This update is mostly fixes from your reports, plus a rework of how SSH exploits work and a few new options for people playing on big screens. If you reported one of these, thank you.
Highlights
- Your progress is safer. Reopening the game too quickly could load an incomplete copy of your machine and stop saving. That is fixed.
- SSH exploits now have to be earned. Only servers running an old sshd are vulnerable, the hole goes public a few days into the game, and the tools are sold on the darknet instead of sitting free on warez.
- Bigger text. mIRC has its own text size option, the MS-DOS Prompt has a font size selector, and the BIOS has a Desktop Scale setting.
- Doors works properly. Explorer icons, Shut Down, the MS-DOS Prompt and the more command all behave like Windows 95 again.
Fixed
Saves and stability
- Reloading could lose your installed programs and stop saving. If you opened the game while the previous session was still closing, you could end up with a bare home directory, onion connect failing with a missing router, and nothing saved after that. It happened on almost every reload on Windows. Fixed at the source.
- Starting a new save could overwrite a file already sitting in the save folder (Windows). It now refuses instead of deleting it.
- Windows build: the game could not read some of its own files. Fixed.
- Language packs: a new save could start without its language pack, or automatic detection could override what you picked in the BIOS. Both fixed, and an interrupted pack update now recovers on the next start.
Hacking and network tools
- wuftpd_exploit was refused with "a valid non-anonymous FTP login is required" when used the way Razor teaches it. It now logs in with whatever account the server allows, anonymous included, so the Act 1 route works again.
- Anonymous FTP dropped you into a /pub folder that did not exist on 17 servers, 8 of them side-job targets. You now land in the account's real home directory.
- nmap -p 22,80 only scanned the first port. Port lists and ranges work now, and a malformed list gives an error.
- Ctrl+C left transfers running. It now cancels the FTP or SCP transfer in that terminal. A scan or exploit in progress stops where it is.
- A stopped web server said "HTTP service unavailable". It now says "Connection refused", like a closed port should.
- .lua pages gave 403 Forbidden in the browser, including the ones you write yourself. Fixed.
Doors (the Windows 95 machine)
- Explorer showed every file as a blank white square. Files now get their proper Windows 95 icon by type.
- The Explorer address bar turned grey when clicked, as if it were disabled. It is a normal white field again.
- Start > Shut Down did nothing. It now opens the Shut Down dialog. Shut down shows the "It's now safe to turn off your computer" screen, and Restart boots you back where you were.
- The MS-DOS Prompt opens in C:\WINDOWS, like the real Windows 95 shortcut.
- more opened a full-screen Unix pager. It now prints in place and stops at "-- More --" like MS-DOS.
- Typing a | in the MS-DOS Prompt now gives "Syntax error" instead of quietly running only the first command.
Fonts and screens
- Wrong fonts on macOS. mIRC and the MS-DOS Prompt used Windows-only fonts, so on a Mac mIRC looked wide and blocky and the DOS window border cut into the text. The game now ships every font it uses, so Windows and macOS look the same.
- Style Manager icons could disappear. Fixed. The desktop language setting moved to Startup.
- Websites: fixed layouts and dates on several in-world sites. Ten ISP home pages and a ZDNet page showed 1998 dates on the first day of 1997. They now show early 1997 and update as the calendar moves forward.
Changed
SSH exploits
- Not every SSH server is vulnerable anymore. The SSH1 packet hole only exists in sshd 1.2.16 and was fixed in 1.2.17. Most servers never had it. The ones that do are the boxes nobody bothered to upgrade, and the version banner tells you which is which, so recon matters.
- The hole goes public on 19 February 1997, five days into the game. Before that the tools get "no usable response from remote sshd". When it goes public, the forums, IRC and the vendor react, and the admins who care start patching. Over the following months and years, fewer and fewer servers stay open.
- x2, 7350ssh and sshutup are sold on the darknet market from that date, for $300, $600 and $350 in dirty money, delivered to your drop. Razor and the side jobs that use them tell you where to look. wuftpd_exploit, log_cleaner and phf_exploit are still free on warez.
- Help and man pages for the three SSH tools now describe their real options (-t N and -l).
Editing server configs
- Daemons read their config files the way 1996 machines did. ftpd, fingerd and telnetd are started fresh for each connection, so an edit takes effect on the next login. sshd, httpd, sendmail, smbd, snmpd and named keep their old settings until you run service <daemon> reload or restart them. Razor explains the difference the first time a job needs it.
- service can target one port: service sshd:2222 reload. Without a port it applies to all of them. If a reload fails, the old config keeps running.
- The browser accepts ports in URLs, like http://host:8080/.
Readability and options
- mIRC text size (Small, Medium, Large) is in mIRC's Options menu. It scales the whole window: menus, tabs, channel list, nick list, input line and status bar. It is saved with your IRC settings.
- MS-DOS Prompt font size: a toolbar selector with 8x16, 12x24 and 16x32, like Windows 95 had.
- BIOS Setup > Desktop Scale (100% to 200%) makes the whole desktop bigger for large monitors. Each option shows the resolution it gives you, and the one closest to a 1996 800x600 screen is marked as the most authentic. The default stays at 100%.
- mIRC menus: the View options now show real check marks. Menu items that did nothing (Tools, Favorites, Channel List, Preferences, Colors, Sounds, Servers) were removed.
- Linux builds of the demo are now available alongside Windows and macOS.
Known issues
These were already in the previous build and are next on the list. They are all about guest FTP logins:
- Six side-job servers do not accept a guest login at all.
- Fifteen servers send the guest account to a folder that does not exist.
- ftp anonymous@host fails on servers where the guest account is called "ftp". Use ftp ftp@host there for now.
Keep the reports coming. Thanks for playing!