1NETHACK(6) Games Manual NETHACK(6)
2
6 nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
7
9 nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ] [
10 -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]
11 nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ]
13 [ playernames ]
14
16 NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game. The
17 standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
18 Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using either a
20 PC, or an X11 interface.
21 To get started you really only need to know two commands. The command
23 ? will give you a list of the available commands (as well as other
24 information) and the command / will identify the things you see on the
25 screen.
26 To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people's
28 high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere
29 below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out. Nobody has
30 achieved this yet; anybody who does will probably go down in history as
31 a hero among heros.
32 When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from
34 the caves, NetHack will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scor‐
35 ers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior, but a
36 rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in
37 the cave plus four times your (real) experience. Precious stones may
38 be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit. There is a 10%
39 penalty for getting yourself killed.
40 The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to initialize many
42 run-time options. The ? command provides a description of these
43 options and syntax. (The -dec and -ibm command line options are equiv‐
44 alent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-time options described
45 there, and are provided purely for convenience on systems supporting
46 multiple types of terminals.)
47 Because the option list can be very long (particularly when specifying
49 graphics characters), options may also be included in a configuration
50 file. The default is located in your home directory and named
51 .nethackrc on Unix systems. On other systems, the default may be dif‐
52 ferent, usually NetHack.cnf. On DOS or Windows, the name is
53 defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it is NetHack Defaults.
54 The configuration file's location may be specified by setting NETHACK‐
55 OPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ character followed by the file‐
56 name.
57 The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are
59 you?". It overrides any name from the options or configuration file,
60 USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will otherwise be tried in order.
61 If none of these provides a useful name, the player will be asked for
62 one. Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to identify save
63 files, so you can have several saved games under different names. Con‐
64 versely, you must use the appropriate player name to restore a saved
65 game.
66 A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race, align‐
68 ment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of the playername
69 that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg". "ppp" are at least
70 the first three letters of the profession (this can also be specified
71 using a separate -p profession option). "rrr" are at least the first
72 three letters of the character's race (this can also be specified using
73 a separate -r race option). "aaa" are at last the first three letters
74 of the character's alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three
75 letters of the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix may
76 be left out.
77 -p profession can be used to determine the character role. You can
79 specify either the male or female name for the character role, or the
80 first three characters of the role as an abbreviation. -p @ has been
81 retained to explicitly request that a random role be chosen. It may
82 need to be quoted with a backslash (\@) if @ is the "kill" character
83 (see "stty") for the terminal, in order to prevent the current input
84 line from being cleared.
85 Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be cho‐
87 sen.
88 Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being
90 prompted during the game startup for the information.
91 The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores on the cur‐
93 rent version. An immediately following -v reports on all versions
94 present in the score file. The -s may also be followed by arguments -p
95 and -r to print the scores of particular roles and races only. It may
96 also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the
97 players mentioned, by 'all' to print out all scores, or by a number to
98 print that many top scores.
99 The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game administra‐
101 tor.
102 The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring dis‐
104 covery mode. -D will, if the player is the game administrator, start
105 in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
106 The -d option, which must be the first argument if it appears, supplies
108 a directory which is to serve as the playground. It overrides the
109 value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game
110 administrator during compilation (usually /usr/games/vulturesclaw).
111 This option is usually only useful to the game administrator. The
112 playground must contain several auxiliary files such as help files, the
113 list of top scorers, and a subdirectory save where games are saved.
114
116 Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
117 original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
118 Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an entirely
120 different game.
121 Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding various
123 warped character classes and sadistic traps with the help of many
124 strange people who reside in that place between the worlds, the Usenet
125 Zone. A number of these miscreants are immortalized in the historical
126 roll of dishonor and various other places.
127 The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its development by
129 the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this request for the distinction,
130 as he may eventually release a new version of his own.
131
133 All files are in the playground, normally /usr/games/vulturesclaw. If
134 DLB was defined during the compile, the data files and special levels
135 will be inside a larger file, normally nhdat, instead of being separate
136 files.
137 nethack The program itself.
138 data, oracles, rumors Data files used by NetHack.
139 options, quest.dat More data files.
140 help, hh Help data files.
141 cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp More help data files.
142 *.lev Predefined special levels.
143 dungeon Control file for special levels.
144 history A short history of NetHack.
145 license Rules governing redistribution.
146 record The list of top scorers.
147 logfile An extended list of games
148 played.
149 xlock.nnn Description of a dungeon level.
150 perm Lock file for xlock.dd.
151 bonesDD.nn Descriptions of the ghost and
152 belongings of a deceased
153 adventurer.
154 save A subdirectory containing the
155 saved games.
156
158 USER or LOGNAME Your login name.
159 HOME Your home directory.
160 SHELL Your shell.
161 TERM The type of your terminal.
162 HACKPAGER or PAGER Replacement for default pager.
163 MAIL Mailbox file.
164 MAILREADER Replacement for default reader
165 (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
166 NETHACKDIR Playground.
167 NETHACKOPTIONS String predefining several NetHack
168 options.
169 In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
171
173 dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
174
176 Probably infinite.
177 Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
1814th Berkeley Distribution 9 August 2002 NETHACK(6)