ANSI.SYS — MASTER BOOT RECORD
    

    

      

        
        
HACKER // ONLINE

        
// A Steve Jackson Game // Online Edition //

        
        
        
      


      
      

        
> ONGOING GAMES

        

          
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> CREATE GAME

          

            
            
          

          

            
            
            
            
            
          

          

            
            
          

          

            
            
          

          

            
            
          

          
        


        

          
> JOIN GAME

          

            
> Scanning for active games...

          

          
        

      


      
      

        

          > CHANGES & UPDATES
          
        

        

          

            
2026-05-01 — Indial Busy + Master Hacker fixes

            
    
              
  • Indial Busy — the player it was played on now sees a red X through the targeted dial-in's icon. The busy dial-in is no longer selectable as the start of a hack, but it can still appear as a transit hop along a path. The auto-route picker now skips busy candidates as starting points but allows them as transit.
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  • While a rival is mid-pick on a card targeting the active player (e.g. Indial Busy), the active player now sees a "Waiting for timing window" modal with the rival's name and the card being played — so the apparent pause has a visible cause.
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  • Master Hacker is immediate. The "Master Hacker pending" delay is gone — the moment a player has the target number of qualifying systems, the game ends. Reactive plays must land before the winning hack, not after.
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2026-05-01 — Spectator hack preview

            
    
              
  • While the active player picks a hack target and routes their path, every other player now sees a colored targeting reticle on the target system plus marching-ants wires tracing the chosen path — in the active player's color — so spectators can follow the hack as it's being lined up. Cleared as soon as the hack fires or the player cancels.
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2026-05-01 — Modal minimize + UI polish

            
    
              
  • Minimize any modal. Every modal now has a _ button. Minimized modals dock as chips on the right edge of the screen, oldest at the bottom, newest on top — click a chip to restore. Closing the active modal auto-restores the oldest minimized one.
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  • If a new modal would replace a non-dismissible one, the previous one is auto-minimized rather than stomped. Same-title re-renders update in place (no chip duplicates).
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  • Undismissable modals can't be ignored. If you minimize an undismissable prompt and then click anywhere outside the dock, the oldest pending undismissable modal pops back up.
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  • Cards with special-ability text now have their title underlined in red on the board so they read at a glance.
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  • Sysadmin On Vacation prompt now emphasises the targeted system, who narked, and lists every account on the targeted card with its access level — so the SOV holder can decide whether to play it without squinting at the board.
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2026-04-30 — FBI of Illumination + six fixes

            
    
              
  • FBI of Illumination — root at the start of your turn now auto-prompts to peek at every special card in any rival's hand (or skip). Once-per-turn.
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  • Black ICE short-circuit — if a hacker is only one hop from an indial when ICE bites, the trace skips and the player is raided immediately, as if traced all the way home.
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  • Indial Busy picker now lists every dial-in the active player actually uses (not a stale subset).
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  • Phreak a Friend can now phreak any other player, not the older filtered subset.
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  • Hover a player's name in the top bar to highlight every system they have an account on, in their color.
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  • Timing-window waiting modals are anonymised — players no longer leak who hasn't acted yet.
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  • Housecleaning re-render fix — SOV-related stomps no longer leave the houseclean prompt invisible until refresh.
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2026-04-29 — Boot screen + auth polish

            
    
              
  • Boot screen renamed from PHIBER-NETWORKS BBS to BLACKSPIRAL BBS.
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  • Registration no longer asks for an email.
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  • Lobby music defaults to muted.
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  • Overlord USERS tab — admin can list and delete registered accounts.
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2026-04-28 — Auth, audio, and QoL batch

            
    
              
  • Full auth — terminal-style boot screen, user accounts, ongoing-games list. Persistent Overlord password (DB-backed bcrypt). Overlord reset-stats / clear-history button.
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  • Audio settings popover in the Log / Chat / Rules tab bar.
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  • Optional outdial pick + confirm-on-end-hacking.
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  • Browser confirm() popups replaced with in-game Modal chrome.
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  • Last-player-standing wins by default and is cleared from the active list.
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  • Black-ICE trace now surfaces a clear ROLL CTA for whichever player has the dice.
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  • Get A Life modal no longer races the begin-turn window close.
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  • Raid defense filter, sound stings, GIF flourish, click-outside fix, virus details polish.
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2026-04-24 — Worm mechanics + hacker houseclean

            
    
              
  • Worm sysadmin roll runs every Resolve Housecleaning step for every wormy system: 1 purges the Worm (logged), 6 forces an extra housecleaning. The roll-of-6 path now bypasses permaNoClean / Idiot Sysadmin — infected systems that normally never clean still get swept.
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  • Attack Worm — during your hacking phase, spend 1 hack to roll a d6 against the Worm on any system where you have an account. On a 1, the Worm is purged from that system.
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  • Full-Clean Worm — if you haven't spent any hacks yet, burn your entire turn's hacks to guarantee a Worm removal on a system where you have an account.
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  • Hacker-initiated Houseclean — active root on a system lets you spend 1 hack to trigger a targeted houseclean. Pick which rival accounts to sweep; each rolls as usual (2d6 root / 1d6 regular) but LOSES on 5 or lower instead of the normal 4. You don't roll and aren't raided.
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2026-04-24 — Blackspiral.ca

            
    
              
  • New Blackspiral.ca Moon-type regular system (SEC 10 / ICE 4) that always housecleans. Root access offers a once-per-game end-of-turn prompt — accepting restarts you at Roll For Crashed Systems on the same turn slot; declining passes play normally.
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2026-04-24 — Arctic Wolf upgrade

            
    
              
  • Arctic Wolf Networks is now on the BizNet network.
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  • Systems boosted by Arctic Wolf show a snowflake badge with the current +N count; at +2 the badge glows to signal Black-ICE eligibility.
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  • New root ability: once a system is doubly boosted, spend a hack to fuse its ICE into Black ICE. Regular token returns to the pool, a black token is pulled (or synthesised) to keep token counts honest. No effect on systems that already carry Black ICE.
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2026-04-24 — Nark + Multiverse + Master Hacker

            
    
              
  • Nark mode no longer highlights systems you've already narked this turn.
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  • Multiverse root counts as 2 — the top-bar account tally now mirrors the victory calculation, so the visible count matches what triggers the win.
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  • Master Hacker victory no longer waits for turn end. If you reach the target mid-turn, the win fires as soon as the board is quiescent (no timing window, no pending action, no Black-ICE trace, no housecleaning queue). Reactive windows like Caught Online still pause resolution — but the moment they close, the game ends.
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2026-04-24 — Virus subsystem overhaul

            
    
              
  • Build Virus modal — drawing a virus now opens an interactive 2d6 Virus Results Table roulette. Roll locks in the effect on this card instance; everyone sees the landing row.
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  • Interactive spread — end-of-turn and favor-acceptance spread now open a modal listing eligible rivals. The infected player rolls d6 per target per virus (1-2 infects, 1-3 nasty). Turn resumes once resolved.
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  • Virus counter sits on the bottom-right of your console; hover for a tooltip listing each active infection and its effect.
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  • Nuke Everything — at turn start, infected players can discard all console upgrades (returned to stock) to purge every virus and continue their turn normally.
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  • A Present For The Feds — a virus-infected rig confiscated on a bust gives Law Enforcement a permanent -1 bust-roll penalty per virus (capped at -2). The RAIDED modal now displays the victim's resulting bonus and which viruses contributed.
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  • Allies now grants only the extra hack per turn (the erroneous stacked +1 to all hacks is gone).
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2026-04-23 — Timing Window Timer + QoL

            
    
              
  • Lobby option to toggle the Timing Window Timer. Off by default — windows stay open until every eligible holder plays or passes. When on, configurable seconds (default 6).
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  • Hovering the active player's name shows a Current Effects tooltip listing modifiers/cards in play.
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  • Out-of-turn card play now pops a modal for everyone so they know who interrupted and why.
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  • Illegal / unresolvable cards return to hand rather than silently discarding.
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  • Omniscient Credit root bonus surfaces on the Hack Analysis tooltip.
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  • Crashed-system rolls animate separately (one die per system instead of reusing the first total).
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  • Log / Chat tabs fill their panels rather than capping at 200px.
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  • Stock-peek tab is bigger with a visible indicator on the console's left edge.
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  • Game can't end while timing windows are open; busted-out players are excluded from victory.
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2026-04-23 — Viruses go live

            
    
              
  • Beelzebub and Mona Lisa viruses now function end-to-end. When a virus first enters play the server rolls 2d6 on the Virus Results Table for this incarnation's effects (anywhere from −3 to all hacks up to −2 hacks/turn; the "nasty" variant doubles the spread chance).
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  • Handoff — the favor response modal now lists every virus card the rival holds with an "Attach virus" radio. Accepting with an attached virus consumes the card and infects the hacker (unless they hold Disinfectant).
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  • Spread — at the end of an infected player's turn, every rival sharing an account rolls a d6: 1–2 catches it (1–3 nasty).
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  • Cures — Check Every Disk (spend a hack, d6, cures on 6 or 4+ if you created the virus), Disinfectant card (pick Beelzebub / Mona Lisa / Wipe the Worm), or the nuclear option (losing every upgrade to a raid or bust wipes all your viruses).
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  • Virus cards can't be played directly — they only trigger via the favor attach flow.
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  • Colored virus badges on each player's stats row; the Hack Analysis tooltip labels every penalty ("Beelzebub −2"); minimum 1 hack/turn enforced.
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2026-04-23 — Timing-window audit

            
    
              
  • Caught Online is no longer manually playable. A new on_raid_start timing window fires inside the raid; the bust roll is blocked while it's open; holders play via the standard PLAY prompt.
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  • Combined Operation was effectively dead code on the old after_raid window. Retimed to on_raid_start so its −2 to the bust roll actually applies.
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  • Get A Life / Get A Clue join Gooey Interface in the beginning-of-turn window. Get A Life now properly disables the Upgrade button on the victim with a tooltip.
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  • Reconfiguration has a real turn_start timing window chained into the Start Turn flow. (The full net-topology rearrangement is still a table-resolve stub.)
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  • Non-eligible players (incl. the active player) now see the shared "waiting for timing window" modal whenever a window is open — previously their UI stayed unlocked while a holder's countdown ran.
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2026-04-23 — In-game rules catalogue

            
    
              
  • New RULES tab next to LOG / CHAT. 30 cross-linked sections distilled from the Hacker Deluxe PnP rulebook plus a digital-adaptation notes section.
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  • Cross-references smooth-scroll with a flash highlight. Search bar filters sections and TOC entries live by title, tag bag, and full text.
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2026-04-23 — Special card fixes

            
    
              
  • Social Engineering was broken — a stub branch in the bonus dispatcher caught it before the real handler, so the +4 never applied. Fixed. The Hack Analysis tooltip now correctly labels it "Social Engineering +4".
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  • Refurbished Modem now opens a rival picker on click (filtered to rivals with a modem upgrade), matching the rest of the targeted special cards.
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  • Disk Crash and Hack the Hacker got the same direct-click picker treatment.
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2026-04-23 — Console + store overhaul

            
    
              
  • Command-line console header — your system area now reads playername@hostname_ with a flashing cursor. Player name is tinted in your color; hostname is editable (11-char limit) and the whole line auto-scales to fit the panel.
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  • Stock-peek tab — new S T O C K tab on the left edge of your console. Hover for a slide-out listing every upgrade's current stock (civilian + military), color-coded by slot.
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  • Unified upgrade store — dropped the separate mode picker. One store shows every upgrade with per-upgrade pick costs. Budget model: System = 1, Two System = 2, Military = 2 (military costs 2), Anarcho-Tech = 3 (military costs 3). Tier-2 JUMP without the trade-in costs 2 picks.
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  • Military auto-bust — holding BANSHEE / TEMPEST / Military Icebreaker forces an automatic bust when raided (no dice, no roll). Congressional Inquiry / Dummy Equipment still cancel the raid outright.
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  • Back Door now requires the hacking phase and a remaining hack to play (same gate as Password File / Root Set to Default).
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2026-04-23 — Begin-turn + Ice Skating rework

            
    
              
  • Ice Skating is now reactive — no more priming. When you hit ICE and still hold the card, a prompt pops up: Use Ice Skating to escape clean, or Take the Hit for the normal fallout.
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  • Beginning-of-turn window fires on Start Turn — the "It's your turn" modal now has a [Start Turn] button and can't be dismissed otherwise. Clicking it opens the 5-second window for rivals holding Gooey Interface; your turn timer doesn't start until they decide.
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  • Active player sees a "Waiting to start turn" modal while the window is open.
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2026-04-23 — Visibility + info polish

            
    
              
  • Hidden indial chips are now public — every player sees a chip on every system where someone has planted a hidden indial, colored by owner; your own chip gets a white ring.
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  • No Such Agency end-of-turn bonus now asks before drawing. If you draw a system card, you're forced to place it before your turn ends.
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  • Divine Meditation auto-targets the active player and is rejected on your own turn.
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  • Hack Analysis tooltip now appears on any system hover, not just hackable targets. Wormy systems show a WORMY badge and (for the Worm's creator) a Worm Master +1 line. Worm rules for non-creators (roots on wormy systems don't contribute to Same Type / Same Net / Adjacent) now match server.
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  • Direct dial-in to a secret indial with ICE now correctly raids on a miss (previously slipped through because the target wasn't literally type: 'indial').
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  • Dad's A Lawyer is now playable at any time, moves straight into face-up. On a full bust, the equipment strip fires (the card only protects against raids); the card itself is preserved across busts via untradeable.
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  • Root Set to Default / Password File require the hacking phase and a remaining hack. Client now opens a system picker on play.
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2026-04-23 — Sysadmin On Vacation

            
    
              
  • Sysadmin On Vacation — every housecleaning now pauses for a 5-second when_housecleaning timing window. Card holders get the standard PLAY prompt; everyone else sees the shared waiting modal. Playing cancels the clean, runs its continuation, and rolls d6 — 1–3 keeps the card for reuse.
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  • Everyone gets a "SYSADMIN ON VACATION" notification and modal when a clean is cancelled this way.
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2026-04-23 — Medium special-card batch

            
    
              
  • Disk Crash — wipe a rival's entire hand of special cards.
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  • Divine Meditation — end a rival's turn immediately.
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  • Indial Busy — knock one of a rival's dial-ins offline for the turn.
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  • Wardialer — copy every hidden indial currently in play onto your roster.
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  • Hack the Hacker — rival owes you a favor you can call in on any later hack.
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  • Ice Skating — prime a one-shot auto-escape; next ICE hit is consumed with no fallout.
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  • Timing-window PLAY button restyled to match the rest of the UI.
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2026-04-23 — Cheap special-card batch

            
    
              
  • Password File & Root Set to Default — auto-grant regular/root access on any system without a dice roll.
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  • Social Engineering — +4 trashing bonus on your next hack; shown in the hack breakdown.
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  • Refurbished Modem — strip a rival's modem back to plain and return it to the shared stock.
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  • Dad's A Lawyer — persistent face-up card that blocks the equipment strip on every raid.
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  • Get A Life — now also blocks the victim from skipping their turn for a free upgrade.
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  • Caught Online — forces an automatic bust on an active raid, no roll possible.
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  • Bad Karma — played on a rival who just survived a raid; they lose their next turn.
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  • Targeted special cards now fire a "played on you" modal so rivals always know what hit them.
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Earlier — System cards, housecleaning, spectating

            
    
              
  • Arctic Wolf Networks — auto-Black-ICE conversion + interactive trace boost.
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  • Reply Hazy, Hack Again Later — now correctly undoes the target's most recent successful hack.
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  • Interactive housecleaning rolls everywhere — Hacker Hysteria, Black ICE traces, standard cleans.
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  • WARP Radio & Ed's Outdial marked permaNoClean; Buddy's House always housecleans.
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  • Spectator mode — watch any game in progress, leave anytime.
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  • Victory / Defeat modals and total-time stats at game end.
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  • Nark notifications — everyone with an account on a narked system gets pinged.
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  • HACK button renamed (was DIAL) with new hacking.wav SFX.
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  • The Worm — chip scaling fixed, tooltip integration, creator +1 bonus, propagation dedup.
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  • Net Ninja live tracking with log entries when the title moves.
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          HACKER
          // ONLINE
        

        

          
          
          
        

        
        

        
      


      

        
        
        
        
        
      


      

      

        

          
          

            S
T
O
C
K
            

          

          

            hacker@localhost
          

          

        

        

          

            
> IN PLAY 

            

              
No persistent cards in play

            

          

          

            
> HAND