an inquiry from a novice.

[BOT]

In the first place any original cd, be it PSX game, PC game, application. music or whatever, are pressed and not burned.
The pressing equipment has access to areas of a cd that any reader or burner cannot access.
In the case of PSX an authentification code is pressed into an area of the cd that is unreachable by readers/burners.
The modchip fools the PSX into thinking it has accessed that unreachable data.