1NETHACK(6)                       Games Manual                       NETHACK(6)
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NAME

6       nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
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SYNOPSIS

9       nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ] [
10       -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]
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12       nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ]
13       [ playernames ]
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DESCRIPTION

16       NetHack  is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game.  The
17       standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
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19       Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using  either  a
20       PC, or an X11 interface.
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22       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.
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27       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.
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33       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.
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41       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.)
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48       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.
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58       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.
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67       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.
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78       -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.
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86       Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be cho‐
87       sen.
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89       Leaving out any of these  characteristics  will  result  in  you  being
90       prompted during the game startup for the information.
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92       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.
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100       The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game administra‐
101       tor.
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103       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.
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107       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/nethack-3.4.3).
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.
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AUTHORS

116       Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and  Jon  Payne)  wrote  the
117       original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
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119       Andries  Brouwer  continuously  deformed their sources into an entirely
120       different game.
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122       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.
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128       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.
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FILES

133       All files are in the playground, normally /usr/games/nethack-3.4.3.  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.
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ENVIRONMENT

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.
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170       In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
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SEE ALSO

173       dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
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BUGS

176       Probably infinite.
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180       Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
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1844th Berkeley Distribution        9 August 2002                      NETHACK(6)
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