1SLASHEM(6) Games Manual SLASHEM(6)
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6 slashem - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
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9 slashem [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ] [
10 -g gender ] [ -a alignment ] [ -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [
11 -ibm ]
12 slashem [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ]
14 [ -g gender ] [ -a alignment ] [ maxrank ] [ playernames ]
15
17 SLASH'EM is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game. The
18 standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue. It is an
19 extension of SLASH which is an extension of NetHack.
20 Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using either a
22 PC, or an X11 interface.
23 To get started you really only need to know two commands. The command
25 ? will give you a list of the available commands (as well as other
26 information) and the command / will identify the things you see on the
27 screen.
28 To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people's
30 high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere
31 below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out. Nobody has
32 achieved this yet; anybody who does will probably go down in history as
33 a hero among heros.
34 When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from
36 the caves, SLASH'EM will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scor‐
37 ers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior, but a
38 rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in
39 the cave plus four times your (real) experience. Precious stones may
40 be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit. There is a 10%
41 penalty for getting yourself killed.
42 The environment variable SLASHEMOPTIONS can be used to initialize many
44 run-time options. The ? command provides a description of these
45 options and syntax. (The -dec and -ibm command line options are equiv‐
46 alent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-time options described
47 there, and are provided purely for convenience on systems supporting
48 multiple types of terminals.)
49 Because the option list can be very long (particularly when specifying
51 graphics characters), options may also be included in a configuration
52 file. The default is located in your home directory and named
53 .slashemrc on Unix systems. On other systems, the default may be dif‐
54 ferent, usually SLASHEM.cnf. On DOS or Windows, the name is
55 defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it is SlashEM Defaults.
56 The configuration file's location may be specified by setting SLASHE‐
57 MOPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ character followed by the file‐
58 name.
59 The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are
61 you?". It overrides any name from the options or configuration file,
62 USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will otherwise be tried in order.
63 If none of these provides a useful name, the player will be asked for
64 one. Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to identify save
65 files, so you can have several saved games under different names. Con‐
66 versely, you must use the appropriate player name to restore a saved
67 game.
68 A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race, align‐
70 ment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of the playername
71 that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg". "ppp" are at least
72 the first three letters of the profession (this can also be specified
73 using a separate -p profession option). "rrr" are at least the first
74 three letters of the character's race (this can also be specified using
75 a separate -r race option). "aaa" are at last the first three letters
76 of the character's alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three
77 letters of the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix may
78 be left out.
79 -p profession can be used to determine the character role. You can
81 specify either the male or female name for the character role, or the
82 first three characters of the role as an abbreviation. -p @ has been
83 retained to explicitly request that a random role be chosen. It may
84 need to be quoted with a backslash (\@) if @ is the "kill" character
85 (see "stty") for the terminal, in order to prevent the current input
86 line from being cleared.
87 Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be cho‐
89 sen, -g gender the gender of the chareacter and finally -a alignment to
90 chose the alignment of the character.
91 Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being
93 prompted during the game startup for the information.
94 Instead of chosing the above seperately you can add them as suffixes to
96 the playername: -u playername-race-gender-alignment
97 The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores on the cur‐
99 rent version. An immediately following -v reports on all versions
100 present in the score file. The -s may be also be followed by player
101 type arguments ( -p , -r , -g and -a ) to print the scores of particu‐
102 lar types of players only. It may also be followed by one or more
103 player names to print the scores of the players mentioned, by 'all' to
104 print out all scores, or by a number to print that many top scores.
105 The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game administra‐
107 tor.
108 The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring dis‐
110 covery mode. -D will, if the player is the game administrator, start
111 in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
112 The -d option, which must be the first argument if it appears, supplies
114 a directory which is to serve as the playground. It overrides the
115 value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game
116 administrator during compilation (usually /usr/local/slashemdir). This
117 option is usually only useful to the game administrator. The play‐
118 ground must contain several auxiliary files such as help files, the
119 list of top scorers, and a subdirectory save where games are saved.
120
122 Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
123 original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
124 Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an entirely
126 different game.
127 Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding various
129 warped character classes and sadistic traps with the help of many
130 strange people who reside in that place between the worlds, the Usenet
131 Zone. A number of these miscreants are immortalized in the historical
132 roll of dishonor and various other places.
133 The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its development by
135 the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this request for the distinction,
136 as he may eventually release a new version of his own.
137 Tom Proudfoot took NetHack and rendered it into SLASH - SuperLot‐
139 saAddedStuffHack, adding more character classes, levels monsters and
140 all manner of changes.
141 Warren Cheung took SLASH and rendered it into SLASHEM - SuperLot‐
143 saAddedStuffHack - Extended Magic, with more improvements to the
144 bloated behemoth.
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147 All files are in the playground, normally /usr/local/slashemdir. If
148 DLB was defined during the compile, the data files and special levels
149 will be inside a larger file, normally nhdat, instead of being separate
150 files.
151 slashem The program itself.
152 data, oracles, rumors Data files used by SLASH'EM.
153 options, quest.dat More data files.
154 help, hh Help data files.
155 cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp More help data files.
156 *.lev Predefined special levels.
157 dungeon Control file for special levels.
158 history A short history of SLASH'EM.
159 license Rules governing redistribution.
160 record The list of top scorers.
161 logfile An extended list of games
162 played.
163 xlock.nnn Description of a dungeon level.
164 perm Lock file for xlock.dd.
165 bonesDD.nn Descriptions of the ghost and
166 belongings of a deceased
167 adventurer.
168 save A subdirectory containing the
169 saved games.
170
172 USER or LOGNAME Your login name.
173 HOME Your home directory.
174 SHELL Your shell.
175 TERM The type of your terminal.
176 HACKPAGER or PAGER Replacement for default pager.
177 MAIL Mailbox file.
178 MAILREADER Replacement for default reader
179 (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
180 NETHACKDIR Playground.
181 SLASHEMOPTIONS String predefining several SLASH'EM
182 options.
183 In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
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187 dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
188
190 Probably infinite.
191 Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
1954th Berkeley Distribution 24 March 2002 SLASHEM(6)