Hacker

Moby ID: 2165
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Description official descriptions

Hacker is an adventure/trading game based on what was then a unique idea. You're starting into the adventure as a real hacker would do, lacking information of what is to come, only driven by your ambition. Consequently, the game opens with a plain text screen, prompting you for the login password. To break into the system is the first puzzle you've got to solve.

Once in, you'll soon find out that you've accidentally stumbled upon a conspiracy of global impact. From then on, you'll maneuver a robotic drone around the globe through a tunnel system deep in the earth. In major cities, you may surface and talk to contact persons, who'll trade items for cash. When delivered to the correct city, you can exchange these items for a piece of evidence. If all evidence is collected, you're to inform the FBI. As if figuring out the correct routes and trades wasn't hard enough, frequent system malfunctions and security checks test your skill as well...

Spellings

  • ハッカー - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (Commodore 64 version)

7 People (4 developers, 3 thanks)

Designed by
Computer Graphics Consultant
Produced by
With special thanks to
Package design by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 71% (based on 17 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 42 ratings with 2 reviews)

It's the novelty factor that gets you... The rest is trial-and-error

The Good
The novelty of hacking, the feel of exploration, then the discovery of the stakes...

The Bad
Once you figured out the plot, it's a matter of trial and error to figure out who will take what and offers, then it's just a matter of figure out who to give what to get the pieces, and the lack of control over that pod... Which means it's very simple to run into the security sat.

The Bottom Line
A puzzle disguised as a hacking adventure. It's novel, and it's groundbreaking. Too bad there hasn't been a worthy successor since.

DOS · by Kasey Chang (4598) · 2000

Remember... It's only a simulation...

The Good
Back in '85, computers such as the IBM PC and Apple II were the "powerhouse" computers of the day. Also following the success of the movie "Wargames" in 1983, hacking into computers went to the big screen. That movie and this game inspired me to get into computers (but alas, I haven't hacked the Pentagon)

The game is simple. Try to hack into a simulated computer system. I got this game, and took me at least a week before I figured out the code. Once you get in a pass some security systems, you must piece together a document, using a robot-like apparatus and go around the globe trading items for pieces of the shredded document, or other items which can be used to trade for pieces of the document. I know, sounds far-fetched, but the fact is that it made for great gameplay.

The graphics for it's day are great. Detailed Pictures of robots, and a fairly decent map of the world to move about. As you went around and meet the agents, you can see nice graphics of the locales.

The gameplay is very information intensive. You need to remember the parts of the robot, because security satelites will question you about information presented during the game... If you get it right, you continue. If you answer incorrectly, you are booted off the "system" Once you know the correct sequences of information and what to tell the security bots you have to figure out what happened, and solve the mystery.

The control was either keyboard or joystick, although the joystick was easier to control in some places...



The Bad
The sound was blah... But then again the AdLib or SounBlaster hadn't been in the market yet, so we had to make do with the PC Speaker :)

The Bottom Line
A fantastic, although far-fetched, look at hacking and a great game. Too bad I never personally beat the game ;)

DOS · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

Discussion

Subject By Date
Finishing Game Ossie1972 Jul 16, 2010

Trivia

Manual

True to the role-playing experience, Hacker came with no instructions whatsoever, other than loading instructions. The inside fold-out image reads:

Yet Another Temptation.

It's about the instructions for Hacker. There aren't any. (After all, if you really accidentally stumble into someone else's computer system, no one will be there to help you.)

If you get really stuck, we can provide a set of "Hacker Hints." (Details on enclosed card.) However, this is a temptation you should resist, if you can.

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  • MobyGames ID: 2165
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by -Chris.

Commodore 64 added by Quapil. Amiga added by JRK. MSX, Amstrad CPC added by Martin Smith. ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, Atari 8-bit, Apple II, Macintosh, PC-88 added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Servo, Alaka, Patrick Bregger, theclue, robMSX.

Game added August 14, 2000. Last modified November 4, 2023.