Last time, Rf Burns #2 @1703027*1 said this to Kozmik Katman #1 @1214009:

 RB#@> This doesn't yet begin to explain why CD-ROMs, which theoretically are
 RB#@> pirate-proof (at least until CD writers get cheap), are so damned
 RB#@> expensive.

Writing a CD game myself, I can tell you a few things about them.  Number one,
as much as we'd love it, nothing is pirate proof.  There are programs found
in the underground that will make your HD look like a CD, and then you can copy
the CD and run it (assuming you have a big enough HD to hold that amount of
data).  CDs themselves are far more expensive to produce than a floppy disk.
First it requires that you have a hard drive, for all practical purposes, no
larger than 540 megs, or else the CD writer will try to go into compression
mode and screw everything up.  CD writers are still in the thousands of dollars
to buy.  Next you need to make up glass masters, at the cost of about $5 each.
Floppies skip this stage, and the expense.  Then, the actual copying can cost
as much as $5 per disk, depending on where you go, and what kind of quantity
you order.  Floppies cost mere cents.  The biggest factor in the cost, though,
is the programming involved.  If a guy makes a two meg game, sticks it on
floppies and charges $10 for it, then why wouldn't someone who's just made a
600 meg game be able to charge $50 for it?  By my math, you get off a lot
cheaper buying the CD.  I know that I'm not allowing my team to put three years
into programming over 1 gig worth of a video game just to sell it for $20 each,
when someone can spend months programming a couple megs and ask the same price.

... Real Programmers use DEBUG C:\DOSFILES\PROGRAM.EXE