Hello fellow Skullspacians! Way back in 2012 I started work on a multiplayer online hacking simulation game I dubbed "Hacker's Edge". At this time, it was going to be a web-based game so that it might be accessible to a larger audience of gamers, and not just gamers whom might be interesting in the hacking community.
I ended up losing interest in this project in early 2013, as using web technologies and trying to tailor a hacking game to a larger audience was proving tedious. Early this year, I have revived my efforts in a new way, I have recently began rebuilding my ideas into a true hacker-like environment, a console-based game. I am sure many of you here are familiar with InfoVersion's UpLink game, this is where I got originally inspired to start creating Hacker's Edge, as I wanted to build out a similar game, but with online multiplayer features. If you haven't played it, download a demo here: http://www.introversion.co.uk/uplink/ Back to the original subject... So, I am at a point where I am planning to release a "closed beta" of this game by the end of May or mid-June. I currently have a alpha release up online right now of the new build. So, if you might be interested in helping out by being a tester and providing general feedback, here's what you should know to get started: Main project website: http://www.hackers-edge.com/ This website currently hosts the old web-based version I was working on, the forums, and the user accounts. There is currently 204 registered users, but unfortunately they were not able to do much, as the game was never formally released as "playable". However, once the "closed beta" is released, I plan on randomly choosing a couple registered users and emailing them a beta code to create their player characters for the new version of the game. Players will manage their in-game characters via a web interface, the website will also serve an online ranking system as well to display the top ranking hackers within the game world. YouTube demo video of the new console-based interface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbJIWDYcPPI Web-based console interface: http://www.hackers-edge.com/hedemo/ Here you can access the new console-based game interface via a standard JavaScript-enabled browser. This page emulates a standard vt102 terminal so you don't have to! Telnet access: Server: hackers-edge.com Port: 23 Here you can access the new console-based game interface via your favorite telnet client that supports vt102 terminal emulation. Both of the above console interfaces bring you right into the game world, there's no logging in required for alpha access. So connect to your hearts content and play around with what's there. After connecting a "Message of the Day" window will appear in the console, please take some time to read through it as it explains what I am attempting to do with this game. It will also list any new features that I may have added recently as well. Furthermore, if anybody in the SkullSpace community is interested in the "closed beta" once that is released. Please create an account on the website above and send me your username so that I can add it to the list of people who I will prioritize for "closed beta" access. I am limiting the initial payload of beta testers to 10, and will increase that gradually. Now for some techy goodness on how some of this works: * The entire system runs via a custom Linux shell I wrote myself in Python. - The custom shell supports tab-completion via "readline". * The system uses pam_limits to prevent player abuse on the server. * Players can only execute a single process under their UID: - This means that the entire game runs in only a single process for each connected user. - Each module/program is "execl" from the previous one, to ensure a single PID. * The system will of course use the standard Linux "login" program for players connecting. * The included register-based Virtual Machine was coded from scratch by me. - I recently added 16-bit support to the Virtual Machine to widen the accessible memory addresses. - Op codes are still 8-bit to conserve space in the binaries. - The VM is open sourced: https://bitbucket.org/kveroneau/simple-cpu - The VM uses custom "hooks" to extend it's functionality for the game. - The in-game assembler supports basic debugging features such as breakpoints. If you managed to read this far, then congrats! I am planning on creating a Google+/YouTube page and perhaps a Facebook page for the game soon. -- Kevin <[email protected]> _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/
