NetHack Download (1999 Role playing Game)

This follow-up to 1982's Hack, itself based on the computer mainframe version of Rogue, expands on each title's core play mechanics. Choose one of 13 character classes and five races before venturing into a randomly generated dungeon that offers a surprising number of ways to die. Like its predecessors Rogue and Hack, NetHack is a turn-based role-playing game that uses ASCII text to depict the environment in which your character, represented by an "at" symbol, explores. Controls involve typing various two-key commands to move, attack, and so forth, with a description of the results appearing at the top of the screen. Your hero can interact with and store a number of items while searching the dungeon, referred to as the Mazes of Menace, for a legendary object named the Amulet of Yendor. If your hero should die, a completely new adventure will be generated the next time you play.

NetHack is a text-only (although some graphical versions exist) roguelike role-playing game. The objective is to find the Amulet of Yendor and sacrifice it to your deity.

In the beginning, you choose one of the classes - there are some traditional ones, like Priest or Knight, but also unusual ones like Tourist or Caveman. Then, you find yourself on the 1st level of the dungeon, along with your pet that will accompany you and help you in combat. On each level, you have to find an exit to the lower level; on the way, you'll find countless monsters to fight, as well as items to collect. Sometimes, you come upon a shop, where you can buy or sell items.

Items you find can be blessed (more effective than normal), but sometimes are cursed (less effective, or outright harmful). Eating the corpses of fallen enemies is an important part of the game, since many creatures give you special abilities or immunities when eaten.

While the above description might seem brief, NetHack is, in fact, a very complex and merciless game - there are lots of ways to die.

Since NetHack is a roguelike, everything is represented as a top-down view of the current dungeon level, where the walls, the floor, and all items, characters and monsters are ASCII characters.

-One life. One game. Choices? No choices. Only Nethack-

Welcome, to the Mazes of Menace...

It's a wonder, a game that's development has gone on for nearly twenty years for free. Without salary, without chrismas bonuses and without a shining porche paid by the company, even though it would be highly deserved... And it's a wonder, what twenty years can do to a game...

It first started as Hack /a descentant to Rogue, and was originally written by Jay Fenlason among with Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne/. Hack was back then only an Improved version of Rogue, but on the same year, Andries Brouwer did a major rewrite of the game, improved everything, and then released Hack 1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3, after which, Don G. Kneller ported it to PC. Then, after a while The DevTeam Lead by Michael Stephenson took the game under their wings, and have been improving it from then continually. And while the DevTeams ranks have been increasing, there has been also others, who've provided ideas, and even different variants of Nethack (e.g Nethack+ by Stephen White and Slash by Tom Proudfoot).

You are @. What else do you need to know...

You're @, and they're letters, things, traps and doors are symbols, and walls are lines. So how to you differ them from eachother? You can't, unless you will play the game or learn the manual by heart. You will get used to recognizing them in time, and while doing it, you can also identify them from distance with the look command (;).

Actions are controlled by the keyboard, with almost every letter used, twice. Sometimes even thrice, with shift and alt-control. So yes, it will take time. You can sit, eat, write, wipe your face, pray etc etc... There are numerous commands in the game, but the time it will take to learn them will be worth it. All the commands are mentioned in the manual, and are also seeable in the game, by pressing h /help/ and then the list of the game commands.

You may choose you name, character class, race, gender and alignment, or let the computer decide. The decisions that you make, will affect your future game in numerous ways. Your gods will not be the same, the gifts that you will receive from sacrificing to your god will not be the same, items, abilities and the way that you can play the whole game will not be the same. And they never are even though you would play the same character class multiple times in a row. Why? The game is never the same...

The Mazes of Menace are generated invidually each time you begin a new game. So will be the monsters, shops, and items that you will stumble across. No game will be played twice (unless you stumble upon a corpse of your previous game. Yes, it's possible)

The characters will gain levels, his abilities will increase if they're used, and so will his skills. His ability to read spellbooks, ability to use certain weapons, bare-handed fighting etc etc... There are numerous skills that can be evolved in the manner of "do and learn".

Links to Valhalla, quatations from ancient myths, creatures from the middle earth, thronerooms of ancient kings, beehives, shops, Oracles etc... etc... You name it, and so it shall be found...

The game has immeasurable number of references to everything, whether it'd be The medusa from the Greek mythology, Mjollnir from the Valhalla or Balrog from the middle earth, It can be found. And the essential point is, that these fit the game perfectly. And even though there are credit cards, expensive cameras, flashlamps and cops attacking with pies, when you play this alone in the night, you'll never get the feeling that, that something shouldn't be in the game or that it reduces the high immersion that this game may have. And even when it comes just normal animals, objects or names, there is an ingame reference, that offers a lengthy text of them. E.g The "one ring" would reveal the beginning of the book; Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky...

There are more items than you can count, more creatures than there has been in the games you've played before bundled together, more possibilities, more choises than you could ever dream to be in a game, whether it'd be polymorphing yourself into a female dragon and then giving birth to an army of baby dragons or to sacrificing your own kin to your own god and being then punished with an iron ball attached to your angle. It's all there...

There are no sounds or music, no graphical beautifulness or clumsy 3d creatures that are hunted with broken shotguns, no dance of the colours with fuzzy pixels not sights in the screen that would make you tingle with amazement. There is just, Nethack, and it should be more than enough.

The bottom line is, that Nethack is an exellent game, and that it's worth of every moment that it takes to finish it. Whether it'd be a week, or the more likely three years...

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded NetHack have also downloaded:
Neophyte: The Spirit Master, Moonstone, Neophyte: The Journey Begins, Rogue, Nox, Moria, Neophyte: Koplio's Story, Might and Magic 7: For Blood and Honor