      A NETHACK(6)                    1999                     NETHACK(6)        NAME,      nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace   SYNOPSISA      nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role)  ]  [ <      -r race ] [ -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]A      nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role)  ]        [ -r race ] [ playernames ]   DESCRIPTION A      NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) -  like A      game.  The standard tty display and command structure resem-       ble rogue.   A      Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using &      either a PC, or an X11 interface.  A      To get started you really only need to  know  two  commands. A      The command ? will give you a list of the available commands A      (as well as other information) and the command / will  iden- +      tify the things you see on the screen.   A      To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat  other A      people's  high  scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor A      which is somewhere below the 20th level of the  dungeon  and A      get  it out.  Nobody has achieved this yet; anybody who does <      will probably go down in history as a hero among heros.  A      When the game ends, whether  by  your  dying,  quitting,  or A      escaping  from  the caves, NetHack will give you (a fragment A      of) the list of top scorers.  The scoring is based  on  many A      aspects  of  your behavior, but a rough estimate is obtained A      by taking the amount of gold you've found in the  cave  plus A      four  times  your (real) experience.  Precious stones may be A      worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit.   There  is  a -      10% penalty for getting yourself killed.   A      The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to  ini- A      tialize  many  run-time  options.   The ? command provides a A      description of these options and syntax.  (The -dec and -ibm A      command  line  options are equivalent to the decgraphics and A      ibmgraphics run-time options described there, and  are  pro- A      vided  purely for convenience on systems supporting multiple       types of terminals.)   A      Because the option list can be very long (particularly  when A      specifying   graphics   characters),  options  may  also  be A      included in a configuration file.  The default is located in A      your  home  directory  and named .nethackrc on Unix systems. A      On other systems, the  default  may  be  different,  usually A      NetHack.cnf.   On  DOS the name is defaults.nh, while on the A      Macintosh  or   BeOS,   it   is   NetHack   Defaults.    The       A November                 Last change: 17                        1             A NETHACK(6)                    1999                     NETHACK(6)       A      configuration  file's  location  may be specified by setting A      NETHACKOPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ character fol-       lowed by the filename.   A      The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question A      "Who  are  you?".  It overrides any name from the options or A      configuration file, USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which will A      otherwise  be  tried  in order.  If none of these provides a A      useful name, the player will be asked for one.  Player names A      (in  conjunction with uids) are used to identify save files, A      so you can have several saved games under  different  names. A      Conversely,  you  must  use  the  appropriate player name to       restore a saved game.  A      A playername suffix or a separate option, -p profession  can A      be  used  to  determine the character role.  You can specify A      either the male or female name for the  character  role,  or A      the  first  three characters of the role as an abbreviation. A      -p @ has been retained to explicitly request that  a  random A      role  be  chosen.  It may need to be quoted with a backslash A      (\@) if @ is the "kill" character (see "stty") for the  ter- A      minal, in order to prevent the current input line from being 
      cleared.   A      Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request  that  a       race be chosen.  A      Leaving out  either  of  these  will  result  in  you  being :      prompted during the game startup for the information.  A      The -s option alone will print out the list of  your  scores A      on the current version.  An immediately following -v reports A      on all versions present in the score file.  The -s may  also A      be  followed  by  arguments -p and -r to print the scores of A      particular roles and races only.  It may also be followed by A      one  or more player names to print the scores of the players A      mentioned, by 'all' to print out all scores, or by a  number #      to print that many top scores.   A      The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the  game       administrator.   A      The -D or -X option will start the game in  a  special  non- A      scoring  discovery mode.  -D will, if the player is the game =      administrator, start in debugging (wizard) mode instead.   A      The -d option, which  must  be  the  first  argument  if  it A      appears, supplies a directory which is to serve as the play- A      ground.  It overrides the value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or A      the  directory  specified  by  the game administrator during A      compilation   (usually   /usr/games/lib/nethackdir).    This A      option  is  usually  only  useful to the game administrator.       A November                 Last change: 17                        2             A NETHACK(6)                    1999                     NETHACK(6)       A      The playground must contain several auxiliary files such  as A      help files, the list of top scorers, and a subdirectory save       where games are saved.    AUTHORS A      Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome  and  Jon  Payne) A      wrote  the  original hack, very much like rogue (but full of       bugs).   A      Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into  an       entirely different game.   A      Mike Stephenson has continued  the  perversion  of  sources, A      adding  various  warped character classes and sadistic traps A      with the help of many strange  people  who  reside  in  that A      place  between  the  worlds,  the  Usenet Zone.  A number of A      these miscreants are immortalized in the historical roll  of '      dishonor and various other places.   A      The resulting mess is now  called  NetHack,  to  denote  its A      development  by  the  Usenet.  Andries Brouwer has made this A      request for the distinction, as he may eventually release  a       new version of his own.   FILES A      All    files    are    in    the    playground,     normally A      /usr/games/lib/nethackdir.   If  DLB  was defined during the A      compile, the data files and special levels will be inside  a A      larger  file,  normally  nhdat,  instead  of  being separate       files. 4      nethack                     The program itself.<      data, oracles, rumors       Data files used by NetHack.1      options, quest.dat          More data files. 1      help, hh                    Help data files. 6      cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp   More help data files.;      *.lev                       Predefined special levels. A      dungeon                     Control file for special levels. <      history                     A short history of NetHack.@      license                     Rules governing redistribution.9      record                      The list of top scorers. :      logfile                     An extended list of games(                                  played.@      xlock.nnn                   Description of a dungeon level.8      perm                        Lock file for xlock.dd.>      bonesDD.nn                  Descriptions of the ghost and9                                  belongings of a deceased ,                                  adventurer.>      save                        A subdirectory containing the-                                  saved games.    ENVIRONMENT *      USER or LOGNAME      Your login name.      A November                 Last change: 17                        3             A NETHACK(6)                    1999                     NETHACK(6)       .      HOME                 Your home directory.%      SHELL                Your shell. 4      TERM                 The type of your terminal.8      HACKPAGER or PAGER   Replacement for default pager.'      MAIL                 Mailbox file. 8      MAILREADER           Replacement for default reader@                           (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).%      NETHACKDIR           Playground. <      NETHACKOPTIONS       String predefining several NetHack"                           options.  >      In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.   SEE ALSO)      dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)    BUGS      Probably infinite.       2      Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of TSR Inc.                                                                  A November                 Last change: 17                        4       