-NETHACK(6) NETHACK(6)
+NETHACK(6) NETHACK(6)
nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
SYNOPSIS
- nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role) ] [
- -r race ] [ -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]
+ nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [
+ -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]
- nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role)
- ] [ -r race ] [ playernames ]
+ nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ]
+ [ playernames ]
DESCRIPTION
- NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) -
- like game. The standard tty display and command structure
- resemble rogue.
-
- Other, more graphical display options exist if you are
- using either a PC, or an X11 interface.
-
- To get started you really only need to know two commands.
- The command ? will give you a list of the available com-
- mands (as well as other information) and the command /
- will identify the things you see on the screen.
-
- To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat
- other people's high scores) you must locate the Amulet of
- Yendor which is somewhere below the 20th level of the dun-
- geon and get it out. Nobody has achieved this yet; any-
- body who does will probably go down in history as a hero
- among heros.
-
- When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or
- escaping from the caves, NetHack will give you (a fragment
- of) the list of top scorers. The scoring is based on many
- aspects of your behavior, but a rough estimate is obtained
- by taking the amount of gold you've found in the cave plus
- four times your (real) experience. Precious stones may be
- worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit. There is a
- 10% penalty for getting yourself killed.
-
- The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to
- initialize many run-time options. The ? command provides
- a description of these options and syntax. (The -dec and
- -ibm command line options are equivalent to the decgraph-
- ics and ibmgraphics run-time options described there, and
- are provided purely for convenience on systems supporting
- multiple types of terminals.)
-
- Because the option list can be very long (particularly
- when specifying graphics characters), options may also be
- included in a configuration file. The default is located
- in your home directory and named .nethackrc on Unix sys-
- tems. On other systems, the default may be different,
- usually NetHack.cnf. On DOS or Windows, the name is
- defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it is NetHack
- Defaults. The configuration file's location may be speci-
- fied by setting NETHACKOPTIONS to a string consisting of
- an @ character followed by the filename.
-
- The -u playername option supplies the answer to the ques-
- tion "Who are you?". It overrides any name from the
- options or configuration file, USER, LOGNAME, or getlo-
- gin(), which will otherwise be tried in order. If none of
- these provides a useful name, the player will be asked for
- one. Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to
- identify save files, so you can have several saved games
- under different names. Conversely, you must use the
+ NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game.
+ The standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
+
+ Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using
+ either a PC, or an X11 interface.
+
+ To get started you really only need to know two commands. The
+ command ? will give you a list of the available commands (as
+ well as other information) and the command / will identify the
+ things you see on the screen.
+
+ To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other peo-
+ ple's high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is
+ somewhere below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out.
+ Nobody has achieved this yet; anybody who does will probably go
+ down in history as a hero among heroes.
+
+ When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping
+ from the caves, NetHack will give you (a fragment of) the list of
+ top scorers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behav-
+ ior, but a rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of
+ gold you've found in the cave plus four times your (real) experi-
+ ence. Precious stones may be worth a lot of gold when brought to
+ the exit. There is a 10% penalty for getting yourself killed.
+
+ The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to initialize
+ many run-time options. The ? command provides a description of
+ these options and syntax. (The -dec and -ibm command line
+ options are equivalent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-
+ time options described there, and are provided purely for conve-
+ nience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.)
+
+ Because the option list can be very long (particularly when spec-
+ ifying graphics characters), options may also be included in a
+ configuration file. The default is located in your home direc-
+ tory and named .nethackrc on Unix systems. On other systems, the
+ default may be different, usually NetHack.cnf. On DOS or Win-
+ dows, the name is defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it
+ is NetHack Defaults. The configuration file's location may be
+ specified by setting NETHACKOPTIONS to a string consisting of an
+ @ character followed by the filename.
+
+ The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who
+ are you?". It overrides any name from the options or configura-
+ tion file, USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will otherwise be
+ tried in order. If none of these provides a useful name, the
+ player will be asked for one. Player names (in conjunction with
+ uids) are used to identify save files, so you can have several
+ saved games under different names. Conversely, you must use the
appropriate player name to restore a saved game.
- A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession,
- race, alignment and/or gender of the character. The full
- syntax of the playername that includes a suffix is "name-
- ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg". "ppp" are at least the first three let-
- ters of the profession (this can also be specified using a
- separate -p profession option). "rrr" are at least the
- first three letters of the character's race (this can also
- be specified using a separate -r race option). "aaa" are
- at last the first three letters of the character's align-
- ment, and "ggg" are at least the first three letters of
- the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix
- may be left out.
-
- -p profession can be used to determine the character role.
- You can specify either the male or female name for the
- character role, or the first three characters of the role
- as an abbreviation. -p @ has been retained to explicitly
- request that a random role be chosen. It may need to be
- quoted with a backslash (\@) if @ is the "kill" character
- (see "stty") for the terminal, in order to prevent the
- current input line from being cleared.
-
- Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a
- race be chosen.
-
- Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in
- you being prompted during the game startup for the infor-
- mation.
-
-
- The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores
- on the current version. An immediately following -v
- reports on all versions present in the score file. The -s
- may also be followed by arguments -p and -r to print the
- scores of particular roles and races only. It may also be
- followed by one or more player names to print the scores
- of the players mentioned, by 'all' to print out all
- scores, or by a number to print that many top scores.
-
- The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the
- game administrator.
-
- The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-
- scoring discovery mode. -D will, if the player is the
- game administrator, start in debugging (wizard) mode
- instead.
-
- The -d option, which must be the first argument if it
- appears, supplies a directory which is to serve as the
- playground. It overrides the value from NETHACKDIR, HACK-
- DIR, or the directory specified by the game administrator
- during compilation (usually /usr/games/lib/nethackdir).
- This option is usually only useful to the game administra-
- tor. The playground must contain several auxiliary files
- such as help files, the list of top scorers, and a subdi-
- rectory save where games are saved.
+ A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race,
+ alignment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of the
+ playername that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg".
+ "ppp" are at least the first three letters of the profession
+ (this can also be specified using a separate -p profession
+ option). "rrr" are at least the first three letters of the char-
+ acter's race (this can also be specified using a separate -r race
+ option). "aaa" are at last the first three letters of the char-
+ acter's alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three letters
+ of the character's gender. Any of the parts of the suffix may be
+ left out.
+
+ -p profession can be used to determine the character profession,
+ also know as the role. You can specify either the male or female
+ name for the character role, or the first three characters of the
+ role as an abbreviation. -p @ has been retained to explicitly
+ request that a random role be chosen. It may need to be quoted
+ with a backslash (\@) if @ is the "kill" character (see "stty")
+ for the terminal, in order to prevent the current input line from
+ being cleared.
+
+ Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race
+ be chosen.
+
+ Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being
+ prompted during the game startup for the information.
+
+
+ The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores on the
+ current version. An immediately following -v reports on all ver-
+ sions present in the score file. The -s may also be followed by
+ arguments -p and -r to print the scores of particular roles and
+ races only. It may also be followed by one or more player names
+ to print the scores of the players mentioned, by 'all' to print
+ out all scores, or by a number to print that many top scores.
+
+ The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game
+ administrator.
+
+ The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring
+ discovery mode. -D will, if the player is the game administra-
+ tor, start in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
+
+ The -d option, which must be the first argument if it appears,
+ supplies a directory which is to serve as the playground. It
+ overrides the value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory
+ specified by the game administrator during compilation (usually
+ /usr/games/lib/nethackdir). This option is usually only useful
+ to the game administrator. The playground must contain several
+ auxiliary files such as help files, the list of top scorers, and
+ a subdirectory save where games are saved.
AUTHORS
- Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne)
- wrote the original hack, very much like rogue (but full of
- bugs).
+ Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote
+ the original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
- Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into
- an entirely different game.
+ Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an
+ entirely different game.
- Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources,
- adding various warped character classes and sadistic traps
- with the help of many strange people who reside in that
- place between the worlds, the Usenet Zone. A number of
- these miscreants are immortalized in the historical roll
- of dishonor and various other places.
+ Mike Stephenson has continued the perversion of sources, adding
+ various warped character classes and sadistic traps with the help
+ of many strange people who reside in that place between the
+ worlds, the Usenet Zone. A number of these miscreants are immor-
+ talized in the historical roll of dishonor and various other
+ places.
- The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its
- development by the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this
- request for the distinction, as he may eventually release
- a new version of his own.
+ The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its develop-
+ ment by the Usenet. Andries Brouwer has made this request for
+ the distinction, as he may eventually release a new version of
+ his own.
FILES
- All files are in the playground, normally
- /usr/games/lib/nethackdir. If DLB was defined during the
- compile, the data files and special levels will be inside
- a larger file, normally nhdat, instead of being separate
- files.
+ All files are in the playground, normally
+ /usr/games/lib/nethackdir. If DLB was defined during the com-
+ pile, the data files and special levels will be inside a larger
+ file, normally nhdat, instead of being separate files.
nethack The program itself.
data, oracles, rumors Data files used by NetHack.
options, quest.dat More data files.
help, hh Help data files.
cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp More help data files.
*.lev Predefined special levels.
- dungeon Control file for special lev-
- els.
+ dungeon Control file for special levels.
history A short history of NetHack.
- license Rules governing redistribu-
- tion.
+ license Rules governing redistribution.
record The list of top scorers.
logfile An extended list of games
played.
- xlock.nnn Description of a dungeon
- level.
+ xlock.nnn Description of a dungeon level.
perm Lock file for xlock.dd.
bonesDD.nn Descriptions of the ghost and
belongings of a deceased
HACKPAGER or PAGER Replacement for default pager.
MAIL Mailbox file.
MAILREADER Replacement for default reader
- (probably /bin/mail or
- /usr/ucb/mail).
+ (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
NETHACKDIR Playground.
NETHACKOPTIONS String predefining several NetHack
options.
- In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
+ In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
SEE ALSO
dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)
- Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast,
- Inc.
+ Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
- 9 August 2002 NETHACK(6)
+ 6 March 2004 NETHACK(6)
projects / nethack / commitdiff