.TH NETHACK 6 "28 March 1989"
.UC 4
.SH NAME
nethack \- Exploring The Mazes of Menace
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B nethack
[
.B \-d
.I directory
]
[
.B \-n
]
[
.B \-[ABCEHKPRSTVW]
]
[
.B \-[DX]
]
[
.B \-u
.I playername
]
[
.B \-dec
]
[
.B \-ibm
]
.br
.B nethack
[
.B \-d
.I directory
]
.B \-s
[
.B \-[ABCEHKPRSTVW]
]
[
.I playernames
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
.I NetHack
is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game.
Both display and command structure resemble rogue.
.PP
To get started you really only need to know two commands.  The command
.B ?
will give you a list of the available commands (as well as other information)
and the command
.B /
will identify the things you see on the screen.
.PP
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 dungeon and get it out.
Nobody has achieved this yet; anybody who does will probably go down
in history as a hero among heros.
.PP
When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping
from the caves,
.I 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.
.PP
The environment variable NETHACKOPTIONS can be used to initialize many
run-time options.
The ? command provides a description of these options and syntax.
(The
.B \-dec
and
.B \-ibm
command line options are equivalent to the
.B decgraphics
and
.B ibmgraphics
run-time options described there,
and are provided purely for convenience on systems
supporting multiple types of terminals.)
.PP
The
.B \-u
.I playername
option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".
It overrides any name from NETHACKOPTIONS, 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.
A
.I playername
suffix or a separate option consisting of one of
.B "\-A \-B \-C \-E \-H \-K \-P \-R \-S \-T \-V \-W"
can be used to determine the character role.
.PP
The
.B \-s
option alone will print out the list of your scores.
It may be followed by arguments
.B "\-A \-B \-C \-E \-H \-K \-P \-R \-S \-T \-V \-W"
to print the
scores of Archeologists, Barbarians, Cave(wo)men, Elves, Healers, Knights,
Priest(esse)s, Rogues, Samurai, Tourists, Valkyries, or Wizards.
It may also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the
players mentioned, or by 'all' to print out all scores.
.PP
The
.B \-n
option suppresses printing of any news from the game administrator.
.PP
The
.B \-D
or
.B \-X
option will start the game in a special non-scoring discovery mode.
.B \-D
will, if the player is the game administrator, start in debugging (wizard)
mode instead.
.PP
The
.B \-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 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
.I save
where games are saved.
.SH AUTHORS
.PP
Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
.PP
Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into an entirely
different game.
.PP
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.
.PP
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.
.SH FILES
.PP
All files are in the playground, normally /usr/games/lib/nethackdir.
.br
.DT
.ta \w'tower1, tower2, tower3\ \ \ 'u
nethack		The program itself.
.br
data, oracles, rumors	Data files used by NetHack.
.br
help, hh	Help data files.
.br
cmdhelp, opthelp	More help data files.
.br
castle, endgame	Predefined special levels.
.br
tower1, tower2, tower3	More special levels.
.br
history	A short history of NetHack.
.br
license	Rules governing redistribution.
.br
record	The list of top scorers.
.br
logfile	An extended list of games played.
.br
save	A subdirectory containing the saved
.br
	games.
.br
bones.dd	Descriptions of the ghost and
.br
	belongings of a deceased
.br
	adventurer.
.br
xlock.dd	Description of a dungeon level.
.br
perm, safelock	Lock files for xlock.dd.
.br
record_lock	Lock file for record.
.br
logfile_lock	Lock file for logfile.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.DT
.ta \w'HACKPAGER or PAGER\ \ \ 'u
USER or LOGNAME	Your login name.
.br
HOME		Your home directory.
.br
SHELL		Your shell.
.br
TERM		The type of your terminal.
.br
HACKPAGER or PAGER	Replacement for default pager.
.br
MAIL	Mailbox file.
.br
MAILREADER	Replacement for default reader
.br
	(probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
.br
HACKDIR	Playground.
.br
NETHACKOPTIONS	String predefining several NetHack
.br
	options.
.br

In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
.SH BUGS
.PP
Probably infinite.


.PP
Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of TSR Inc.
