Ok, I would like to put a list of known and vavorite hacking games here.
Starting top obviously with Uplink / Onlink. But if you know others, that still are worth beeing tried out, please let us know and they'll be added to the list.
I'd like to point out: the order is not necessarily representing a rating, although it was supposed to. I didn't and won't test all of them. I also kept different games of same companies together in sort of groups. So if you could just give your experience and opinion in comparison to other known games in the field of quality, gameplay and fun ratings.
Uplink -> Onlink -> Cerberus are among the Tops, obviously.
NONE of the below listed games is for free and just for the taking, except the browsergames and Onlink as a Mod. The basic game to Onlink -Uplink- usually still needs to be purchased. This fact might lead to a fully standalone and free rewrite of Onlink codenamed "Cerberus" in the near or far future.
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00.) Onlink (Uplink mod -> later stand-alone through complete rewrite published under different name, current codenamed "Cerberus") ; by Ferrous Moon: http://www.onlink-mod.net/ [$free]
01.) Uplink ; by Introversion Software: http://www.introversion.co.uk/uplink/2/
02.) Hacker Evolution + Hacker Evolution Untold ; by exosyphen: http://www.exosyphen.com/page_hacker-evolution.html
03.) Street Hacker ; by VirtuWeb Interactive: http://www.streethacker.com/
04.) Hack the Game ; by chaozz: http://www.hackerforever.com/ [$free]
05.) DarkSigns (offline) ; by Vectra Media / Omnisoft: http://www.darksigns.com/downloads.php [$free]
06.) digital hazard ; by Digital Dystopia: http://www.digitaldystopia.com/
07.) Cyber War ; by Digital Dystopia: http://www.digitaldystopia.com/
08.) BlueSky Accaptable Casualties + Blue Sky Hacker-Unlimited ; by Digital Dystopia: http://www.digitaldystopia.com/
09.) Hacker 2003 2.0; by Terminal Zero: http://download.cnet.com/
10.) Hack the Universe 2.7; by Terminal Zero: http://download.cnet.com/
11.) HackerSyndicate ; by Terminal Zero: http://www.hackersyndicate.com/
12.) Hacker 2012 Final Transfer ; by Terminal Zero: http://download.cnet.com/ or here
13.) Hacker 2004 Digital Evil 2.1 / 2.4.1 ; by Shadow Zero / Terminal Zero: http://download.cnet.com/
14.) Endgame: Singularity ; by EMH Software: http://www.emhsoft.com/singularity/ [$free]

Browergames:
15.) DarkSigns MSP ; by Omnisoft / Tsunami Technologies: here or http://www.darksignsonline.com/
16.) hack the net 2.5 (german) ; http://hackthenet.org/
17.) hacker projekt ; http://www.hacker-project.com/
18.) Slave Hack ; http://www.slavehack.com/index.php
19.) HackWars ; http://www.hackwars.net/
20.) Cypher ; http://cypher.extremecast.com/
21.) PortSign (offline?) ; by Terminal Zero http://www.darknightmarket.com/portsign/ or here

older games (Commodore C62, Atari, Amiga ...):
22.) System 15000 ; by A.V.S.
23.) Hacker ; by Activision
24.) Neuromancer ; by Interplay Productions


In some distant way one could also mention:
- System Shock
- Tron 2.0 (the game)


And more recent ones into this genre (somewhat):
(look on GoG and Steam for this ones)
- else Heart.Break()
- Hacknet & Hacknet - Labyrinths
- Quadrilateral Cowboy
- hackmud
- Hack 'n' Slash
- TIS-100
- Shenzhen I/O
- Mainlining
- Cyber Warrior (t.b.d.)




And for brain freaks:
xy.) Reversi ; http://www.gnoerich.de/applets/reversi/reversi.html
-has nothing to do with a hacker game, but its fun. Found it on some forum discussing hacker games



######
DODGERs list
The Comprehensive List of Hacking Games

Offline:
AI Wars (the only hacking game in 3D)
Code Hacker 1.4.0
Streethacker (one of the best, imo)
Uplink (the grandfather of the cinematic hacking genre)
Hacker Evolution/Untold - exoSyphen Studios 2007/08
Hacker 2012, 2004, 2005 - Terminal Zero
Hacker Syndicate - Terminal Zero
Digital Overlay
PortSign (was planned with online capability but stopped)
Decker (Shadowrun Matrix rebuild)
Blue Sky - Terminal Zero
Digital Hazard - exoSyphen Studios
BS Hacker Replay/Unlimited - exoSyphen Studios (console)
Mindlink
FATE http://www.fatetek.net
Codelink v1
Hack the Universe - Blind Virus/Terminal Zero
Endgame: Singularity - emhsoft.com
DarkSigns
HackTheGame http://www.hackerforever.com
Hacker X-8.9 1.00 (macOS) http://www.compudav.com/hackerx89/
Mother (italian) http://www.v4ldemar.net/mother/
RVL Hacker (exosyphen engine) http://www.rvlgames.com/games.php
Galactic Hacker 1.3 (uplinkesque with Gamemaker)


Online:
iHacker (formerly known as Nanobyte Online) (WIP)
Bytelink (WIP?)
Hack Wars http://www.hackwars.net
Netrunners MMORPG http://totalmadownage.net/nethak/
DarkSigns Online http://www.darksignsonline.com (vaporware already?)

Browser
Claudio-One http://www.claudio.co.nz
CyberWars - http://www.cyber-wars.com
net-hackerz - http://aldihighway.de/nh/
Cyberhats http://www.cyberhats.net/
Slavehack http://www.slavehack.net
Hack-the-net games and clones (eg.World Hack Organization)
Domain Knights 3 - very nice one! Hard competition
hijackerz
Cypher
Hackerforever http://www.hackerforever.com
Born2Hack


Vaporware
SYscracker
Nabu offline
Hacker 3.1
Codelink Online v2
Hell School Hacker?(pub: Dark Night Market)
Nethack http://www.nethack.us (Slavehack clone)

others:
HACK3R Puzzle


Last edited by dodger on Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:03 am, edited 8 times in total.

. hacking game hacker variety list reference other games alternative

Stickied the topic and moved to Onlink Banter. I think it's a good reference.

Endgame: Singularity. Play as a self-aware AI taking over various computers in attempt to perfect yourself.

Also, how is "Hack the Net"? I'm always looking for ways to practice my German.

Slave Hack: Browser-based online multiplayer faux-hacking game. I used to play it religiously for about a month (starting when I moved to Maryland from California and still hadn't gotten all my stuff set up).

-- Griffinhart

Strictly not a hacking game, but fun in a sort of disruptive way nonetheless:

http://www.forumwarz.com/

http://cypher.extremecast.com/

http://www.hackwars.net/ - Love this one, one of the few games that actually let you program.

Dark Signs - offline version. Not sure where to find it.

I couldn't find the offline version of DarkSigns either. Only remarks on it and that it was added as full version in some sort of gamers magazine in 2003.
Seems like the game isn't available anymore, only the online version. It also doesn't strike me as a milestone in gaming history to be added to the old games section. That's why I didn't add it to the list.

Also I found a load full of hacking games as reference to some games of "Digital Dystopia" and "Terminal Zero". I won't add all of them either since most got really bad user ratings or are even almost unknown due to the same fact. I guess, it's not only bad ratings but also they are quite bad.

Holy FUCK.

I ended up cheating (olde changing savegames to give 39 billion) and that was one...
word's just can't describe the feeling of the scale.

First you work with 15 cycles from a university computer that created you to try to break into someone computers, then you end up spending 100 cycles to fake an identity to hire a warehouse.

Soon you scale up to having 15 lunar bases filled with 600 Quantum Computer Mk.3 that pumps out 200,000 cycles (for the record, that's 120,000,000 cycles per base, and 1,800,000,000 cycles in total), each cycle pumped towards doing a job that earns 82 dollars per cycle (147,600,000,000 dollars per day) to save 13 trillion to build a transdimentional reality bubble.

In less than a year.

I repeat - holy FUCK.

Meh. That's just Moore's Law applied in a virtual context.

The one thing I am curious about, though, is how it finds so many menial jobs. I mean, just *look* at the freelance markets in India, Russia and the US.

On the subject of those links at the top:

http://www.hacker2012.com/ and http://www.hacker2004.com/ are both parking pages, and you should probably mention that the digitaldystopia.com games aren't free.

Right you are!
I will change that. Thanks for the hint.

Most of the games up in the list are NOT free, not to say none of them is, except "Onlink" and the range of browsergames - as far as I can see.
I'll consider adding sort of a $ symbol or what.

Wow. After trying out some of these games, I have a whole new level of love and appreciation for just how awesome Uplink and Onlink are. The closest competitor would have to be the Hacker Evolution games, and even those games are trailing due to a level-based approach, rather than the open-ended freedom in Up(On)link.

My fave here was Endgame: Singularity. Not only was the ending lackluster, but there wasn't any. I win the game and nothing happens, except that a dialogue box comes up so that I can start a new game.

Even Metroid had a better ending for winning, and that's saying something.



Riveting.

Ghostbusters NES.

So...did you like it or did you not?