NETHACK(6)							   Games Manual 							NETHACK(6)

NAME

       nethack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace

SYNOPSIS

       nethack [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ] [ -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]

       nethack [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ] [ playernames ]

DESCRIPTION

       NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game.  The standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.

       Other, more graphical display options exist if you are using either a PC, or an X11 interface.

       To  get started you really only need to know two commands.  The command ?  will give you a list of the available commands (as well as other
       information) 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'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.

       When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from the caves, 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.

       The  environment  variable  NETHACKOPTIONS  can be used to initialize many run-time options.  The ? command provides a description of these
       options and syntax.  (The -dec and -ibm command line options are equivalent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-time	options  described
       there, and are provided purely for convenience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.)

       Because	the  option list can be very long (particularly when specifying graphics characters), options may also be included in a configura-
       tion file.  The default is located in your home directory and named .nethackrc on Unix systems.	On Debian  systems,  use  .nethackrc.gnome
       for  the Gnome windowing port, use .nethackrc.x11 for the X11 windowing port, and use .nethackrc.qt for the QT windowing port.  You can use
       .nethackrc.tty for the non-graphical version.  The configuration file's location may be specified by setting  NETHACKOPTIONS  to  a  string
       consisting of an @ character followed by the filename.

       The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".  It overrides any name from the options or configuration file,
       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.   Player  names  (in  conjunction with uids) are used to identify save files, so you can have several saved games under different
       names.  Conversely, you must use the appropriate player name to restore a saved game.

       A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race, alignment and/or gender of the character.  The full syntax of the  player-
       name  that  includes  a	suffix	is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg".  "ppp" are at least the first three letters of the profession (this can also be
       specified using a separate -p profession option).  "rrr" are at least the first three letters of the character's race  (this  can  also	be
       specified using a separate -r race option).  "aaa" are at last the first three letters of the character's alignment, and "ggg" are at least
       the first three letters of the character's gender.  Any of the parts of the suffix may be left out.

       -p profession can be used to determine the character role.  You can specify either the male or female name for the character role,  or  the
       first  three characters of the role as an abbreviation.	-p @ has been retained to explicitly request that a random role be chosen.  It may
       need to be quoted with a backslash (@) if @ is the "kill" character (see "stty") for the terminal, in order to prevent the  current  input
       line from being cleared.

       Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be chosen.

       Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in you being prompted during the game startup for the information.

       The  -s	option	alone  will print out the list of your scores on the current version.  An immediately following -v reports on all versions
       present in the score file.  The -s may also be followed by arguments -p and -r to print the scores of particular roles and races only.	It
       may  also  be  followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the players mentioned, by 'all' to print out all scores, or by a
       number to print that many top scores.

       The -n option suppresses printing of any news from the game administrator.

       The -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring discovery mode.  -D will, if the player is the game  administrator,  start
       in debugging (wizard) mode instead.

       The  -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 NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game administrator during compilation	(usually  /usr/lib/games/nethack).
       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 save where games are saved.

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 an entirely different game.

       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 histori-
       cal roll of dishonor and various other places.

       The resulting mess is now called NetHack, to denote its development by the Usenet.  Andries Brouwer has made this request for the  distinc-
       tion, as he may eventually release a new version of his own.

FILES

       All files are in the playground, normally /usr/lib/games/nethack.  If DLB was defined during the compile, the data files and special levels
       will be inside a larger file, normally nhdat, instead of being separate files.
       nethack			   The program itself.
       data, oracles, rumors	   Data files used by NetHack.
       options, quest.dat	   More data files.
       help, hh 		   Help data files.
       cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp   More help data files.
       *.lev			   Predefined special levels.
       dungeon			   Control file for special levels.
       history			   A short history of NetHack.
       license			   Rules governing redistribution.
       record			   The list of top scorers.
       logfile			   An extended list of games
				   played.
       xlock.nnn		   Description of a dungeon level.
       perm			   Lock file for xlock.dd.
       bonesDD.nn		   Descriptions of the ghost and
				   belongings of a deceased
				   adventurer.
       save			   A subdirectory containing the
				   saved games.

ENVIRONMENT

       USER or LOGNAME	    Your login name.
       HOME		    Your home directory.
       SHELL		    Your shell.
       TERM		    The type of your terminal.
       HACKPAGER or PAGER   Replacement for default pager.
       MAIL		    Mailbox file.
       MAILREADER	    Replacement for default reader
			    (probably /usr/bin/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.

       Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

4th Berkeley Distribution					   9 August 2002							NETHACK(6)