Telehack
 Telehack open in a web browser | |
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Registration | Optional[1] |
| Users | More than 50,000[2] |
| Current status | Active[2] |
Telehack is an online simulation of a stylized interface for ARPANET and Usenet, created anonymously in 2010.[3] 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,[4] depicting the network as it stood between 1985 and 1990.[5]
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.[1]
Development
[edit]Telehack is the work of an anonymous developer known by the handle Forbin, who has described himself as an engineer employed in Silicon Valley.[3][2] He began the project on March 7, 2010, and developed it part-time over the following months.[3] According to the author, the initial aim was to let his son experience the atmosphere of 1980s computer intrusion without interfering with real systems.[3]
The simulation is implemented in Perl and runs as a single process organised around an event loop based on epoll.[3] 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.[3]
Simulated network
[edit]The environment depicts the ARPANET and Usenet as they stood between roughly 1985 and 1990.[1][2] TechRadar counted some 24,000 simulated machines in 2011.[1] Later accounts give a figure of about 26,600.[4][2] Each host carries period material, and the network as a whole holds files, executable programs, games and bulletin board systems.[4]
That material was assembled from surviving records of the early network. Textual documents were drawn largely from the collection at textfiles.com;[1][3] further programs came from the SIMTEL archive, while UUCP maps of the period supplied the names given to the simulation's dormant accounts.[3] 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.[2]
Alongside reading matter, hosts carry interactive fiction and other early titles, among them Zork, Adventure and Rogue,[3][2] an animated ASCII art rendering of Star Wars, and a library of programs for the built-in BASIC interpreter.[2] 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.[3][2] Progress is marked by a system of ranks awarded for the number of hosts a participant has compromised,[3][2] and some hosts and programs are concealed, becoming reachable only once Telehack itself has been subverted.[3] Participants share a single persistent world and can exchange messages through an in-world chat facility as well as read the archived newsgroups.[3] Korben reported an audience of more than 50,000 users.[2]
Access
[edit]The simulation is reached either through a web browser or with a telnet client, and also accepts connections over SSH.[1][4][2] 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.[2] 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.[1][2]
Reception
[edit]TechRadar described Telehack as a large shared environment where aspiring intruders could practise lawfully.[1] 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.[4] Andy Baio characterised the project as playable archaeology, a reconstruction assembled from surviving traces of the early network rather than an invented setting.[3] Coverage has continued well beyond its launch, with Korben revisiting the simulation in 2025.[2]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Hack virtual 1980s networks with Telehack". TechRadar. October 23, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Telehack – Dive back into the internet of 1985". Korben. November 28, 2025. Retrieved September 23, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Baio, Andy (June 13, 2011). "Playable Archaeology: An Interview with Telehack's Anonymous Creator". Waxy.org. Retrieved September 23, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 McGraw, Jesse William (January 31, 2025). "Enter hacking simulations: games that provide foundation and culture". Cybernews. Retrieved September 23, 2026.
- ↑ Hoid (May 16, 2020). "How to Hack Like It's 1987 (An Introduction to the Telehack Retro Game)". Null Byte. WonderHowTo. Retrieved September 23, 2026.