Posted by boyo on Jul 9, 2010 14:25 (Jul 9, 2010 14:25)
For example, a save/load feature. “Due to time pressure, we unfortunately talked ourselves into believing that having a game save/resume feature made it seem more like a “game” and less like you were actually hacking into a computer system,” said Cartwright on the topic of features that could have helped out Hacker.
With Activisions financial situation worsening by the day, the decision was made to push Hacker out onto shop shelves as quickly as possible. How much a save/resume ultimately would have been affected the standard of the game itself, it failed to mask the suspense and thick atmosphere that Hacker included by the tonne.
But even as Cartwright and Activision looked to finally display Hacker publicly for the first time at the CES in Chicago, most were still unsure about how successful a title based on hacking could be. “Everyone was still unsure about the product as we headed to Chicago for Summer CES,” explains Cartwright. “As I demonstrated the game, I informed the press that the floppy disk had become damaged on the flight to Chicago... so I needed to use the modem to connect back to the Activision mainframe back in California to download the latest version of the game. I typed in a few commands, and the infamous “LOGIN” prompt appeared. I entered a “bogus” username… and then acted baffled as my repeated attempts to login to Activision failed.” A situation mirroring our own first thoughts as we repeatedly entered random titles during that first interaction with Hacker quite sublimely. Cartwright continues, “When the “game” informed me that I had stumbled into a secret computer system, it became clear that everyone had actually bought into the whole charade. At that point, we knew we had a hit!”
To play, Hacker was all about the atmosphere. The tension of finding yourself venturing into where you don’t belong has only been equalled by Introversion Software’s sublime hacking masterpiece Uplink. It cant possibly be mere con-incidence that the only games containing such a sense of atmosphere are both based on the idea of hacking.
A mere year after Hacker stormed the charts, and became as Cartwright suggests, an “accidental hit”, the sequel Hacker 2 appeared, and improved on it’s older brother in numerous ways. “A much better game, in my opinion, was the follow-up Hacker II,” says Cartwright. “The player still controlled a remote control robot... but you were navigating through hallways... avoiding roaming guards... and timing your way past security cameras. It may have been the first “stealth” game… a genre that later became infamous with games like Metal Gear Solid.”
Whether or not Hideo Kojima played and enjoyed the Hacker titles as much as the rest of the gaming world, and ultimately influenced him to create the Metal Gear titles, that’s something we can’t be too sure on. But what ultimately can’t be faulted is the sheer delight of a title that managed what only the very best text adventures of the time could manage. Draw you into a brand new world, giving you powers and abilities that you could only dream of possessing after years of hard work in the real world. Hacker, and of course its sequel, are both astounding titles, and two which still create the same kind of tension and delight over 20 years since their release. And with the existence and ease of purchasing these gaming delights of old via ebay, there’s little reason why you shouldn’t spend the £5 required to purchase the pair and feel what those who were a part of that first generation of computer hackers must have felt all those years go. You owe it to yourself.
I have to say that I never really got into this one. Remember seeing the ads and thought it was a great idea, a bit like "Wargames" the film, but once the initial novelty had worn off (managed to log on!) and the game got well underway the appeal didn't last particularly long for me. Nice concept though.
I remember this on the Atari 8-bit, that lousy password at the start prevented me from playing it, I can't remember what it was...anwser on a post card please?
so I moved to Hacker 2 instead..and great game under-rated
Jul 21, 2010 20:27:05 (
Jul 21, 2010 20:27
)
