HackTheGame

A scary game that used to be a recruiting tool.

Hack The Game is an old game that is currently maintained for historical purposes, and it is not updated anymore. At the time of its release and when it was being updated, it was a quasi-recruiting tool for hackers. It actually taught hacking techniques that were not valid, but that were easily transferable into genuine hacking methods.

Hacking Skills You Will Never Use

Essentially, the game was able to get people into the mindset of a hacker and teach them the skills without actually teaching them how to become hackers. The trouble is that technology moved far faster than the game, so even people that became genuinely good at playing the game were soon outflanked by current technology and their skills (transferred or not) were pretty useless.

The Dashed Dreams Of The Developers

The developers had hoped to keep updating the game so that new hacking techniques could be included, but technology moved so fast that within the six months it took them to re-engineer the game, another code or tool had been developed that reset most techniques back to zero.

Hacking Assignments From A Mysterious Stranger

The game itself includes hacking for a mysterious stranger that sends you an email. You are given a hacking console and told to hack for the mysterious stranger. After a while, you are given more hacking assignments to further test your news skills.

A Fully-Featured Hacking Toolbox

The assignments become increasingly difficult as time goes on, but the more you do, then the better your reputation becomes for being a hacker. You have a fully-featured hacking toolbox to help you make your hacks. Your toolbox includes things such as portscan, telnet, ping, password hacker, virus uploader, and a file destroyer.

Assignments Get Harder As You Learn More

On the command console you use a mixture of *NUX and MS-DOS/Windows. The game has a few nice features, such as a local file system where you can add your own folders, and there is more to learn as the assignments get harder. To reiterate, there is a time when this project may have led to a whole new wave of hackers that had learnt their skills as gamers, but that time and that idea passed very quickly. The world of hacking and programming moves very quickly, and the developers couldn’t keep up. Still, the game has been preserved for its historic value.

Pros

• An interesting game
• The game uses an original idea
• A fair amount of variety
• Increasingly difficult and mixed assignments

Cons

• What you learn is useless
• Not a hacker training game
• Has a limited (if not novelty) appeal