NetHack is a single-player
roguelikeThe roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
video game originally released in
1987-Notable releases:* January 14, Nintendo releases Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in January for the Famicom Disk System in Japan only. The game would go unreleased in America for nearly two years afterwards.* February 20, Konami releases Contra...
. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack , which is a descendant of
RogueRogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
.
SalonSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
describes it as "one of the finest gaming experiences the computing world has to offer."
The "net" element references the fact that its development was coordinated through
USENETUsenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
, even before the
World Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
existed. The "hack" element refers to the game it was based on, Hack. The player takes the part of a dungeon-delving character in search of the Amulet of Yendor.
History and development
The first version of NetHack was released by Mike Stephenson in July 1987.
By the release of Nethack 3.0 in July 1989, a development team had arisen. Over the next 14 years of development they established a tight-lipped culture, revealing little, if anything, between each release. Owing to the ever-increasing depth and complexity found in each release, the DevTeam enjoys a near-mythical status among some fans. This perceived omniscience is captured in the acronym TDTTOE, "The DevTeam Thinks of Everything".
For many years fans and others considered NetHack to be "...one of the oldest games still being developed."
The last version to include new gameplay features was Nethack 3.4.3, released in December 2003. Subsequent releases have included new tilesets and compatibility with variants of Mac OS.
Gameplay
Before playing a game, the player is asked to name his or her character and then select a race,
roleIn role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different game characters is to assign each one to a character class. A character class aggregates several abilities and aptitudes, and may also sometimes detail aspects of background and social standing or impose behaviour...
,
genderGender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
, and
alignmentIn some role-playing games, alignment is a categorisation of the moral and ethical perspective of the player characters, non-player characters, monsters, and societies in the game....
, or allow the game to assign them randomly. There are traditional fantasy roles such as
knightA knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
,
barbarianBarbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
,
wizardThe Wizard is a type of magical character class in certain role-playing games and computer role-playing games. Wizards are considered to be spellcasters who wield powerful spells, but are often physically weak as a trade-off. Wizards are commonly confused with similar offensive spellcasting...
, rogue,
valkyrieIn Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decides who dies in battle. Selecting among half of those who die in battle , the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin...
,
priestThe Cleric, Priest, or Bishop is a character class in Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy role-playing games. The cleric is a healer, usually a priest and a holy warrior, originally modeled on or inspired by the Military Orders...
,
monkThe monk is a character class in a number of table-top role-playing and computer games. In those games which follow the Dungeons & Dragons traditions, monks are characters with martial arts skills and have very powerful strategies....
, and
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, but there are also unusual ones, including archaeologist, tourist, and
cavemanA caveman or troglodyte is a stock character based upon widespread concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans may have looked and behaved...
. The
player characterA player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
's role and alignment dictate which
deityA deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
the character serves in the game and "how other monsters react toward you".
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
immortalityImmortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
, and the player is said to "ascend", attaining the status of
demigodThe term "demigod" , meaning "half-god", is commonly used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human; as such, demigods are human-god hybrids...
. In addition, a number of sub-quests must be completed, including one class-specific quest.
The player's character is, unless manually specified otherwise, accompanied by a pet animal, typically a
kittenA kitten is a juvenile domesticated cat.The young of big cats are called cubs rather than kittens. Either term may be used for the young of smaller wild felids such as ocelots, caracals, and lynx, but "kitten" is usually more common for these species....
or
little dogThe domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
, although knights begin with a
saddleA saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...
d
ponyA pony is a small horse . Depending on context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. There are many different breeds...
. Pets grow from fighting, and they can be changed by various means. Most of the other monsters may also be tamed using magic or tempting food.
Dungeon levels
NetHacks dungeon spans about 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.), along with several "rooms" joined by corridors. The "rooms" are randomly generated rectangles (as opposed to the linear corridors) and may contain features such as altars, shops, fountains, traps, thrones, pools of water, and sinks based upon the randomly generated features of the room . Some "special" levels are of fixed design in every game session. There are several dungeon branches, including a
Sokobanis a type of transport puzzle, in which the player pushes boxes or crates around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. The puzzle is usually implemented as a video game....
puzzle and
VladVlad III, Prince of Wallachia , also known by his patronymic Dracula , and posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler , was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans...
's Tower.
Items and tools
NetHack features a variety of items:
weaponA weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
s (either ranged or
meleeMelee , generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual....
),
armorArmour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...
to protect the player;
scrollA scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.Scroll may also refer to:*Scroll , the decoratively curved end of the pegbox of string instruments such as violins...
s and spellbooks to read,
potionA potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...
s to quaff, rings, amulets, and an assortment of
toolA tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such...
s such as keys and lamps.
NetHack
's identification of items is almost identical to
RogueRogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
's. For example, a newly-discovered potion may be referred to as a 'pink potion' with no other clues as to its identity. Players can perform a variety of actions and tricks to deduce, or at least narrow down, the identity of the potion. The most obvious is the somewhat risky tactic of simply drinking it.
Like Rogue, all items of a certain type will have the same description; e.g., all scrolls of enchant weapon may be labeled 'TEMOV', and once one has been identified, all scrolls of enchant weapon found will be labeled unambiguously as such. Starting a new game will scramble the items' descriptions again, so the 'silver ring' that is a ring of levitation in one game might be a ring of hunger in another.
Blessings and curses
As in many other roguelike games, all items in NetHack are either "
blessedA blessing, is the infusion of something with holiness, spiritual redemption, divine will, or one's hope or approval.- Etymology and Germanic paganism :...
", "uncursed", or "
curseA curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...
d". The majority of items are found uncursed, but the blessed or cursed status of an item is unknown until it is identified or detected through other means. The priest character class automatically identifies items as being blessed or cursed.
Generally, a blessed item will be more powerful than an uncursed item, and a cursed item will be less powerful, with the added disadvantage that once it has been equipped by the player, it cannot be easily unequipped. Where an object would bestow an effect upon the character, a curse will generally make the effect harmful, or increase the amount of harm done. There are exceptions, however, which are usually very specific – for example, drinking a cursed potion of gain level will make the character literally rise through the ceiling to the level above.
Character death
Like roguelikes in general, NetHack features
permadeathIn role-playing video games , permanent death is a situation in which player characters die permanently and are removed from the game...
: expired characters cannot be revived without having made backup copies of the actual save files. Players sometimes use the acronyms "YAAD" or "YASD" when discussing their characters' deaths, meaning "Yet Another Annoying Death" or "Yet Another Stupid Death", respectively. 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.
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. Player's attributes (such as resistances, luck and others), conduct and a tally of creatures killed may also be displayed.
The game sporadically saves a level on which a character has died and then integrates that level into a later game. 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 and possessions of many other players, although many of these possessions have become cursed. Players can also swap bones files via programs like Hearse.
Conducts
Although NetHack can be completed by new or intermediate players without any artificial limitations, experienced players can attempt "conducts" for an additional challenge. These are voluntary restrictions on actions taken, such as using no wishes, following a vegetarian or even vegan diet, or even killing no monsters. While in general conducts are tracked by the game and are displayed at death or ascension, unofficial conducts, such as the Zen conduct (in which the player's character wears a blindfold throughout the whole game), also exist within the NetHack community.
Spoilers
NetHack is largely based on discovering secrets and tricks during gameplay. It can take years for one to become well-versed in them, and even experienced players routinely discover new ones. A number of NetHack fansites and discussion forums offer lists of game secrets known as "spoilers". Fans of NetHack consider an ascension without having read spoilers very prestigious; the achievement is so difficult that some question whether it has been or can be accomplished.
Interface
NetHack was originally created with only a simple ASCII
graphical user interfaceIn computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
, although the option to use something more elaborate was added later in its development. Interface elements — environment, entities, and objects — are represented by arrangements of
ASCIIThe American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
or
Extended ASCIIThe term extended ASCII describes eight-bit or larger character encodings that include the standard seven-bit ASCII characters as well as others...
glyphs used in plain text, "
DECDigital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
graphics" or "
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
graphics" mode. In addition to the environment, the interface also displays character and situational information.
A detailed example:
You see here a silver ring.
------------
##....._.....>
|...........# ------
#...........| |....|
--------------- ###------------ |...(|
|..%...........|########## ###-@...|
|...%...........### # ## |....|
+.......<......| ### ### |..!.|
--------------- # # ------
### ###
# #
---.----- ###
|.......| #
|........####
|.......|
|.......|
---------
Hacker the Conjurer St:11 Dx:13 Co:12 In:11 Wi:18 Ch:11 Neutral
Dlvl:3 $:120 HP:39(41) Pw:36(36) AC:6 Exp:5 T:1073 |
The player (The '@' sign, a wizard in this case) has entered the level via the stairs (the '<' sign) and killed a few monsters, leaving their corpses (the '%' signs) behind. Exploring, the wizard has uncovered three rooms joined by corridors (the '#' signs): one with an altar (the '_' sign), another empty, and the final one (that the wizard is currently in) containing a potion (the '!' sign), chest (the '(' sign), and has just moved onto a square containing a silver ring. Large parts of the level remain unexplored (probably to the west through the door (the '+' sign)) and the player has yet to find the down-stairs (a '>' sign) to the next level.
Apart from the original
termcapTermcap is a software library and database used on Unix-like computers. It enables programs to use display computer terminals in a device-independent manner, which greatly simplifies the process of writing portable text mode applications...
interface shown above, there are interfaces that replace standard screen representations with
two-dimensional2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models and by techniques specific to them...
images, or tiles, collectively known as "tiles mode". Graphic interfaces of this kind utilize the
X Window SystemThe X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
, the similar
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
GUI, the
Qt toolkitQt is a cross-platform application framework that is widely used for developing application software with a graphical user interface , and also used for developing non-GUI programs such as command-line tools and consoles for servers...
, or the
GNOMEGNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
libraries.
Enhanced graphical options also exist, such as the
isometric perspectiveIsometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings...
of
Falcon's EyeFalcon's Eye is a version of the computer game NetHack which introduces isometric graphics and mouse control. Falcon's Eye has been praised for improving Nethacks visuals and audio to an almost commercial level and has been noted as among some of the best free games available by Linux...
and Vulture's Eye, or the
three-dimensional3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
rendering that noegnud offers. Vulture's Eye is a
forkIn software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
of the now defunct Falcon's Eye project. Vulture's Eye adds additional graphics, sounds, bug fixes and performance enhancements and is under active development in an open collaborative environment.
Online
Bugs, humorous messages, stories, experiences, and ideas for the next version are discussed on the
UsenetUsenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroupA usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
rec.games.roguelike.nethack.
A public server at nethack.alt.org, commonly known as NAO, gives access to NetHack through a
TelnetTelnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...
interface. A Java
TelnetTelnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...
emulator is also available on the same site. Ebonhack connects to NAO with a graphical tiles-based interface.
NetHack also has an IRC channel, #nethack, on the
Freenodefreenode, formerly known as Open Projects Network, is an IRC network used to discuss peer-directed projects. Their servers are all accessible from the domain name [irc://chat.freenode.net chat.freenode.net], which load balances connections by using the actual servers in rotation...
network. Many people discuss the game there, and the resident announcer bot, "Rodney", notifies of every death, ascension and wish that occurs on the NAO server. Rodney can also announce full and new moons, as well as providing a substantial database of information which players can access with commands.
Ports and variants
Unofficial
portsIn computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
exist for the
Nintendo DSThe is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
,
PlayStation PortableThe is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
,
Tapwave ZodiacThe Zodiac is a mobile entertainment console, launched on 5 May 2003, and released in October 2003 by Tapwave, a former private company that was based in Mountain View, California....
,
GP2XThe GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on November 10, 2005, in South Korea only....
,
Windows MobileWindows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...
, Android, Nokia Internet Tablets 770, N800 and up and
iPhoneThe iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
.
One popular variant of NetHack is
Slash'EMSlash'EM is a variant of the roguelike game NetHack that offers extra features, monsters, and items...
, which includes several enhanced features.
SporkHack and UnNetHack
are actively developed
variantsBranching, in revision control and software configuration management, is the duplication of an object under revision control so that modifications can happen in parallel along both branches....
.
External links
- NetHack Official Site
- A Guide to the Mazes of Menace (Guidebook for NetHack) by Eric S. Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond , often referred to as ESR, is an American computer programmer, author and open source software advocate. After the 1997 publication of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Raymond was for a number of years frequently quoted as an unofficial spokesman for the open source movement...
- Hall of Fame – NetHack at GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...