6 nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
9 nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [
10 -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]
12 nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ]
16 NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game.
17 The standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
19 Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using
20 either a PC, or an X11 interface.
22 To get started you really only need to know two commands. The
23 command ? will give you a list of the available commands (as
24 well as other information) and the command / will identify the
25 things you see on the screen.
27 To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other peo-
28 ple's high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is
29 somewhere below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out.
30 Nobody has achieved this yet; anybody who does will probably go
31 down in history as a hero among heroes.
33 When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping
34 from the caves, NetHack will give you (a fragment of) the list of
35 top scorers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behav-
36 ior, but a rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of
37 gold you've found in the cave plus four times your (real) experi-
38 ence. Precious stones may be worth a lot of gold when brought to
39 the exit. There is a 10% penalty for getting yourself killed.
41 The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to initialize
42 many run-time options. The ? command provides a description of
43 these options and syntax. (The -dec and -ibm command line
44 options are equivalent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-
45 time options described there, and are provided purely for conve-
46 nience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.)
48 Because the option list can be very long (particularly when spec-
49 ifying graphics characters), options may also be included in a
50 configuration file. The default is located in your home direc-
51 tory and named .nethackrc on Unix systems. On other systems, the
52 default may be different, usually NetHack.cnf. On DOS or Win-
53 dows, the name is defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it
54 is NetHack Defaults. The configuration file's location may be
55 specified by setting NETHACKOPTIONS to a string consisting of an
56 @ character followed by the filename.
58 The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who
59 are you?". It overrides any name from the options or configura-
60 tion file, USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will otherwise be
61 tried in order. If none of these provides a useful name, the
62 player will be asked for one. Player names (in conjunction with
63 uids) are used to identify save files, so you can have several
64 saved games under different names. Conversely, you must use the
65 appropriate player name to restore a saved game.
67 A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race,
68 alignment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of the
69 playername that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg".
70 "ppp" are at least the first three letters of the profession
71 (this can also be specified using a separate -p profession
72 option). "rrr" are at least the first three letters of the char-
73 acter's race (this can also be specified using a separate -r race
74 option). "aaa" are at last the first three letters of the char-
75 acter's alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three letters
76 of the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix may be
79 -p profession can be used to determine the character profession,
80 also known as the role. You can specify either the male or female
81 name for the character role, or the first three characters of the
82 role as an abbreviation. -p @ has been retained to explicitly
83 request that a random role be chosen. It may need to be quoted
84 with a backslash (\@) if @ is the "kill" character (see "stty")
85 for the terminal, in order to prevent the current input line from
88 Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race
91 Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being
92 prompted during the game startup for the information.
95 The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores on the
96 current version. An immediately following -v reports on all ver-
97 sions present in the score file. The -s may also be followed by
98 arguments -p and -r to print the scores of particular roles and
99 races only. It may also be followed by one or more player names
100 to print the scores of the players mentioned, by 'all' to print
101 out all scores, or by a number to print that many top scores.
103 The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game
106 The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring
107 discovery mode. -D will, if the player is the game administra-
108 tor, start in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
110 The -d option, which must be the first argument if it appears,
111 supplies a directory which is to serve as the playground. It
112 overrides the value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory
113 specified by the game administrator during compilation (usually
114 /usr/games/lib/nethackdir). This option is usually only useful
115 to the game administrator. The playground must contain several
116 auxiliary files such as help files, the list of top scorers, and
117 a subdirectory save where games are saved.
120 Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote
121 the original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
123 Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an
124 entirely different game.
126 Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding
127 various warped character classes and sadistic traps with the help
128 of many strange people who reside in that place between the
129 worlds, the Usenet Zone. A number of these miscreants are immor-
130 talized in the historical roll of dishonor and various other
133 The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its develop-
134 ment by the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this request for
135 the distinction, as he may eventually release a new version of
139 All files are in the playground, normally
140 /usr/games/lib/nethackdir. If DLB was defined during the com-
141 pile, the data files and special levels will be inside a larger
142 file, normally nhdat, instead of being separate files.
143 nethack The program itself.
144 data, oracles, rumors Data files used by NetHack.
145 options, quest.dat More data files.
146 help, hh Help data files.
147 cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp More help data files.
148 *.lev Predefined special levels.
149 dungeon Control file for special levels.
150 history A short history of NetHack.
151 license Rules governing redistribution.
152 record The list of top scorers.
153 logfile An extended list of games
155 xlock.nnn Description of a dungeon level.
156 perm Lock file for xlock.dd.
157 bonesDD.nn Descriptions of the ghost and
158 belongings of a deceased
160 save A subdirectory containing the
164 USER or LOGNAME Your login name.
165 HOME Your home directory.
167 TERM The type of your terminal.
168 HACKPAGER or PAGER Replacement for default pager.
170 MAILREADER Replacement for default reader
171 (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
172 NETHACKDIR Playground.
173 NETHACKOPTIONS String predefining several NetHack
176 In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
179 dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
186 Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
190 6 March 2004 NETHACK(6)