Video Game Hacking
Tue, Feb 20
Gaming and hacking have a very strong affilinity: experimental game development was part of the experience of early hackers around university laboratories, and hackers have always been interested in gaming and game machines as objects of inquiry. In this class, we will retrace the key milestones of this history: from the 1960s to the early 2000s with game development and console hacking. We will cover the development of the earliest computer games in history, "Spacewar!" but also describe the famous hack of the first version of the Xbox.
After this class, you should be able to:
- Contextualize the intersection between gaming and hacking
- Discuss the historical factors that allowed for games to be developed with clever hacks
- Examine the ethics of game and console hacking
The digital artifact for this week is the game Spacewar!
Here are the slides for today's class.
Read This:
Our reading for today will cover the context and the experience of developing Spacewar: Chapter 3 of Steven Levy's "Hackers."
Make sure to listen to the podcast in the Youtube link as well, so you can also familiarize yourself with "Xbox hacking scene."
Do This:
Technical Homework 02
See the instructions posted on the assignment's page.
This technical homework is due on 2/27 at 5pm.
Interim Project Report
Here are the instructions for the interim group project report.
This group assignment is due on 03/26 at 5pm.
Once you have completed the readings, fill out the following quiz. It is based on readings for this week. Access via this direct link.