NetHack Video game left in 1987, whose name does not mean that he is played in network, but that he was conceived ( hacked ) in network ( Net ): it is the result of a groupware via Internet.

It belongs to the big family of the Rogue-like and is a Free software.

At the origin, Nethack comes from Hack (left in 1985), itself following Rogue (1980) . NetHack in the same way knows several descents, of which Donjon Hack , a commercial attempt, but especially Slash' EM ( S uper L ots off has dded S tuff H ack - E xtended M agic). But the principal branch of NetHack (known as version vanilla , i.e. with the basic taste) is always active.

Presentation

The player is invited to choose a class, a Race and a alignment, and sees himself allotting an pet which helps it in its progression. The god assigns with the character to recover the Amulette of Yendor in the oubliettes. It is thus necessary to go down, to find the Magician of Yendor, to take the Amulet to him (whose port complicates the existence seriously) and to go up, with 5 levels additional at the end. It is said whereas one carried out a rise , because the gods will raise with the row of demigod the hero who will have achieved this task.

Alignment makes it possible to know which god supports you, which can save the character more once. Once death occurs, the character cannot be recovered any more, it is what makes the play extremely difficult. And there are many manners of trespassing. It is also necessary to eat, not to die of hunger, but by taking care to avoid all the traps and poisons which one can find… Acronym YASD ( Yet Another Stupid Death , still a stupid death) is used much more than YAAP ( Yet Another Ascension Post , still a rise sent the mailing list).

A player beginning seldom exceeds some levels (on 50). There is little case of players having finished the play in less than one year, even by consulting the spoilers .

NetHack is a play made particularly rich by the imagination of the developers, the DevTeam . The usual proverb is DevTeam thinks of all ; indeed, all the cases of figure are studied, and there is much of it, considering the possibilities of the play. For example, to try to pour a potion in itself would produce

That has potion bottle, not has Klein bottle!

The DevTeam included in the set of many very varied monsters, of many objects and fates.

The sex of the character especially counts in the relations with the Incube S and Succube S met on the way.

ASCII

The purists play in ASCII mode - what leaves a very big part to imagination. The character @ is the representation of your character in the labyrinth, and the monsters are represented by using all the letters of the alphabet, coded by color. Examples: a is an insect, d is a dog, D is a dragon, j is a frost, Z a zombie or death-alive, k a kobold etc

In the same way, the objects to be collected (treasures) are represented by characters, generally of punctuation. Examples: ? is a parchment, = is a ring or an amulet, ^ is a trap, etc

If the ASCII does not try you, it is possible to charge a set of icons ( tileset ). In fact there exist many sets of icons of sizes varied which can be downloaded free and installed.

Interactions with the Operating system

Certain mechanisms of NetHack are influenced by the date and the hour. Thus, the phases of the moon and the moment of the day modify some rules of the game.

If your Email is stored by your operating system, and that email is sent to you during part of NetHack , a demon (a reference to the demons of Unix) will bring a parchment to you. To see this parchment will launch your messaging software.

When a character dies, it happens that the level in which he is safeguarded, to be inserted later in another part. Be wary, these bones levels (level-skeletons) is at the same time interesting and dangerous: if the richnesses and the equipment (very often cursed) of your unhappy predecessor are still there, its murderer and his phantom await you too them!

At the age of the personal computers, some of these functionalities are ineffective. To mitigate this disadvantage, there exist public waiters making it possible to play in an environment multi-user; like NetHack is satisfied with simple a final in mode text, a customer telnet is enough to connect itself to it. In the same way, the Logiciel Hearse makes it possible to exchange bones levels with other players by Internet.

Spoilers

The spoilers of NetHack are a database which developed evolution of the play progressively. The play being free, it is possible to go to excavate in the sources in the search of information, contrary to ADOM for example. Certain players prefer to explore by themselves the play, from where precautions used by the others not to waste this pleasure to them.

External bonds

• Official site (remote loading & infos)

• Group Usenet rec.games.roguelike.net hack
• guide of the beginner with NetHack
• another tutorial
• a public waiter to play NetHack
• Hearse, a software to exchange bones levels
• Dudley' S Dungeon, a daily comic strip based on Nethack
• a wiki on NetHack

Random links:

772 | Inflorescence | James Baker | Base the Antarctic Vostok | Canton of Cergy-South