NetHack
Introduction
NetHack is a single player dungeon exploration game that runs on a wide variety of computer systems, with a variety of graphical and text interfaces all using the same game engine. Unlike many other Dungeons & Dragons-inspired games, the emphasis in NetHack is on discovering the detail of the dungeon and not simply killing everything in sight - in fact, killing everything in sight is a good way to die quickly. Each game presents a different landscape - the random number generator provides an essentially unlimited number of variations of the dungeon and its denizens to be discovered by the player in one of a number of characters: you can pick your race, your role, and your gender.
I have a special login account on nwserver.ath.cx dedicated to online NetHack playing. Multiple players can connect at once, and the high scores are accessible from an online score chart.
Playing NetHack on nwserver.ath.cx
Hello %s, welcome to NetHack!
Connecting to NetHack is very simple. You'll need a good SSH client first. Linux and MacOS X users are already set up. For Windows, I recommend PuTTY for Windows (direct link). Then, simply connect to nwserver.ath.cx with username nhplayer and password nhplayer.
bash-3.1$ ssh nhplayer@nwserver.ath.cx
nhplayer@nwserver.ath.cx's password: nhplayer (hidden)
Then just type your character's name and you'll start a game. To restore a saved game, simply enter the same name as your saved character.
For those interested, I have applied the following usability patches to 'vanilla' NetHack:
- Menucolors: Colors items of cursed/uncursed/blessed/holy/unholy status.
- HP Color: Colors your HP depending on how much you have at the moment.
- Adjust Split: You can now use #adjust with a count to split a stack of items in two.
Links
or, Help! I keep dying!