Dear Future Gamer,

I am writing to express my concern at pirate gaming. I recently found myself in possession of two grade A games: Tekken 3 and Gran Turismo, both bought for under a fiver each. I had also recently got my PlayStation chipped, so when I got home I was eager to get playing. I tried to load up Gran Turismo, no luck. I thought it was the chip so I tried Tekken 3, success, it loaded up. I went to Arcade mode and waited while it loaded. About 20 minutes later I gave up and turned it off. Both games hadn't worked and what once was a bargain had very quickly turned into a rip-off.

I actually bought Gran Turismo on Platinum for £20 a few days later and it was worth every penny. I was lucky enough to get a refund but only because I threatened to fight the guy. If it had been a smaller guy I would have been a tenner out of pocket and had a black eye. So before you fall for the rock bottom prices check that they work first!

The Scorpion

FG: Sorry Scorpion but you'll get no sympathy from us. Pirates are criminals and pirated games are illegal. As we've said time and time again piracy harms the consumer in the long run - not just because you end up with games that don't work but because it keeps software prices high.