At a time where games have shit like always online DRM, it's a bit reassuring to remember that software developers making the experience worse for their customers isn't new.
You pay for software? You need to keep that big dongle plugged in your computer all the time! You pirate the same software? No need for any dongle!
I worked in a research lab that had dongle protected software and it achieved its commercial purpose. It was installed on every computer but would only work with the dongle. Eventually people started fighting over the dongle so much that we got another license (and dongle).
Type the first word on page 28 of the manual.
Use the decoder wheel (hopefully you didn't lose it) and put the code in to start the game.
Copy protection always punishes the customer and not the pirate.