NetHack

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NetHack
A released djinni grants the player a wish.
Developed by	The NetHack DevTeam
Latest release	3.4.3 / December 8 2003
OS	Cross-platform
Genre	Roguelike
License	NetHack General Public License
Website	www.nethack.org

Video games Portal

NetHack is a single-player roguelike computer game originally released in 1987. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack (1985), which is a descendant of Rogue (1980). The "net" element references that its development has been coordinated through the Internet.^[1] The "hack" element refers to a genre of role-playing games known as hack and slash for their focus on combat. The player takes the part of a dungeon-delving character in search of the Amulet of Yendor.

1 History and development
2 Gameplay
3 Interface
4 Ports and variants
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History and development

NetHack is open source and one of the oldest computer games still being actively developed, with new features and bug fixes added by a loose but secretive group of volunteers, commonly called the DevTeam. The DevTeam does not publicly discuss versions in progress, and they release new versions without notice. However, they do maintain a list of known bugs. Often, others will release unofficial patches between versions.

[edit] Gameplay

Before playing a game, the player is asked to name his or her character and then select a race, role, gender, and alignment, or allow the game to assign them. There are traditional fantasy roles such as knight, wizard, rogue, valkyrie, and samurai, but there are also unusual ones, including archeologist, tourist, and caveman. The player character's role and alignment dictate which deity the character serves in the game.

After the player character is created, the main objective is introduced. To win the game, the player must retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, found at the lowest level of the dungeon, and sacrifice it to his or her deity. Successful completion of this task rewards the player with the gift of immortality, and the player is said to "ascend", attaining the status of demigod. In addition, a number of sub-quests must be completed, including one class-specific quest.

The player's character is usually accompanied by a pet animal, typically a kitten or little dog, although knights begin with a saddled pony. Most of the other monsters may also be tamed using magic.

[edit] Dungeon levels

NetHack's dungeon spans over 45-50 levels, of which most are randomly generated when the player character first encounters them. A typical level contains a way "up" and a way "down" (these may be stairways, ladders, trapdoors etc.) Some "special" levels are of fixed design in every game.

[edit] Items and tools

A player's inventory, as displayed after application of the "menucolors" patch.

NetHack features a variety of items: weapons (either ranged or melee), armor to protect the player; scrolls and spellbooks to cast; potions to quaff; and an assortment of tools such as keys and lamps. Although the majority of items are beneficial to the player, the specific use of each item is unknown until the player identifies it.

[edit] Blessings and curses

As in many other roguelike games, all items in NetHack are either "blessed", "uncursed", or "cursed". The majority of items are found uncursed, but the "BUC" (Blessed/Uncursed/Cursed) status of an item is unknown until it is identified or detected through other means.

Generally, a blessed item will be more powerful than an uncursed item, and a cursed item will be less powerful. When talking about scrolls and objects which bestow effects upon the character, a curse will generally make the effect (more) harmful. There are exceptions, however, which are usually very specific (e.g. the cursed scroll of gold detection will reveal traps if read while confused).

[edit] Character death

Like roguelikes in general, NetHack features permadeath: expired characters cannot be revived without having made backup copies of the actual save files. Players sometimes use the acronyms "YAAD" and "YASD" when discussing their characters' deaths, meaning "Yet Another Annoying Death" or "Yet Another Stupid Death". An "annoying" death is typically one that was the fault of misfortune more than the player (such as falling into a spiked, poisoned pit trap early in the game); a "stupid" death is when player's actions were directly responsible for their own death.

An ascending player is asked whether she wants her possessions identified.

The prompt "Do you want your possessions identified?" (abbreviated as "DYWYPI" and used to suggest character death) is given by default at the end of any game, allowing the player to learn any unknown properties of the items found during the game.

Sporadically, the game saves the level on which a character has died, and then integrates that level into a later dungeon, complete with the ex-player's possessions, ghost, and killer(s). This is done via "bones files", which are saved on the computer hosting the game. A player using a publicly-hosted copy of the game can thus encounter the remains of many other players. Players can also swap bones files via programs like Hearse.^[2]

Bugs, humorous messages, stories, experiences, and ideas for the next version are discussed on the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.nethack.^[3]

[edit] Conducts

Although NetHack can be completed by new or intermediate players without any limitations, experienced players often attempt "conducts", which are completely voluntary restrictions as to what one can do. Conducts usually involve a player not being able to do something, such as wish for items or wear armor. Some conducts are tracked by the game, and listed when the character dies or ascends. Some, however, like the Zen conduct where players wear a blindfold throughout the whole game, are not.

[edit] Interface

NetHack for Microsoft Windows in "tiles mode".

Vulture's Eye offers an isometric perspective.

NetHack was originally created without a graphical user interface, although the option to play using one was added later in its development. Interface elements — environment, entities, and objects — are represented by arrangements of ASCII or Extended ASCII glyphs used in plain text, "DECgraphics" or "IBMgraphics" mode. In addition to the environment, the interface also displays character and situational information.

Apart from the original termcap interface, there are interfaces that replace standard screen representations with two-dimensional images, or tiles, collectively known as "tiles mode". Graphic interfaces of this kind utilize the X Window System, the similar Microsoft Windows GUI, the Qt toolkit, or the GNOME libraries.

Enhanced graphical options also exist, such as the isometric perspective of Falcon's Eye and Vulture's Eye, or the three-dimensional rendering noegnud offers.