is a display oriented dungeons [Am] 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'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 and if somebody does, he will probably go
down in history as a hero among heroes.
When the game ends, either by your death, when you quit, or if you escape
from the caves,
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 administration of the game is kept in the directory specified with the
option, or, if no such option is given, in the directory specified by
the environment variable
or, if no such variable exists, in the current directory.
This same directory contains several auxiliary files such as lockfiles and
the list of topscorers and a subdirectory
where games are saved.
The game administrator may however choose to install hack with a fixed
playing ground, usually
The
option suppresses printing of the news.
The
option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".
When
has as suffix one of
or
then this supplies the answer to the question "What kind of character ... ?".
The
option will print out the list of your scores.
It may be followed by arguments
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
The hack program.
Data files used by hack.
Help data files.
The list of topscorers.
A subdirectory containing the saved games.
Descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a deceased adventurer.
Description of a dungeon level.
Lock file for xlock.
Lock file for record.
ENVIRONMENT
Your login name.
Your home directory.
Your shell.
The type of your terminal.
Pager used instead of default pager.
Mailbox file.
Reader used instead of default (probably
Playground.
String predefining several hack options (see help file).
Several other environment variables are used in debugging (wizard) mode,
like
and
