I have been thinking of ideas for a game that was text only that would actually be something people would want to play. I finally came up with something that I believe would work. Imagine the game is nothing more than you running a computer with an OS similar to DOS somewhere in maybe in the early 80s. You get jobs from people from some primitive form of online messaging to break into other computers for simple and complex tasks. For example one job may have you try to gather the user name and password for a specific employee in a company. Another may have you attach a virus to a specific file. Another may have you find dirt on a specific person by searching their past online messages. All of this done in text only.

Also I could have an online shop for buying new programs and faster computers. For example maybe you need to find a specific file in the hard drive in a computer amongst many folders. You could buy a search program that makes this job much faster. Another program could let you find a password as long as you have a valid user-id. A more expensive program can maybe let you find both the user-id and password. I mean the possibilities are pretty much endless. Better computers may allow you to perform tougher jobs quicker before you are "caught" or your location traced. If your location is discovered you may lose money trying to find a new secure location to work from. I can go on and on. What do you guys think? Would you play such a game?

Such game already exist:

Uplink:Trust is a Weakness

until You have any new ideas, that will different Your game from this one, than i think there's no point.

There's also the Hacker Evolution series you should take a look at: http://www.exosyphen.com

Such game already exist:

Uplink:Trust is a Weakness

until You have any new ideas, that will different Your game from this one, than i think there's no point.

I know about Uplink and the Hacker series and figured what I want to do is loads different. I mean for one thing they have graphical interfaces and where my game idea is concerned it doesn't have one leading you to learn a set of textual commands to manipulate files on a computer making you feel as if what you are doing is much more hands on.

Hmm, it will be a bit more realistic if using command prompt instead of graphical panels, and i think i would try it at least, but im sceptic. Uplink also has possibility to write commands in command prompt, but players dont use it, cause it takes too much time, while youre traced.

I think that to find players You need to decide which audience You want to set this too. Players who would like a command prompt would probably demand very realistic commands and actions, and its hard to achieve if you havent hacked too much in your life (I think HackThisSite.org made some programming cometition to make realistic hacking game - you can check it out). Others would probably think that writing in prompt is boring and wont even try.

If I were you, with idea to make hacking game i would rather make it like uplink, with graphic etc, but added some features that arent avalible there and a bit more "on time" -> hacking clone of facebook, or posting fake "tweets" to discredit someone, or even hacking personal computers with trojans to steal data/pictures and blackmail someone. Also contracts with police to track other hackers and so on..

So in short. In my opinion "retro hacking" doesnt tell if i would play it or not. Quality of quests there, maybe some main plot if planned, or some nice career mode "from zero to hack hero" would tell if someone would play it or not. Worth trying.

I personally loved Hack RUN for android - It was an epic little text adventure that went into the detail of having its own web-browser / text editor and it was fun to play.

Something like that would be epic and just because there is something better out there does not mean you should not try brew your own because everything in this industry is a learning experience even if its a fail. Look at square soft. Final Fantasy was named that because it was the LAST game they had money to put out on before going bankrupt and it brought them around to what they are today!

Quadrilateral Cowboy has done something similar, but it's more spacial than what you describe.

It's similar to a 3D Gunpoint, but the hacking is done by a DOS like program instead of the Crosslink click and drag method.

It sounds like a great concept, especially if some of the jobs the hacker gets ends up connecting into a larger story. The only problem is making the gameplay itself fun. For a game like this it sounds like each job would have to be a completely unique puzzle. It would also be fun to have a clock once you begin a job that tells you how much time you have before you get caught (you can lose time if you accidentally leave traces of yourself behind). Ticking clocks make even the most boring situations tense.