HACK(6) 							   Games Manual 							   HACK(6)

NAME

       hack - Exploring The Dungeons of Doom

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/games/hack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -u playername ]
       /usr/games/hack [ -d directory ] -s [ -X ] [ playernames ]

DESCRIPTION

       Hack  is  a display oriented dungeons & dragons - like game.  Both display and command structure resemble rogue.  (For a game with the same
       structure but entirely different display - a real cave instead of dull rectangles - try Quest.)

       To get started you really only need to know two commands.  The command ?  will give you a list of the available commands 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 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 and if somebody does, he will probably go down in history
       as a hero among heros.

       When  the  game	ends, either by your death, when you quit, or if you escape from the caves, hack will give you (a fragment of) the list of
       top scorers.  The scoring is based on many aspects of your behaviour 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 administration of the game is kept in the directory specified with the -d option, or, if no such option  is	given,	in  the  directory
       specified  by the environment variable HACKDIR, or, if no such variable exists, in the current directory. This same directory contains sev-
       eral auxiliary files such as lockfiles and the list of topscorers and a subdirectory save where games are saved.   The  game  administrator
       may however choose to install hack with a fixed playing ground, usually /usr/games/lib/hackdir.

       The -n option suppresses printing of the news.

       The  -u	playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".  When playername has as suffix one of -T -S -K -F -C -W then
       this supplies the answer to the question "What kind of character ... ?".

       The -s option will print out the list of your scores. It may be followed by arguments -X where X is one of the letters C, F, K, S, T, W	to
       print the scores of Cavemen, Fighters, Knights, Speleologists, Tourists or Wizards.  It may also be followed by one or more player names to
       print the scores of the players mentioned.

AUTHORS

       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 the current version - in fact an entirely different game.

FILES

       hack	      The hack program.
       data, rumors   Data files used by hack.
       help, hh       Help data files.
       record	      The list of topscorers.
       save	      A subdirectory containing the saved
		      games.
       bones_dd       Descriptions of the ghost and
		      belongings of a deceased adventurer.
       xlock.dd       Description of a dungeon level.
       safelock       Lock file for xlock.
       record_lock    Lock file for record.

ENVIRONMENT

       USER or LOGNAME	  Your login name.
       HOME		  Your home directory.
       SHELL		  Your shell.
       TERM		  The type of your terminal.
       HACKPAGER, PAGER   Pager used instead of default pager.
       MAIL		  Mailbox file.
       MAILREADER	  Reader used instead of default
			  (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
       HACKDIR		  Playground.
       HACKOPTIONS	  String predefining several hack options
			  (see help file).

       Several other environment variables are used in debugging (wizard) mode, like GENOCIDED, INVENT, MAGIC and SHOPTYPE.

BUGS

       Probably infinite.  Mail complaints to mcvax!aeb .

4th Berkeley Distribution					   31 March 1985							   HACK(6)