Telehack
Telehack is an online simulation of a stylized interface for ARPANET and Usenet, created anonymously in 2010.[1] It is a multi-user simulation in which participants share a common environment, and contains roughly 26,600 simulated hosts holding period files, programs, games and bulletin board systems,[2] depicting the network as it stood between 1985 and 1990.[3]
Users can connect via Telnet, SSH or in a web browser to explore an archive of files, documents, scripts and newsgroup posts saved from BBSes, drawn largely from textfiles.com.[4]
Development
Telehack is the work of an anonymous developer known by the handle Forbin, who has described himself as an engineer employed in Silicon Valley.[1][5] He began the project on March 7, 2010, and developed it part-time over the following months.[1] According to the author, the initial aim was to let his son experience the atmosphere of 1980s computer intrusion without interfering with real systems.[1]
The simulation is implemented in Perl and runs as a single process organised around an event loop based on epoll.[1] Two language interpreters are embedded in it: one for Z-code, adapted from the Rezrov package distributed through CPAN, and a BASIC interpreter written by the author. Emulation of the 6502 and VAX architectures is handled within the same process rather than delegated to separate programs.[1]
Simulated network
The environment depicts the ARPANET and Usenet as they stood between roughly 1985 and 1990.[4][5] TechRadar counted some 24,000 simulated machines in 2011.[4] Later accounts give a figure of about 26,600.[2][5] Each host carries period material, and the network as a whole holds files, executable programs, games and bulletin board systems.[2]
That material was assembled from surviving records of the early network. Textual documents were drawn largely from the collection at textfiles.com;[4][1] further programs came from the SIMTEL archive, while UUCP maps of the period supplied the names given to the simulation's dormant accounts.[1] The newsgroup material originates in archives kept by Henry Spencer, described by Korben as roughly two million articles posted between 1981 and 1991 and preserved on 141 magnetic tapes.[5]
Alongside reading matter, hosts carry interactive fiction and other early titles, among them Zork, Adventure and Rogue,[1][5] an animated ASCII art rendering of Star Wars, and a library of programs for the built-in BASIC interpreter.[5] Utilities modelled on period intrusion software are provided as in-world executables, including a wardialer and a port-scanning tool, and accounts are secured with deliberately weak passwords so that they can be opened by guessing.[1][5] Progress is marked by a system of ranks awarded for the number of hosts a participant has compromised,[1][5] and some hosts and programs are concealed, becoming reachable only once Telehack itself has been subverted.[1] Participants share a single persistent world and can exchange messages through an in-world chat facility as well as read the archived newsgroups.[1] Korben reported an audience of more than 50,000 users.[5]
Access
The simulation is reached either through a web browser or with a telnet client, and also accepts connections over SSH.[4][2][5] Korben lists several telnet ports alongside a dedicated SSH port, and notes that the system additionally answers a dial-up line at 14.4 kbit/s, reproducing the way such services were reached at the time.[5] Navigation relies on commands of the era: hosts are enumerated with netstat, connections opened with telnet or by dialling a number, and the users logged in to a given machine listed with finger.[4][5]
Reception
TechRadar described Telehack as a large shared environment where aspiring intruders could practise lawfully.[4] Writing for Cybernews, Jesse William McGraw grouped it with simulations aimed at newcomers, valuing it for conveying the working culture of the period as well as command-line technique.[2] Andy Baio characterised the project as playable archaeology, a reconstruction assembled from surviving traces of the early network rather than an invented setting.[1] Coverage has continued well beyond its launch, with Korben revisiting the simulation in 2025.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 Baio, Andy (June 13, 2011). "Playable Archaeology: An Interview with Telehack's Anonymous Creator". https://waxy.org/2011/06/playable_archaeology_an_interview_with_the_telehacks_anonymous_creator/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 McGraw, Jesse William (January 31, 2025). "Enter hacking simulations: games that provide foundation and culture". https://cybernews.com/security/hacking-games-for-novice-hackers/.
- ↑ Hoid (May 16, 2020). "How to Hack Like It's 1987 (An Introduction to the Telehack Retro Game)". WonderHowTo. https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/hack-like-its-1987-introduction-telehack-retro-game-0197708/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 "Hack virtual 1980s networks with Telehack". October 23, 2011. https://www.techradar.com/news/networking/hack-virtual-1980s-networks-with-telehack-1035135.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 "Telehack – Dive back into the internet of 1985". November 28, 2025. https://korben.info/en/telehack-dive-back-internet-1985.html.
External links
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