Games and Demos NETHACK(6) NNNNAAAAMMMMEEEE nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace SSSSYYYYNNNNOOOOPPPPSSSSIIIISSSS nnnneeeetttthhhhaaaacccckkkk [ -dddd _d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_y ] [ -nnnn ] [ -pppp _p_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n (_r_o_l_e) ] [ -rrrr _r_a_c_e ] [ -[[[[DDDDXXXX]]]] ] [ -uuuu _p_l_a_y_e_r_n_a_m_e ] [ -ddddeeeecccc ] [ -iiiibbbbmmmm ] nnnneeeetttthhhhaaaacccckkkk [ -dddd _d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_y ] -ssss [ -vvvv ] [ -pppp _p_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n (_r_o_l_e) ] [ -rrrr _r_a_c_e ] [ _p_l_a_y_e_r_n_a_m_e_s ] DDDDEEEESSSSCCCCRRRRIIIIPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNN _N_e_t_H_a_c_k is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game. The standard tty display and command structure resem- ble rogue. Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using either a PC, or an X11 interface. To get started you really only need to know two commands. The command ???? will give you a list of the available commands (as well as other information) and the command //// will iden- tify the things you see on the screen. To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people's high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out. Nobody has achieved this yet; anybody who does will probably go down in history as a hero among heros. When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from the caves, _N_e_t_H_a_c_k will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scorers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior, but a rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in the cave plus four times your (real) experience. Precious stones may be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit. There is a 10% penalty for getting yourself killed. The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to ini- tialize many run-time options. The ? command provides a description of these options and syntax. (The -ddddeeeecccc and -iiiibbbbmmmm command line options are equivalent to the ddddeeeeccccggggrrrraaaapppphhhhiiiiccccssss and iiiibbbbmmmmggggrrrraaaapppphhhhiiiiccccssss run-time options described there, and are pro- vided purely for convenience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.) Because the option list can be very long (particularly when specifying graphics characters), options may also be included in a configuration file. The default is located in your home directory and named .nethackrc on Unix systems. On other systems, the default may be different, usually NetHack.cnf. On DOS or Windows, the name is defaults.nh, SunOS 5.10 Last change: 9 August 2002 1 Games and Demos NETHACK(6) while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it is NetHack Defaults. The configuration file's location may be specified by setting NETHACKOPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ character fol- lowed by the filename. The -uuuu _p_l_a_y_e_r_n_a_m_e option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?". It overrides any name from the options or configuration file, USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will otherwise be tried in order. If none of these provides a useful name, the player will be asked for one. Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to identify save files, so you can have several saved games under different names. Conversely, you must use the appropriate player name to restore a saved game. A _p_l_a_y_e_r_n_a_m_e suffix can be used to specify the profession, race, alignment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of the playername that includes a suffix is "name- ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg". "ppp" are at least the first three letters of the profession (this can also be specified using a separate -pppp _p_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n option). "rrr" are at least the first three letters of the character's race (this can also be specified using a separate -rrrr _r_a_c_e option). "aaa" are at last the first three letters of the character's alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three letters of the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix may be left out. -pppp _p_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n can be used to determine the character role. You can specify either the male or female name for the char- acter role, or the first three characters of the role as an abbreviation. -pppp @@@@ has been retained to explicitly request that a random role be chosen. It may need to be quoted with a backslash (\@) if @ is the "kill" character (see "stty") for the terminal, in order to prevent the current input line from being cleared. Likewise, -rrrr _r_a_c_e can be used to explicitly request that a race be chosen. Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being prompted during the game startup for the information. The -ssss option alone will print out the list of your scores on the current version. An immediately following -vvvv reports on all versions present in the score file. The -ssss may also be followed by arguments -pppp and -rrrr to print the scores of particular roles and races only. It may also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the players mentioned, by 'all' to print out all scores, or by a number to print that many top scores. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 9 August 2002 2 Games and Demos NETHACK(6) The -nnnn option suppresses printing of any news from the game administrator. The -DDDD or -XXXX option will start the game in a special non- scoring discovery mode. -DDDD will, if the player is the game administrator, start in debugging (wizard) mode instead. The -dddd option, which must be the first argument if it appears, supplies a directory which is to serve as the play- ground. It overrides the value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game administrator during compilation (usually /usr/games/lib/nethackdir). This option is usually only useful to the game administrator. The playground must contain several auxiliary files such as help files, the list of top scorers, and a subdirectory _s_a_v_e where games are saved. AAAAUUUUTTTTHHHHOOOORRRRSSSS Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs). Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an entirely different game. Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding various warped character classes and sadistic traps with the help of many strange people who reside in that place between the worlds, the Usenet Zone. A number of these miscreants are immortalized in the historical roll of dishonor and various other places. The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its development by the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this request for the distinction, as he may eventually release a new version of his own. FFFFIIIILLLLEEEESSSS All files are in the playground, normally /usr/games/lib/nethackdir. If DLB was defined during the compile, the data files and special levels will be inside a larger file, normally nhdat, instead of being separate files. nethack The program itself. data, oracles, rumors Data files used by NetHack. options, quest.dat More data files. help, hh Help data files. cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp More help data files. *.lev Predefined special levels. dungeon Control file for special levels. history A short history of NetHack. license Rules governing redistribution. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 9 August 2002 3 Games and Demos NETHACK(6) record The list of top scorers. logfile An extended list of games played. xlock.nnn Description of a dungeon level. perm Lock file for xlock.dd. bonesDD.nn Descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a deceased adventurer. save A subdirectory containing the saved games. EEEENNNNVVVVIIIIRRRROOOONNNNMMMMEEEENNNNTTTT USER or LOGNAME Your login name. HOME Your home directory. SHELL Your shell. TERM The type of your terminal. HACKPAGER or PAGER Replacement for default pager. MAIL Mailbox file. MAILREADER Replacement for default reader (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail). NETHACKDIR Playground. NETHACKOPTIONS String predefining several NetHack options. In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode. SSSSEEEEEEEE AAAALLLLSSSSOOOO dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6) BBBBUUUUGGGGSSSS Probably infinite. Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 9 August 2002 4