediately would accelerate and then explode. There wouldn’t really be much chance to get out of a car like that, so your entire game would have to be on foot, and that basically kills the experience. Word to the wise, folks; buy the game.

19 Don't Be A Hero!

In the $15 game The Amazing Frog, you play a parkour-loving frog that goes around and explores his world all while saving the day. Should you deem $15 to be too much for a few hours’ worth of entertainment, the developer makes sure you don’t even get 10 minutes.

Sharks and lasers keep these pirates where they belong.

Pirated copies do not allow you to leave the hideout, rendering the entire thing pointless. Want to sneak out? Good luck getting past the sharks and lasers keeping you in. You’ll need it.

18  A Past Platformer

Pugsy is a platformer game that never really took off in popularity like some of the other platformers of its day, but it was still popular enough to be pirated by people. In keeping with some of the other entries on this list, it would let you play... for about five levels. After that it filled the screen with a note about how pirating is bad and is hurting the company. While not a subtle nod, it certainly let people know they were in the wrong.

17 One Heck Of A Math Problem

When Escape Velocity came out, the developers gave gamers a short trial of the game to test the waters. It was a good way to see how the fans reacted and what kind of mechanics worked. One mechanic that worked very well was one against pirates. If a player tried to play after the trial was over, your ship would be routinely attacked, credits would be stolen from you and your ship would end up being destroyed. Pirates got done in by the pirates. It’s less irony and more poetic justice.

16 Shiver Me Engine

Some developers are a little more lax in their anti-pirating measures when it comes to their games. Take Dirt: Showdown for example. It’s a racing game that runs just fine when pirated. The difference is that the game knows you are a dirty, dirty thief and will let you know it by including pirate lingo into the game. While one eye patch short of a full blown reminder, it’s still enough to remind the player that there are consequences for every action.

15 Don't Know Where It's Been

A Japanese release, Cross Days is an adult interactive novel that you may not want to let everyone know you play. People who pirated a copy of this game weren’t able to hide behind anything when it came out.

Well, your information could get broadcasted.

Unbeknownst to them, when they downloaded the cracked copy of the game, a malware virus was attached, and a few days later, screen shots of their desktop with personal information was posted to social media without their knowing. You take risks in the pirating business and this time especially, it wasn’t worth it.

14 Sushi To Go

Umihara Kawase is a platforming game about a sushi chef trapped in a world of fish. The goal is to get tasty fish for your creations. It’s a simple enough game that offers at least a little distraction and is worth some money. However, if you decided that you didn’t want to pay, you’d find some unexpected surprises coming your way. The physics of the lure start off fine, but after about ten minutes, catching fish is nearly impossible. Those pirates on the SNES had it even worse. You’d fall in a pit and get stuck.

13 A Far Cry From Normal

Ubisoft earns a spot on this list with their excellent Far Cry 4. In that game, there is an option on the menu called field of view scaling, which helps with the camera. Seems pretty useful, right? Well in pirated copies of the game, the option is missing, forcing any player who gets onto a vehicle into a trippy camera. It may also affect you when you’re not on a vehicle, so good luck on that pirate ship. We won’t be joining anytime soon.

12 The Short End Of The Stick

When you’ve got a game that depends on resources and your ability to harvest them, you know there’ll be trouble if something doesn’t allow for one of those things. Namely, Settlers 2.

You might know that trees are best at full-height.

You may be aware of the other bug in pirated game where instead of iron your smelter makes pigs, but to add insult to injury the developers added one more spanner in the works. You can plant all the trees you like, but they will never grow to full height. Looks like you’ve got a tall order.

11 Spyro De Dragón

Pirates beware! Spyro: Year of the Dragon is not a game you want to pirate. Not only do you get an on screen message at the beginning telling you that you’re playing a pirated game, but throughout the game essential items like eggs and gems will be missing, language settings will change randomly and your save file will be erased at the end. You might not even get that far because certain key characters might be missing. It’s best just to buy it, especially since developers are likely to do something similar when the remake comes out.