telehack.com and Internet text-based hacking and system exploration simulations I love the world that has been created at telehack.com. One can simply telnet to telehack.com and open up a whole simulated world of older computer networks, complete with 25,000+ simulated computers on a network that you can try to connect to, hack into, explore, etc. Here is what one sees when initially making a telnet connection to telehack.com: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $ telnet telehack.com Trying 64.13.139.230... Connected to telehack.com. Escape character is '^]'. Connected to TELEHACK port 110 It is 2:39 pm on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 in Mountain View, California, USA. There are 99 local users. There are 26647 hosts on the network. Type HELP for a detailed command list. Type NEWUSER to create an account. May the command line live forever. Command, one of the following: ? a2 ac advent aquarium basic bf c8 cal callsign ching clear clock cowsay date ddate delta dir echo eliza exit factor file finger fnord geoip head ipaddr joke liff md5 minesweeper morse netstat newuser notes octopus phoon pig ping pong primes privacy qr rain rfc rig rot13 run sudoku tail typespeed uptime usenet uumap uupath weather when zc zork Press control-C to interrupt any command. More commands become available after login. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And here is a command that you can issue on the initial telehack prompt to start finding some other computers on the network: .netstat host organization location ---- ------------ -------- adaptex Adaptec Inc. Grapevine, Texas mimsy University of Maryland, College Park College Park MD oddjob University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois oracle Oracle Corporation Belmont CA tandem Tandem Computers, Inc. Cupertino CA veritas VERITAS Software Santa Clara CA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At one point I wanted to write some sort of "worm" that would "hack" its way through many systems (every system?) on telehack and map out the whole system. Anyway... I've had inspiration from this game for quite some time to try and make some sort of simulation of 1990s-era telephone company system hacking and exploration. Naturally I am interested in this sort of thing because exploring these kinds of systems was an absolute obsession for me as a teenager. Here are some ideas that keep coming to mind: Each person sees their own completely simulated city and associated telephone company infrastructure. Or perhaps everyone is in the same simulated system, or perhaps even clusters of people participate in different simulated systems. Perhaps each simulated system takes on a real or imaginary city name and you can choose which system you explore. To simulate a city/system, you might first generate (algorithmically) a map of a city. Streets and buildings. Each street with a name (Orange Street) or number (3rd Avenue) and each building with a number e.g. 1260 Orange Street or 624 3rd Avenue. From this simulated map, you would then assign one or more phone numbers and associated "Outside Plant" (OSP) to each building, Outside Plant being telephone company jargon for the wires and associated hardware (terminal boxes, cross-connect boxes, concentrators, etc) that connect each phone line to the Central Office (CO) building that houses the heart of the system, the telephone switch. Each simulated map would also need one or more telephone company Central Office buildings to wire everything up to. Central Office buildings are in turn typically connected by what are called "trunks" in telephone company parlance. Once all of the buildings, phone numbers, and various other telephony company infrastructure is laid out then some buildings would be elected to serve key functions of interest to a 1990s telephone system hacker/explorer. What we are talking about here are the modem dial-up number(s) associated with each of these key locations: * As already mentioned, the Central Office building(s) -- Switch access, other access * Property Appraiser -- Access to find information about the various buildings in town, who owns what buildings, etc * Department of Montor Vehicles -- Look up names, driver license numbers, license plate numbers, etc * School district -- Access to all sorts of interesting things, especially if one is coming from the perspective of a teenage system hacker/explorer * Industrial systems -- Telemetry, industrial control, etc * Local BBS'es -- People who run a BBS from their home, business, etc * And so on and so forth (Perhaps this game has at least some sort of "Zork" type of aspect to it. Perhaps this, augmented with things like a modem terminal that the player can bring up. Etc. Maybe not though, because telehack hasn't needed to resort to Zork types of interactions in order to achieve its effect. I really don't know yet.) I keep picturing the player starting out with a story about how they are a teenager interested in the local "hacking scene." You start out with some back story and then are maybe dropped into a screen where you can dial a BBS or two. Perhaps you've been given a starting point from a high school classmate. Perhaps reading enough messages on these "lame", "public access" BBS'es will start to give the player a hint about there being some "elite" or "underground" BBS'es that they'd like to get access to. Some sort of quests might need to be completed before getting access to your first underground BBS. The underground BBS'es ultimately start to put the player in proximity with local hackers/system explorers. Some more quests might put the player in the good graces of these local hackers/system explorers. I think at some point the player is introduced to the concept of "War Dialing" (having one's computer and modem automatically dial large swathes of phone numbers in search of other modems). Perhaps some of your war dialing results are part of a quest to offer up loot to these other hackers in order to get deeper into the scene. Here's a potentially interesting game dynamic: You have to leave your own computer running for hours on end, war dialing, in order to progress past certain points in the simulation. And so on and so forth. Perhaps at some point, with enough access to local computer systems, you start earning money from the local criminal underworld, unscrupulous private investigators, etc who pay for you to find out various information for them, tap telephone lines, setup "ghost" telephone lines, etc. Just another half baked idea for now but I thought I'd write some of it down anyway. I need to write more about the sorts of systems that we used to dial into and explore: to preserve the knowledge, educate/inspire others, and give context to the kinds of systems that one might find in this text-based 1990s telephone company/telephone system hacking/exploration simulation. CREATED 2023-03-22