Hacker

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 ;)