Command Line Hacking Game Telehack Is Full Of NASCAR References

Video games these days are just too dang complicated. With their realistic graphics, their real-world educating, and their brand activations, there’s just too much happening. No, we need to go back, to a time when games were green text on a black background. We shouldn’t have to leave all our car enthusiasm behind, though.

Racing Tech 5 | Nascar Garage 56

Enter Telehack, a command line-styled game (which can, in fact, be played through a genuine command line) that simulates the internet as it stood circa 1990 — BBSes, wardialing, everything. Players hack their way around ARPAnet, bouncing from server to server gaining access and root privileges in a massively distributed game of capture the flag. To make those servers feel real, though, they’re all populated with period-correct text files — including many that reference period auto racing.

Screenshot: Telehack

Telehack’s servers are meant to feel like you’re hacking the real thing, so each one is full of files that don’t directly relate to the gameplay loop of hacking and exploring. Sure, you can find executable files that help you out in-game, but you can also find text files left behind by a user who’s just really into listening in on racetrack communications — not a player, just a random person who exists in the world of the game.

I hadn’t thought about Telehack in probably a decade, since my time playing it at sleep-away computer camp (I’m very cool), but it’s so neat to return to a place and notice things that you never did last time you visited. Are any of these communications frequencies real? Who knows, the world of motorsport has long since evolved from here. But the files are still kicking, making fun little easter eggs for enthusiasts who hop in.

I’m not going to tell you what server you’ll find these files on, though. Consider it a quest: Find the car enthusiast data hidden within Telehack. The fun part is the journey, right?