Chapter Summaries

Lin Lixin and Linus designed Hacknet as an accessible, flashy script-kiddie simulator built around collecting tools, while Lin Lixin also considered using it to support a cybersecurity team and develop a Linux distribution called Kali Linux. They ended by imagining a real-world server hidden behind the game’s defenses, an idea that excited Linus and left him eager for the game and the coming cyber battle.

• Sam brought Lin Lixin and Linus several hacking-themed games, and they discussed how their own game would use a simplified virtual Unix environment.
• Linus suggested that realistic hacking would be too complicated for ordinary players, so Lin Lixin proposed simplifying the process and turning it into a script-kiddie simulator.
• Lin Lixin suggested that players could collect hacking tools to create a sense of growth, while flashy automated scripts would make the game appealing even to players without technical knowledge.
• Lin Lixin proposed forming a cybersecurity team and possibly creating a Linux distribution called Kali Linux to provide convenient penetration tools.
• Lin Lixin proposed hiding a real-world IP address behind a heavily defended server as an Easter egg, and Linus became excited about the challenge.

Kevin Mitnick bought and played GameNova’s new game Hacknet, whose terminal-based hacking simulation drew him into its story despite its simplified mechanics. After receiving a warning from the dead hacker Bit, Kevin deleted a tracing program and became more impressed with the game.

• Kevin Mitnick bought Hacknet, intrigued by its unusual developer credits and promise of an immersive Unix/Linux hacking simulator.
• Kevin started the game and used its tutorial to connect to a computer, scan it, and gain access with the simplified PortHack command.
• Kevin explored the target computer’s files and killed the tutorial process, triggering an email from Bit.
• Bit’s email warned that a tracing program would activate and asked the protagonist to delete it quickly.
• Kevin connected to his own PC, found Security Trace.exe, and deleted it, then recognized the game’s deliberate simplifications as part of its design.

Kevin played Hacknet, became absorbed in its hacking missions and freedom, and uncovered clues linking GameNova to Linux development. After following a hidden email trail to a heavily protected computer, he found an unreachable IP address and suspected it might refer to something outside the game.

• Kevin hacked Viper's computer, stole sshcrack.exe, and learned that he needed to crack SSH ports before using porthack.
• Kevin grew invested in Hacknet's story and its open-ended missions, which let players alter websites, saves, and other systems.
• While preparing to upload a file to a pacemaker, Kevin found a backed-up email from Lin to Linus asking about Linux development and mentioning GameNova's projects.
• Kevin traced logs from the hospital system to a heavily protected computer, broke in under a one-minute countdown, and found a file containing a single IP address.
• When the IP could not be reached within the game, Kevin wondered whether it pointed outside the game, then saved and closed Hacknet.

After Kevin Mitnick cracked GameNova’s hidden server and discovered the Entropy Network Forum, Lin Lixin recruited him as a supervised cybersecurity engineer instead of letting him face prison. Lin named Kevin the boss of Entropy and left him to begin work at GameNova, warning him not to cause trouble.

• Kevin Mitnick broke into GameNova’s secured server, found the Entropy Forum’s access details, and became its first user.
• Kevin discovered GameNova’s open-source Kali operating system and received an email from Lin Lixin offering him a place on the company’s cybersecurity team.
• Kevin flew to California in shackles and agreed to work for GameNova under supervision as a cybersecurity engineer and consultant.
• Lin Lixin appointed Kevin head of Entropy, GameNova’s new cybersecurity team, and directed him to work with Sam and consult Linus about Kali.
• Lin Lixin left the reception room after warning Kevin not to try anything, including through his hacker friends.

Lin Lixin planned to create Rockstar Games as a separate studio for mature games and chose DMA-Design as its founding team. After GameNova invited the Dundee developers to California, Lin offered them a chance to apply their systematic design to NPCs in an open-world city.

• Lin Lixin decided to establish an independent studio for mature-rated games and considered adapting the early 2D Grand Theft Auto games.
• In Dundee, Russell and David Jones prepared a new DMA-Design sign after the success of Lemmings.
• Hammond told Russell and Jones that GameNova was interested in acquiring DMA-Design, leaving them stunned.
• Magic Bull brought DMA-Design's team to California and explained that Lin Lixin valued their systematic design and saw its potential for crime-themed action games.
• Lin Lixin invited DMA-Design to become the founding team of a new subsidiary and showed them the Rockstar Games brand.

Lin Lixin explained how DMA-Design’s experimental approach had turned the racing game Race'n'Chase into Morality and Rule of Law, then offered the team GameNova’s open-allocation model and his own involvement. Jones and the others pitched the project to developers from other studios, ending with an enthusiastic response when they asked who wanted to join.

• DMA-Design expanded Race'n'Chase with interactive vehicles, pedestrians, and missions, then renamed the project Morality and Rule of Law.
• Jones asked whether GameNova would provide technical support, and Lin Lixin said the team could recruit developers from other studios through open allocation.
• Lin Lixin reassured Jones that he would oversee the project, prompting Jones and the others to present their game idea to developers from across the campus.
• After Jones asked who wanted to join the project team, the audience responded with an enthusiastic cheer.

Will Wright and John Carmack joined Rockstar’s Morality and Rule of Law project, where the team debated how to create a convincing living city. Lin Lixin proposed streaming NPCs and vehicles around the player and using police chases and fast-paced driving to make the city feel busy while keeping performance manageable.

• Will Wright came to Rockstar after hearing about its plan to simulate a living city, and John Carmack joined because of the project’s graphics potential.
• Will argued for simulating individual city entities through autonomous AI instead of relying on pre-scripted events.
• Jones raised concerns that simulating every car and NPC across San Francisco would overwhelm NovaFusion’s processing and memory.
• Lin Lixin proposed starting the city empty, spawning and activating NPCs and vehicles near the player, and unloading them outside the player’s view.
• Jones suggested adding police, traffic lights, and wide roads to keep players moving and make the city feel alive.
• Lin Lixin explained that the chase gameplay would stream new scenery and traffic ahead of players while concealing the simulation’s limitations.

General Motors president Russell met with Lin Lixin to discuss licensing cars for GameNova’s crime-themed game, and agreed to a limited partnership despite concerns about the game’s impact on the company’s image. The team then planned three stylized city maps designed for gameplay, which Lin Lixin hoped to reuse in future 3D titles.

• Russell flew to California to hear Lin Lixin’s proposal for a new crime-themed game, but worried that associating General Motors with criminal driving would damage its image.
• Russell considered the game’s potential marketing reach and learned that Lin Lixin had reserved half of its fifty car-model slots for General Motors, with the rest intended for Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche.
• General Motors agreed to a one-off license covering the next two games rather than a long-term agreement.
• Lin Lixin told the team to create three large maps based on New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Miami.
• Lin Lixin directed the designers to compress and reshape the cities around gameplay rather than recreate them precisely, including roads designed as racetracks.

Lin Lixin explained how streaming could connect Grand Theft Auto’s three maps into one continuous world, then GameNova unveiled the game in a cinematic summer-sale trailer. The trailer introduced Keanu Reeves as a car thief who joined the Lin Family and ended with him rejecting a gang assignment in Vice City.

• Lin Lixin told Jones that players could travel freely between connected cities, while streaming loaded nearby areas and unloaded cities left behind.
• Lin Lixin recalled how the original game’s mission system had evolved from menu-based missions into interactions with objects and vehicles in the world.
• Lin Lixin went to discuss the car radio with Maikou as GameNova prepared to launch Grand Theft Auto during its July 4 summer sale.
• GameNova’s trailer showed Keanu Reeves escaping the police, meeting Tang, and working as a foot soldier for the Lin Family.
• The trailer placed Keanu in Vice City, where he ignored a pager directing him to attack a gang leader and drove away as Grand Theft Auto was announced as available now.

Pauly joined the huge Independence Day rush to buy GameNova’s crime game Morality and Rule of Law. Meanwhile, Atari’s Jaguar appeared on store shelves with bold 64-bit claims, an awkward controller, and only one launch game, Cybermorph.

• Pauly fought through a crowded store and bought a copy of Morality and Rule of Law.
• GameNova’s first batch of discs rapidly sold as customers swept the shelves, forcing clerks to call for more stock.
• Atari launched the Jaguar, advertising its graphics-focused console as a $250, 64-bit machine.
• The Jaguar’s controller included a numeric keypad with plastic overlays for mapping game commands.
• The Jaguar lacked CD-ROM support and had only Cybermorph available nearly a week after launch.

Pauly unboxed Morality and Rule of Law, discovering detailed maps of its three American-inspired cities and a collectible model car before launching the game. Liberty City opened in a top-down view with 3D buildings, and Pauly expected GameNova's unusual design to have a reason.

• Pauly examined the game's pristine cardboard box and found detailed maps of Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City.
• Pauly recognized the fictional cities as inspirations drawn from New York, California, and Miami, each reflecting a different side of American culture.
• Pauly found a limited-edition Hot Wheels Chevrolet Camaro model car among the box's extras.
• Pauly inserted the disc and listened to the West Coast-inspired G-funk opening music as the game loaded.
• Pauly began in Liberty City, where he found a vast top-down world with three-dimensional buildings.

Pauly explored Morality and Rule of Law, discovering its drivable cars, radio stations, and lively city simulation. After accepting a job to find Jimmy’s car, he caused a traffic accident and noticed that the city’s traffic lights and NPCs responded realistically to events.

• Pauly followed the objective to a public phone in South Park, then returned to an alley and got into a Chevrolet Camaro Z28.
• Pauly drove through the city, impressed by the radio, vehicle sounds, and NPCs going about their routines.
• Pauly reached the phone, where a message ordered him to find Jimmy’s car northeast of the park before the cops did.
• Pauly reversed into a passing motorcyclist, then noticed that NPC cars waited for traffic lights to turn green.

Pauly discovered that he could ignore the gang missions and explore the game freely, while a magazine revealed a cheat code that disabled the police. Meanwhile, Lin Lixin dismissed the controversy surrounding the game and told Sam to begin acquiring Atari.

• Pauly parked Jimmy's car in the gang's garage, then stole a Pontiac Firebird when he needed a ride back across town.
• Pauly realized the game let him roam, steal vehicles, and build reputation without following the main story missions.
• An Electronic Games report revealed that entering the code "I am the law" removed wanted levels and police pursuits.
• Lin Lixin laughed at the game's negative press and noted that the controversy was helping sales rise.
• Lin Lixin assessed the Atari Jaguar's lack of games and told Sam to contact Tramiel to prepare an acquisition of Atari.

Jack Tramiel and Sam Tramiel went to GameNova to discuss selling Atari, whose business had collapsed as players embraced GameNova's Grand Theft Auto. Lin Lixin offered $1.25 per share for all outstanding common stock, leaving GameNova poised to take control of Atari and dominate North America's gaming market.

• The chapter traced Atari's rise and collapse, from Nolan Bushnell's early vision and the Atari 2600 boom to the failed rush of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the company's declining fortunes.
• Jack Tramiel brooded over Atari's losses while Sam Tramiel urged him to sell their controlling stake and move on.
• Jack and Sam traveled from Silicon Valley to GameNova headquarters, where Sam-the one from the Lin family welcomed them.
• Lin Lixin reviewed Atari's falling revenue, mounting losses, and shrinking cash reserves before offering $1.25 per share for all its outstanding common stock.
• Jack and Sam heard GameNova's acquisition offer as the company moved to secure Atari and claim the North American gaming throne.

Lin Lixin explained that GameNova acquired Atari for its PC expertise, game library, and the chance to make Atari games backward-compatible on GameNova’s next console, then rehired Tramiel and Sam Tramiel to lead Atari. In Japan, Ken Kutaragi secured Sony’s backing to establish Sony Computer Entertainment and pursue Square for the PlayStation, leaving him responsible for the project.

• Lin Lixin told Tramiel that GameNova valued Atari’s independent PC ecosystem and intended to use Linux to support it.
• Lin Lixin demonstrated GameNova’s 1 GB optical disc and explained how Athena II could emulate Atari 2600 games for backward compatibility.
• Lin Lixin offered Tramiel and Sam Tramiel their old leadership positions at Atari as employees, and they accepted the acquisition.
• Ken Kutaragi told Shigeo Maruyama that the PlayStation needed third-party publishers and identified Square as a key target because cartridges could not support its ambitions for larger, more advanced games.
• Shigeo Maruyama agreed to have Sony Music approach Square and announced that Sony would invest $200 million to create SCE, with Ken Kutaragi as executive vice president overseeing the PlayStation project.

Lin Lixin assigned Will and Sid Meier to develop Spore, a sandbox game about creature design and evolution that would use procedural worlds and shared player creations. He then prepared to leave on a trip as work on the project began.

• Lin Lixin reviewed Grand Theft Auto's success and called Will to discuss first-party support for GameNova's fifth-generation console.
• Will proposed several simulation-game sequels, but Lin Lixin instead pitched a sandbox game that simulated evolution.
• Lin Lixin described a creature editor, an endlessly generated world, and a system for players to share creatures and assets.
• Lin Lixin named the project Spore, assigned Sid Meier as designer and Will to handle series composition and supervision, and said he was leaving on a trip.

Lin Lixin proposed a network-focused rhythm game arcade machine built around user-created music, virtual singers, and social features. He left the project’s direction set on an easy-to-learn, circular cabinet designed to attract players and spectators, while the team still faced Japan’s slow internet and a crowded arcade market.

• Lin Lixin complained that Japan’s internet was painfully slow despite Sega having the country’s fastest dedicated connection.
• Lin Lixin decided to build a rhythm game arcade machine to encourage demand for better networking, and summoned Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Yu Suzuki.
• Lin Lixin introduced the idea of VOCALOID voice banks, letting users create and share music that could also appear on arcade machines.
• Yu Suzuki warned that Japan’s rhythm game market was already crowded, while Lin Lixin said the game would stand out through its community and social features.
• Lin Lixin proposed a simple four-lane falling-note game in a circular, front-loading-washing-machine cabinet that would be easy to play and entertaining to watch.

Lin Lixin oversaw Yui Asaka’s voicebank recording and discussed the growing data and staffing demands with Hans Zimmer. He then reviewed Yu Suzuki’s arcade cabinet design, rejected an expensive oversized LCD, and proposed using a CRT with infrared touch.

• Yui Asaka spent the day recording repeated sounds at varied pitches and lengths for a Japanese VOCALOID voicebank.
• Lin Lixin and Hans Zimmer discussed the enormous audio data workload, backups, and the need for help from Skywalker Sound.
• Lin Lixin left for Sega and inspected the arcade cabinet Yu Suzuki had built with eight large buttons and an empty screen frame.
• Yu Suzuki proposed a custom 36-inch LCD, but Lin Lixin rejected it as too costly and unsuitable for a rhythm game.
• Lin Lixin suggested fitting a CRT into the frame and using infrared touch instead of a touch panel.

Lin Lixin guided Yu Suzuki’s team in developing an infrared-touch arcade cabinet for a connected rhythm game, while outlining Sega’s plans for online services and community-created music. He introduced GameNova’s All-in-One Card as the solution for quickly saving player data, setting up a platform for the maimai project.

• Yu Suzuki’s team marked locations for infrared emitters on the arcade cabinet, and Lin Lixin told him not to overfocus on keeping costs down.
• Lin Lixin explained that the rhythm game would need an internet connection, ongoing updates, online rankings, and persistent player accounts.
• Lin Lixin outlined a plan for Sega to promote VOCALOID and reward independent P-creators for producing songs, including through events and physical releases.
• Yu Suzuki suggested player accounts, but Lin Lixin noted that arcade players needed a faster way to save their data.
• Lin Lixin showed Yu Suzuki the GameNova All-in-One Card, which could save scores to the cloud and serve as an identity card across GameNova’s arcade lineup.

Nami Yaguchi joined the school’s new VOCALOID club, hoping the software would let her compose despite her poor singing voice. A week later, the club placed third in Sega’s citywide songwriting event and advanced to the prefectural round, with its songs set to appear in a new arcade game.

• Nami Yaguchi volunteered to join the VOCALOID club after learning that its software could sing her compositions for her.
• Nami Yaguchi met Furukawa and Matsumoto in the clubroom, where Ms. Katagiri demonstrated the software’s Shiori Fujisaki voicebank.
• Matsumoto left to fetch his Hermes laptop, and Furukawa agreed to help Nami Yaguchi enter a tune she had written.
• A week later, the Crescent Moon Music Club’s single placed third in the city in Sega’s VOCALOID Everyone’s a Singer-Songwriter event, earning a place in the prefectural showdown.
• Nami Yaguchi thanked Ms. Katagiri, the school, Sega, Furukawa, and Matsumoto while addressing the assembly.