NETHACK(6) 1999 NETHACK(6)
NAME
nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
SYNOPSIS
nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role) ] [
-r race ] [ -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]
nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role) ]
[ -r race ] [ playernames ]
DESCRIPTION
NetHack 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, NetHack 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 -dec and -ibm
command line options are equivalent to the decgraphics and
ibmgraphics 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 the name is defaults.nh, while on the
Macintosh or BeOS, it is NetHack Defaults. The
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NETHACK(6) 1999 NETHACK(6)
configuration file's location may be specified by setting
NETHACKOPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ character fol-
lowed by the filename.
The -u playername 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 playername suffix or a separate option, -p profession can
be used to determine the character role. You can specify
either the male or female name for the character role, or
the first three characters of the role as an abbreviation.
-p @ 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 ter-
minal, in order to prevent the current input line from being
cleared.
Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a
race be chosen.
Leaving out either of these will result in you being
prompted during the game startup for the information.
The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores
on the current version. An immediately following -v reports
on all versions present in the score file. The -s may also
be followed by arguments -p and -r 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.
The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game
administrator.
The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-
scoring discovery mode. -D will, if the player is the game
administrator, start in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
The -d 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.
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NETHACK(6) 1999 NETHACK(6)
The playground must contain several auxiliary files such as
help files, the list of top scorers, and a subdirectory save
where games are saved.
AUTHORS
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.
FILES
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.
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.
ENVIRONMENT
USER or LOGNAME Your login name.
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NETHACK(6) 1999 NETHACK(6)
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.
SEE ALSO
dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
BUGS
Probably infinite.
Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of TSR Inc.
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