1 NetHack History file for release 3.4
3 Behold, mortal, the origins of NetHack...
5 Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack with help from Kenny Woodland,
6 Mike Thome, and Jon Payne.
8 Andries Brouwer did a major re-write, transforming Hack into a very different
9 game, and published (at least) three versions (1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3) for
10 UNIX(tm) machines to the Usenet.
12 Don G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft(tm) C and MS-DOS(tm), producing
13 PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC Rainbow graphics in version 1.03g, and
14 went on to produce at least four more versions (3.0, 3.2, 3.51, and 3.6).
16 R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to Lattice(tm) C and the Atari 520/1040ST,
17 producing ST Hack 1.03.
19 Mike Stephenson merged these various versions back together, incorporating
20 many of the added features, and produced NetHack version 1.4. He then
21 coordinated a cast of thousands in enhancing and debugging NetHack 1.4 and
22 released NetHack versions 2.2 and 2.3.
24 Later, Mike coordinated a major rewrite of the game, heading a team which
25 included Ken Arromdee, Jean-Christophe Collet, Steve Creps, Eric Hendrickson,
26 Izchak Miller, Eric S. Raymond, John Rupley, Mike Threepoint, and Janet Walz,
27 to produce NetHack 3.0c. The same group subsequently released ten patch-
28 level revisions and updates of 3.0.
30 NetHack 3.0 was ported to the Atari by Eric R. Smith, to OS/2 by Timo
31 Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel. The three of them and Kevin Darcy
32 later joined the main development team to produce subsequent revisions of
35 Olaf Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga. Norm Meluch, Stephen
36 Spackman and Pierre Martineau designed overlay code for PC NetHack 3.0.
37 Johnny Lee ported NetHack 3.0 to the Macintosh. Along with various other
38 Dungeoneers, they continued to enhance the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports
39 through the later revisions of 3.0.
41 Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller and Janet Walz,
42 the development team which now included Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs,
43 Jean-Christophe Collet, Kevin Darcy, Matt Day, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart,
44 Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Raymond, and Eric Smith undertook a radical
45 revision of 3.0. They re-structured the game's design, and re-wrote major
46 parts of the code. They added multiple dungeons, a new display, special
47 individual character quests, a new endgame and many other new features, and
50 Ken Lorber, Gregg Wonderly and Greg Olson, with help from Richard Addison,
51 Mike Passaretti, and Olaf Seibert, developed NetHack 3.1 for the Amiga.
53 Norm Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl Schelin, Stephen
54 Spackman, Steve VanDevender, and Paul Winner, ported NetHack 3.1 to the PC.
56 Jon W{tte and Hao-yang Wang, with help from Ross Brown, Mike Engber, David
57 Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan Handler, Johnny Lee, Tim Lennan, Rob Menke,
58 and Andy Swanson developed NetHack 3.1 for the Macintosh, porting it for
59 MPW. Building on their development, Barton House added a Think C port.
61 Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2. Eric Smith ported NetHack 3.1
62 to the Atari. Pat Rankin, with help from Joshua Delahunty, is responsible
63 for the VMS version of NetHack 3.1. Michael Allison ported NetHack 3.1 to
66 Dean Luick, with help from David Cohrs, developed NetHack 3.1 for X11.
67 Warwick Allison wrote a tiled version of NetHack for the Atari;
68 he later contributed the tiles to the DevTeam and tile support was
69 then added to other platforms.
71 The 3.2 development team, comprised of Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David
72 Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin Darcy, Timo Hakulinen, Steve
73 Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and
74 Paul Winner, released version 3.2 in April of 1996.
76 Version 3.2 marked the tenth anniversary of the formation of the development
77 team. In a testament to their dedication to the game, all thirteen members
78 of the original development team remained on the team at the start of work
79 on that release. During the interval between the release of 3.1.3 and 3.2,
80 one of the founding members of the development team, Dr. Izchak Miller,
81 passed away. That release of the game was dedicated to him by the
82 development and porting teams.
84 Version 3.2 proved to be more stable than previous versions. Many bugs
85 were fixed, abuses eliminated, and game features tuned for better game
88 During the lifespan of NetHack 3.1 and 3.2, several enthusiasts of the game
89 added their own modifications to the game and made these "variants" publicly
92 Tom Proudfoot and Yuval Oren created NetHack++, which was quickly renamed
93 NetHack--. Working independently, Stephen White wrote NetHack Plus.
94 Tom Proudfoot later merged NetHack Plus and his own NetHack-- to produce
95 SLASH. Larry Stewart-Zerba and Warwick Allison improved the spellcasting
96 system with the Wizard Patch. Warwick Allison also ported NetHack to use
99 Warren Cheung combined SLASH with the Wizard Patch to produce Slash'em, and
100 with the help of Kevin Hugo, added more features. Kevin later joined the
101 DevTeam and incorporated the best of these ideas in NetHack 3.3.
103 The final update to 3.2 was the bug fix release 3.2.3, which was released
104 simultaneously with 3.3.0 in December 1999 just in time for the Year 2000.
106 The 3.3 development team, consisting of Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee,
107 David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin Darcy, Timo Hakulinen,
108 Kevin Hugo, Steve Linhart, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Smith,
109 Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner, released 3.3.0 in
110 December 1999 and 3.3.1 in August of 2000.
112 Version 3.3 offered many firsts. It was the first version to separate race
113 and profession. The Elf class was removed in preference to an elf race,
114 and the races of dwarves, gnomes, and orcs made their first appearance in
115 the game alongside the familiar human race. Monk and Ranger roles joined
116 Archeologists, Barbarians, Cavemen, Healers, Knights, Priests, Rogues,
117 Samurai, Tourists, Valkyries and of course, Wizards. It was also the first
118 version to allow you to ride a steed, and was the first version to have a
119 publicly available web-site listing all the bugs that had been discovered.
120 Despite that constantly growing bug list, 3.3 proved stable enough to last
121 for more than a year and a half.
124 The 3.4 development team initially consisted of Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee,
125 David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Kevin Hugo, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin,
126 Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner, with Warwick Allison joining
127 just before the release of NetHack 3.4.0 in March 2002.
129 As with version 3.3, various people contributed to the game as a whole as
130 well as supporting ports on the different platforms that NetHack runs on:
132 Pat Rankin maintained 3.4 for VMS.
134 Michael Allison maintained NetHack 3.4 for the MS-DOS platform.
135 Paul Winner and Yitzhak Sapir provided encouragement.
137 Dean Luick, Mark Modrall, and Kevin Hugo maintained and enhanced the
138 Macintosh port of 3.4.
140 Michael Allison, David Cohrs, Alex Kompel, Dion Nicolaas, and Yitzhak Sapir
141 maintained and enhanced 3.4 for the Microsoft Windows platform. Alex Kompel
142 contributed a new graphical interface for the Windows port. Alex Kompel also
143 contributed a Windows CE port for 3.4.1.
145 Ron Van Iwaarden maintained 3.4 for OS/2.
147 Janne Salmijarvi and Teemu Suikki maintained and enhanced the
148 Amiga port of 3.4 after Janne Salmijarvi resurrected it for 3.3.1.
150 Christian `Marvin' Bressler maintained 3.4 for the Atari after he
151 resurrected it for 3.3.1.
153 There is a NetHack web site maintained by Ken Lorber at http://www.nethack.org/.
157 From time to time, some depraved individual out there in netland sends a
158 particularly intriguing modification to help out with the game. The Gods of
159 the Dungeon sometimes make note of the names of the worst of these miscreants
160 in this, the list of Dungeoneers:
162 Adam Aronow Izchak Miller Mike Stephenson
163 Alex Kompel J. Ali Harlow Norm Meluch
164 Andreas Dorn Janet Walz Olaf Seibert
165 Andy Church Janne Salmijarvi Pasi Kallinen
166 Andy Swanson Jean-Christophe Collet Pat Rankin
167 Ari Huttunen Jochen Erwied Paul Winner
168 Barton House John Kallen Pierre Martineau
169 Benson I. Margulies John Rupley Ralf Brown
170 Bill Dyer John S. Bien Ray Chason
171 Boudewijn Waijers Johnny Lee Richard Addison
172 Bruce Cox Jon W{tte Richard Beigel
173 Bruce Holloway Jonathan Handler Richard P. Hughey
174 Bruce Mewborne Joshua Delahunty Rob Menke
175 Carl Schelin Keizo Yamamoto Robin Johnson
176 Chris Russo Ken Arnold Roderick Schertler
177 David Cohrs Ken Arromdee Roland McGrath
178 David Damerell Ken Lorber Ron Van Iwaarden
179 David Gentzel Ken Washikita Ronnen Miller
180 David Hairston Kevin Darcy Ross Brown
181 Dean Luick Kevin Hugo Sascha Wostmann
182 Del Lamb Kevin Sitze Scott Bigham
183 Deron Meranda Kevin Smolkowski Scott R. Turner
184 Dion Nicolaas Kevin Sweet Stephen Spackman
185 Dylan O'Donnell Lars Huttar Stephen White
186 Eric Backus Malcolm Ryan Steve Creps
187 Eric Hendrickson Mark Gooderum Steve Linhart
188 Eric R. Smith Mark Modrall Steve VanDevender
189 Eric S. Raymond Marvin Bressler Teemu Suikki
190 Erik Andersen Matthew Day Tim Lennan
191 Frederick Roeber Merlyn LeRoy Timo Hakulinen
192 Gil Neiger Michael Allison Tom Almy
193 Greg Laskin Michael Feir Tom West
194 Greg Olson Michael Hamel Warren Cheung
195 Gregg Wonderly Michael Sokolov Warwick Allison
196 Hao-yang Wang Mike Engber Yitzhak Sapir
197 Helge Hafting Mike Gallop
198 Irina Rempt-Drijfhout Mike Passaretti