The Life of a Geek
Copyright (C) 2003-05 Daniel Quintiliani.

INTRODUCTION

In this console role-playing game, you (a geek) have been given a computer which you must keep running until you graduate college with a bachelor's degree (40 courses - before you get too old). You must work to earn money to take courses (which you may fail), but remember that being away from your computer leaves it open to viruses and hacker attacks. To stay awake, you must drink energy drinks. You may also sleep to gain energy, but sleeping also leaves your computer open to attack. You may also hack other geeks' computers for money and experience points. When you don't do these things, you can waste time. Sometimes, while wasting time, you will find pirated security software which will increase your protection against hackers.

HOW DO I GET A HIGH SCORE?

Without spoiling it for you, the most activity done in the least amount of time will give you a higher score. This includes education (ESPECIALLY) but also work, hacking, and other factors.

WHERE DID YOU GET THE IDEA FOR THIS?

There were several TI-83 calculator games I saw, all titled "Hacker RPG" or something, which had the user drinking Jolt and hacking computers. I had a better idea.

WHY DID YOU RELEASE IT OPEN SOURCE?

I honestly didn't think it would go anywhere, since it is standard IO-based with no graphics. I decided to release it to the public last summer under the GPL and see what would happen. Apparently, it was really big.

P.S. make sure your terminal is set to the standard 80x25 (sometimes it isn't).

NOTES TO DOS/WINDOWS USERS

If you downloaded the DOS/Windows binary without the source code, remember to run the file "RUN.BAT", NOT "LIFEGEEK.EXE" or the program WILL CRASH.

If you didn't receive the source code, you can download it at http://lifegeek.sourceforge.net/
CWSDPMI source code available at
http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/