HacX

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HacX cover

HacX CD Rom

Facing off with mutants in MAP06: Digi-Ota.

HacX (pronounced "hacks") is a total conversion for Doom II. It was created by Banjo Software in 1997, and featured an entirely new set of graphics. HacX uses a DeHackEd modified version of the Doom engine and the authors of HacX paid id Software $5,000 for the rights to market HacX as a commercial add-on for Doom II.

HacX itself was generally unsuccessful; by the time it was released, the superior Quake engine that had just come out made the Doom engine pale in comparison. Public interest for Doom and games derived from it was, effectively, dead; even though HacX was considered a decent TC, it arrived on the market too late to become a success.

HacX was originally priced at $14.95 on a CD-ROM, and $20.95 on diskettes. The sprites and other graphics from Hacx have been reused in many other TCs/PCs since, although Banjo Software has forbidden the use of its graphics in other WADs.

Development started on a sequel, but it failed due to a number of problems.

HacX is now being distributed for free on its website kept online by Rich Johnston (Nostromo), one of the developers. The HacX CD is considered to be very, very rare.

[edit] Notable figures

Despite the game's commercial failure, some of its creators have since become successful and relatively well-known professional game developers. Iikka "Fingers" Keränen went on to work at Looking Glass, ION Storm, Ritual Entertainment, Rogue Entertainment and most recently, Valve Software. Kenneth Scott has since worked as an artist at Xatrix Entertainment, Croteam, ION and id Software, and currently works for Microsoft Game Studios.