Netshell is a UNIX based hacking simulation set in 1997. You sit at a CDE desktop, open a terminal, and start typing. There are no hacking minigames. Just a command prompt and UI apps, a network full of targets, and consequences for getting sloppy.
You used to work on the right side of the firewall. That ended badly. Now a stranger from the underground is offering you a second chance, but the work isn't clean, the people aren't trustworthy, and everything you do on the network leaves a trail.
From there, you're part of a group, Black Ice, but you're also on your own. Pick up jobs on underground forums. Scan targets with nmap. Crack credentials. Exploit real vulnerabilities from the era: buffer overflows, protocol weaknesses, misconfigured services. Chain your connection through relays to buy time when the trace kicks in. Or don't, and deal with what happens next.
The network is extensive. Hundreds of servers sit on a topology with real IP addresses, routing tables, DNS zones, and firewall rules. Traceroute shows you the real path, hop by hop. Nmap results depend on what's listening and what the firewall lets through. Exploits only work if the service version matches. Kill a daemon and its port stops answering. Nothing is faked.
The people on IRC aren't scripted bots looping through canned lines. Each character has their own personality, memory, and opinions, powered by local AI that runs on your machine (can be disabled). They react to what you've done, what you haven't done, and how you've treated them. Zero gets cagey if you're reckless. Ghost disappears when trust is gone. The underground pays attention.
You start with garbage hardware, a 486 that chokes on brute-force attacks. Earn money, order upgrades from period-accurate web stores, wait for delivery, and install them yourself. Better CPU means faster cracking. Better modem and ISP plan mean faster downloads and more time before you're traced. Hardware compatibility matters.
Everything happens on the desktop. Browse the web in a Netscape-era browser: hundreds of real sites recreated from the Internet Archive, the early web the way you remember it. Read your email. Join IRC channels where characters are already talking. Check stock prices. Manage files. It all runs inside a CDE environment that looks and feels like sitting in front of a mid-90s UNIX workstation, because that's exactly what it's supposed to be.
Features
Real commands, real techniques
Based on actual UNIX tools and documented exploits from the late 90s. You're not pressing a "hack" button, you're typing the commands, reading the output, and figuring out what to do next.
A network that behaves like one
Hundreds of servers connected through a topology with routing tables, DNS zones, and firewall rules. The protocols underneath run close to the real thing: TCP handshakes, DNS resolution, hop-by-hop routing. What you see in a port scan depends on what's actually running and what the firewall permits, and the tricks that work aren't scripted, they emerge.
Consequences, not checkpoints
Every intrusion generates heat. Security teams investigate. ISPs flag traffic. If you don't clean logs and route through relays, you get found. Story missions with branching outcomes, side jobs pulled from forum postings. Steal files, plant evidence, exfiltrate data.
Characters that remember
NPCs run on local AI with personality models and working memory (can be disabled). They form opinions, hold grudges, and talk about you when you're not in the channel.
Build your rig from scratch
Upgrade from a 486 to a Pentium II one component at a time. CPU, RAM, storage, modem: each one affects what you can do and how fast you can do it. Download and upload speeds are simulated for real: your modem's actual baud rate in each direction, your ISP plan, plus latency for every hop on the route. A faster line closes jobs faster. Period-accurate hardware with real socket compatibility.
The full desktop
Terminal, file manager, browser, email, IRC, system monitor, stock ticker: twelve apps running on a faithful CDE/Motif desktop. No menus that break the fiction. Everything you do, you do from inside the OS.