NetHack

The classic roguelike adventure: Descend the Mazes of Menace and retrieve the Amulet of Yendor!

NOTE: This is a demo website! Please visit www.nethack.org for the real NetHack website.

NetHack References


NetHack Quotes

Nethack is one of my all-time favorite games, one I've been playing since 1200 baud was smokin' fast. – Actor Wil Wheaton, http://wilwheaton.net/2002/03/seek_ye_the_amulet_of_yendor/

In short, NetHack 3.1.3 is the most elaborate role-playing environment you are ever likely to explore. This is a place to return again and again, each time for a different experience. You're really going to have to play it for a year or two and see for yourself. – "Fatal Distractions" by David Gerrold

Thank you for the latest release of gradewrecker. My GPA just went in the corner and shot itself. – Usenet posting, author unknown


NetHack on the Web

2012: NetHack in Time's list of All-TIME 100 Video Games.

2011: NetHack in IGN's "Fifteen Really, Really, Really Hard Games".

2009: NetHack in Gamasutra's "Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs".

2007: NetHack shows up in The DM Of The Rings.

2007: NetHack meets EverQuest II. (At least on April Fool's Day.)

2006: NetHack (a song parody), by Rob Balder.

2005: BBspot: Top 11 Signs You've Got an Old Computer.

2004: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition discovers NetHack - the Computer Game.

2004: BBspot: Play NetHack, a theme song for NetHack.

2004: NetHack mentioned in Gamespy.com's Developer Week: "The History of Computer Games - Part I".

2004: Gamespy.com's "The History of Computer Games" continues with Worlds in Boxes - and NetHack gets another mention.

2004: Gamespy.com: NetHack is simply an anomaly…

2004: Our pet dog is one of Gamespy.com's Top Ten Videogame Sidekicks. Congratulations!

2003: BBspot on NetHack: New ATI Card Pushes Limits in ASCII Gaming.

2002: NetHack makes TechTV's list of Best Internet Games.

2001: Backhanded compliment of the month award: IGN's review of Darkstone:

Ten bucks buys you an awful lot of dungeon-hacking – it sure ain't NetHack but it ain't bad.

2001: Gamespot.com: Unsung Heroes - NetHack.

2000: Salon Technology: "The Best Game Ever".

The Internet Oracle

The Internet Oracle contemplates:

User Friendly

NetHack in the comics at User Friendly:


NetHack in Print

IEEE Computer, February 2011, "Certainty through Uncertainty?". We even got a screenshot.

30th Annual EEE/NASA Software Engineering Workshop, April 2006, "Understanding Open Source Software through Software Archaeology: The Case of NetHack". The abstract is available online.

"Fatal Distractions", 1994, David Gerrold, The Waite Group.


NetHack meets T-rex (Usenet post)

See what happens when NetHack meets T-rex - isn't Usenet great?

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Chrichton's anti-SF (was Re: John Ordover's SF Rules (LONG) (was:   something else about John
From: Phil Fraering <pgf@globalreach.net>
Date: 10 May 2000 21:57:37 -0500
Message-ID: <874s85equ6.fsf@globalreach.net>

"Matthew W. Dicksion" <kenichi@haleakala.aloha.net> writes:
> ZippoNiner <zippo.niner@robotron.org> wrote:
> : On Wed, 10 May 2000 11:01:23 -0400, "Rick" <rikwriter@mindspring.com>
> : wrote:
> 
> :>Sorry Keith, but how much space did it take a T Rex to reach that top speed
> :>again?  You did say it was going to spring out from cover right?
> 
> : Yes...why are you assuming it's going to spring out from cover from a
> : long distance away?  
> 
> Well, if the T-Rex gets the drop on you you could be armed with fricking
> Stormbringer and Mjollnir and it still wouldn't matter, would it?

For that situation, I'd recommend a cloak of displacement and the
Tsurugi of Muramasa, or the Vorpal Blade, and a lot of luck.

Mjollnir might be helpful... anyone know if the T-Rex is shock
resistant? And if you have gauntlets of power, you can throw it
at him...

Neat trick: if you have on a pair of levitation boots at the
time, and gauntlets of power, and Mjollnir, you can throw Mjollnir
at him, get propelled backwards a couple squares, do about 6d6 
worth of electrical damage, and catch it on the rebound, getting
propelled backwards even more.

(Naturally, this trick is tailored for Valkyries).

Maybe I should check it out in Wizard Mode:

What's a good substitute for a T Rex... maybe a Chromatic Dragon?

Hmm. Thank goodness that was Wizard Mode, I've been killed 15 times
already, and I don't seem to be denting it. And it teleports.
Maybe there are better weapons than Mjollnir. (I guess it didn't
help that I was going about it with a 1st level character that
wasn't skilled in anything).

I just wished for Vorpal Blade, and the instakill kicked in, first
whack.

So, if you're jumped by a T Rex, or anything else for that matter,
the Tsurugi, or Vorpal Blade, is probably your weapon of choice,
depending on alignment.

If you're chaotic, you're out of luck, unless you have some hell-p.
Stormbringer's probably just too slow, although I'd like to see the
look on the T Rex's face when he found out just what Stormbringer
was doing... One of these days I'm going to have to do some coding
of my own, and implement Changeling, which should handle a T Rex;
heck, it should handle Godzilla.

> :>Oh, and you DID know that a 50BMG would penetrate the whole length
> :> of a T rex from head to asshole, didn't you?
> 
> : You seem to have this childish attitude towards how effective a gun
> : really is.  
> : Nobody's claiming that a shot-up T-Rex would wander off and get
> : better.  It WOULD DIE.  It just wouldn't die QUICKLY.

The Tsurugi's good at that sort of thing. Bisection attack.

-- 
Phil Fraering         "There's a vampire!"
pgf@globalreach.net                 "...In the parcel!"
/Will work for tape/                            "...In the kitchen!"
                                                             "...Hate Mail!"