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Uplink
miracle69 writes: "Well, it looks like the perfect convergence for the average Slashdot reader. What we've got here is a game that is approaching the Slashdot Enthusiast's Valhalla. It's released under Windows and Linux, costs a mere 25 USDs, and has no middleman to jack prices up. Of course, that means it's not available in stores, nor will it be seen on TV, but according to Newsforge, it's got great gameplay. So, will 25 bucks, a fresh game idea, and a Linux release make others in the gaming world stand up and take notice?"
I wonder if they have real life events like the FBI crashing in on you in 26 locations all at once. Thats gotta suck.
Why's that? Just because it doesn't have cutting-edge 3D graphics? Graphics have nothing to do with quality of gameplay. Zork was one of the all time greatest games ever, and it had *NO* graphics.
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
I grabbed the demo about 2 weeks ago, and I have to say, it's pretty damn fun. After I hacked in and changed some guys social security number, the demo ended because my rating got too high.
Apparently there's a story line which gets quite interesting, and the CD has a password protected zip file on it. You have to crack it to find out what's in it. I don't have the full version yet, but I'm planning on buying it. 2 of my friends just received their copies today.
Just download the demo and try it out, chances are that you'll buy it. I can't stop playing once I sit down in front of it, and I'm not normally into games at all.
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The reason there aren't many screen shots is because it's not an FPS and it's not a RTS.. it's more like a text-based SIM. You basically take on the "role" of a hacker for hire. Everything is done in-game and you get emails from the company that hired you containing tasks (ie servers to hack into, jobs to complete).
You download "tools" from the company server and you get paid for jobs you complete. More complex jobs require more expensive tools so you have to save up for them.
It's interesting, but it doesnt exactly reflect the real world. Nothing you learn in-game could help you hack into a bank or anything.
It's called "Internet". My friend came over and installed it on my computer. It's amazing! It's like a virtual copy of our world in the computer. For example you type cnn.com, and you get plausible computer generated news, like if there were a mirror copy of the world inside the computer! The best are these "chat" areas where you can talk to AI programs. Also, there are weblogs that detail the daily life of some simulated people. Much more convincing than the SIMS! But it doesn't show you the people inside the computer as often as the SIMS. Very cool stuff! Am I supposed to tell you guys that you're only AI programs running on my P3 800MHz? Haha, can't wait to get a feedback. I bet you're programmed to deny it, like in these chat rooms.
It's a very nice game, with sleek graphics though there is nothing more than a few pictures at best.
the game isn't realistic at all (not opengl style cracking like the movie 'hackers' , but not real either)
Though the game gets pretty repetitive, it does have an external plot, and is very nice.
For a nice review check out the home of the underdogs' review
Another game that is being exclusivly published over the net is pontifex, better known as bridge builder 2, which is an awesome and very addictive game.
And then we get the terrifying situation where thousands of would-be hackers are let loose on the 'net, and destroy civilization as we know it by clicking large buttoned labelled "CRACK PASSWORD" and "DISABLE PROXY".
As far as I can tell, it'd have exactly the opposite effect that you described - instead of 13-year-old wannabes spending all their time attempting (and failing) to hack into their school network, they just fire up Uplink and pretend they're gods. Take it from me, it's more interesting than real hacking anyday.
The traditional way of learning to hack involved hacking into actual computers on the internet.
Actually, the traditional way of learning to hack involves lots of time reading manuals, poring over source code and experimenting with machines under your control. Real computer security experts (both white hat and black hat) have *knowledge*, not "5ki11z". No computer game is going to teach you the volumes of excruciating detail about systems that is required to break into them (or, if it does, it won't be a game that many people find entertaining).
Note that I'm not addressing script kiddies here, who have neither knowledge nor skill, just a set of hack tools they've downloaded and don't understand. I suppose knowing which tool to apply to a particular system might be considered a "skill".
The common view of system hacking as some sort of art or magic is bogus. Social engineering has some art to it, though...
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
this is where you can download the windows demo version version:
c obranded/0,1506,42211,00.html
http://www.ciudad.com.ar/ar/portales/juegos/nota_
In other gaming news, Blizzard will release the Windows version of Warcraft III on the SAME DAY as the Windows version of Warcraft III is released.
Back to World News, when Osama bin Laden is caught and executed by the US experts predict that he will die at the same time...
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Now instead of the "script kiddies" having to launch some DOS attack, they can simulate it. Its all done for the thrill, if the same thrill can be received from a game, all the better than in real life. Until now there were not too many easily attainable alternatives, except setting up networks for friends to "attack". What fun is that? This game is actually a *good* thing for kids to play.
/; or what log files to remove, or even how to interpret port scans" Any basic ideas, such as using multiple routing hosts, bouncing signals off banks, etc .... are either pure common sense or can be attained easily on the Net already by a newbie - and therefore the game is not a detrement at all.
It is also not going to teach "Billy" how to hack. This game, although text driven, from the demo that I played does not teach players to "rm -rf
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Sorry no screenshots, images.google.com doesn't seem to have them. Enjoy!"I don't trust goats," --To Catch a Spy
This game came out months ago!! I got hooked on the demo (which can be clocked in 15mins once u get good). :(
There is however a problem for those of use who don't have a credit card. HOW DO WE BUY THE FULL GAME. No shop will order it in
The music and interface are good for the style of the game.
Though it is one of those Movie OS's which are highly secure till you use the password cracker. It also downloads whole files with one click in seconds.
What we need now is for some aspiring group of hackers to join the interface to real scripts and real servers. Then we will have a whole new generation of script kiddies.
Does playing this game make u l337??
paradox.tydel.com:/pub/games/uplinkdemo_linux.zip
there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
You're absolutely right of course. My years of playing Dungeons and Dragons, and GURPS have honed me into a killing machine. In fact, I once had a character with an ST of 40, so I bet I could pick up a car in real life!
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
The site
w ww.introversion.co.uk/uplink/+&hl=en
:)
http://www.introversion.co.uk/ gives a 403 error, but thanks to google we can still do some kind of browsing:
Main site: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:HF4gZfFTKQQ:
How to browse the site? Easy: just hoover your mouse over a link, copy-paste the URL in google, and click the 'view google's cache' link. Browsing has never been more easy!
--
If code was hard to write, it should be hard to read
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Apache/1.3.19 Server at www.introversion.co.uk Port 80
Looks like someone played the real life version, and introversion lost.
*Not a Sermon, Just a Thought
*/
often has better looking graphics, and runs on speedier machines, but the idea is basically the same. There's a joke that everything in the computing world was invented in 1962. The only thing funnier than the joke is to see younger folks
"invent" the same thing over and over again.
Uplink sounds basically the same as an early 1980s Activision game called Hacker
which appeared on the Commodore 64 and other personal computer of that era. At that time (to the best of my knowledge), Hacker was a kind of revolutionary game. It offered no explanation, either on-screen or in the game documentation, as to what was going on. You were simly presented with a text login prompt when the game started, and had to take it from there.
Bob
Science, like Nature, must also be tamed, with a view turned towards its preservation.
you really should be moderated +5 funny. as I hope that you arent that dense to think that ANYONE can learn to hack from this or anyone could learn to fly from Flightsim.
"hacking" which is so wrong of a title. is a helluva lot harder than clicking on a button. If you want to hace a target you need to spend weeks gaining information about them.
I doubt there is a dumpster diving section in the game, or a social engineering section, or the plethora of other skillz needed to sucessfully crack a system. portscanning and brue force attacks or scripts are NOT cracking in any way shape or form. It is just luZers or script kiddiez. If you want to have a nice refrence for hacking? get every technical manual in existance and start reading. Learne electronics, learn how "capt. crunch" started hacking the phone systems, read the back history of hacking (the real stuff not the made for TV crap on the shelves.)
Sorry, you want a hacking simulator? buy 5-6 computers a couple of routers a switch and install linux windows and BSD, secure them as well as you can from online sources and then hack yourself. THAT is a hacking simulator, not some silly game.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
So, when is the last time you were beamed up to your starship? Or how 'bout the last time you drove 100MPH through the LA city streets and never caught a single cops eye? How about that robot that keeps nagging you to remove an inhibitor bolt and find his little three wheeled friend so he can deliver a message to some princess?
It's called 'entertainment' people. I've played the game, I own it, and I wanted to know what others thought of it. Almost all the posts I read are ripping on how 'not real' it is. The IPs are so wrong, you don't hack like that, it's so wrong I can't play it... Well, let's think about that for just a sec...if a game were created where you could pretend to hack and it was based upon 'actual' methods and 'real' ip addresses...somebody in big brother's crew might just not like that, ya think?
As it is, it is a very basic representation of hacking. You run a proxy bypass program to get around proxy security. Sure, that's nothing like the real world hacking, but you quickly find yourself tapping your foot watching your time run out and your program not run fast enough. Darn! I didn't bounce off enough public domain servers or a large enough bank. You try again, you get in and steal a file, delete your logs, your home free. IT'S A GAME! And a fun one at that.
Buy it, Play it, Enjoy it...
[ http://www.dvigroup.net/self ]
Here's a link to Fileplanet.com.. A lot easier..
i le =80967
http://www.fileplanet.com/index.asp?section=0&f
That's right, let's find a reason to say that it isn't worth the money. Then we can all justify not buying the game so the company will stop offering it and we can all go back to playing $CLONE and $SEQUEL on $WINDOWS_VERSION_OF_THE_WEEK
I mean, we certainly wouldn't want to encourage anything *original* or *different* would we?
Uplink is a phenomenal game. I picked it up a month or 3 ago when i came across the demo..
I ordered the full version, received it about 3 weeks later, and played the crap out of it.
Take everything from the demo and amplify it by an order of magnitude.. Not only did they add all kidns of extremely advanced missions, there's a cool as all hell overriding plot line..
AND.. Its a plot line that you get to dynamically control.. Similiar to the branching fallout did (but a little more freeform)
All in all a great product.. IF you get it, make sure to dig up the "hidden" development journals..
And make SURE to get the patch. It fixed a big recurring crash i was having..
Great game from a teeny tiny developer..
You try and fly an airplane into a building in MS Flight Sim - it's hard!
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The whole "play hacker" thing has been going on for some time, so this isn't really that new. However, if you're into games that somewhat emulate challeges a hacker would face, at least in style, you should look into the many online hacking challenge sites. The challenges range from breaking encryption, reverse engineering, simulated exploits, to the more mundane logic puzzles. A few I recommend:
http://aspect.l8nite.net - Storyline based set of challenges that require alot of "outside the box thinking".
http://www.slyfx.com - Non-storyline sequential tour of computing challenges.
The Game - Java reverse engineering.
+Ma's Reversing - Reverse engineering.
http://home.cyberarmy.com/w0lfie/ - a bunch of links to others here.
One thing I like about Loki's games is that I install 'em, then the CD can go to whereever-it-is that all my CDs go to, and I can just play the game forever without having to remember where the CD is.
This game, Uplink, is like that too, except for one little thing: whenever you create a user, there's a grid-lookup thing where you have to look up some numbers from a black piece of paper, with black (but different textured) lettering. It is an attempt at copy protection.
It's not something that happens a lot (unless you screw up and forget to pause the game you're interrupted in Real Life while in the game you're being traced ;-) so it's not a big deal, but it is there.
And as usual, it only annoys Introversion's real customers (people like me) who have sent them money, and pirates have undoubtably disabled it in their versions. :-/ I would not have bought the game if I knew it was going to treat me like a criminal. Loki doesn't do that, and I've bought something like 7 or 8 games from them. These guys do it, so they only get my money once (because I didn't know), and never again.
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