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/dev/null NetHack Tournament 2005 Starts Tomorrow 43

Elitist Snob writes "Registrations for the 7th Annual /dev/null nethack tournament are now open. Time to start cursing at how unfair the Random Number Generator has been to you today. (Or you can just start another holy war about which interface is the best.)" All you folks who shake your canes and say that these new fangled threedee graphics aren't needed, this is your chance to shine. Update: 10/31 16:13 GMT by Z : Thanks to HanClinto for pointing out that if you're new to the tourney you need to wait until Midnight tonight to sign up. Previous year's players can sign up now.
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/dev/null NetHack Tournament 2005 Starts Tomorrow

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  • by skryche ( 26871 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @10:22AM (#13915125) Homepage
    Three D??? That's a lot of dragons to have to worry about.
  • by Willeh ( 768540 ) <rwillem@xs4all.nl> on Monday October 31, 2005 @10:24AM (#13915145)
    I actually prefer playing with tiles instead of the old, wanky ASCII graphics. Not having found a compelling case to use ASCII, i use tiles. Unless ofcourse, i want to slack at work and have to use an ssh connection to my nethack shell.
    • I agree 100%. While I agree that a simple interface is better, the tiles convey more information, as no symbol is used for more than 1 item.
    • by BartulaPrime ( 744634 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @11:16AM (#13915567)
      Plus, it's hard to admit that you just got your ass kicked by an asterisk.
    • After a short while, you have memorized all the characters and what they mean. That purple L coming for you...better hope you have Magic Resistance somehow. That gray q? Better get your arrows out.

      But as you said, a great bonus of it is the ability to play it on someone elses computer. I know of many free telnet services that just let you play nethack. Hop on #nethack at FreeNode for more info on one of these and the bonuses it has :)
    • There are cases where playing ASCII is better....

      Actually, this tournament itself is such a case, as it's played over telnet.

      Also, blessed scrolls of genocide, which wipe out a whole class of monster, ask for a letter to identify that class. If you aren't familiar with what the letters mean from ASCII play, you might not know what represents the class you're removing from play.

      And inventory management uses shortcut keys to select all of one type of item or another, that matches with that item type's symbol
    • Tiles were better, yes. But even better: Falcon's Eye fully 3-d version. Of course, you can't quite see as well as the tiled versions, but it makes it more fun and challenging! Google it...
  • Correction... (Score:5, Informative)

    by HanClinto ( 621615 ) <hanclinto@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Monday October 31, 2005 @11:07AM (#13915489)
    Registration is only open for those who where were registered in previous years, and are re-activating their accounts for this year.

    If you are new to the tournament (like me), then you have to wait until midnight tonight to register.

    Happy hacking! :)
  • Watch out for c ! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Destoo ( 530123 ) <destoo AT gmail DOT com> on Monday October 31, 2005 @11:54AM (#13915932) Homepage Journal
    Way to go. Start the tournament on a new moon.

    That should be interesting..

    For the unitiated: the game checks the date and time for various things in the game. example: you get -1 luck if you start playing on a friday 13th. Undead do double damage from 00:00 to 00:59.

    On a new moon, beware of stoning.
    • I must say that sort of the thing is the reason I prefer Angband -- there's none of the "cast a wish on an odd number day while wearing no armor and wielding a wooden weapon and ..." conditionals you need a spoiler or code dive to figure out...
      • However, it's one of the reasons Nethack players prefer it. There's always something new to discover about the game, unless you've played it for years and years. And even then....

        (GAME SPOILERS FOLLOW)

        To be accurate here, none of the time or date effects really ends up influencing the game that much except for the Friday the 13th bit, which doesn't roll around all THAT much. On Friday the 13th, the neutral luck value is -1, instead of zero, and prayer (the catch-all, get-me-out-of-trouble solution for l
    • Never heard the midnight rule before. I always thought there were more undead on Halloween. But I've always avoided spoilers so I don't know for sure.
  • I can't wait to go to the Dungeon of Doom one more time. I suck at the game, but it's probably the best game I ever played

  • How many people actually ascend?

    The best I've ever done (without the cheating) was The Castle, at which point I forgot that I wasn't wearing WaterWalkingBoots (had on +4 SpeedBoots) and screwed up much of my inventory in one step. Oh yeah, those damned RustMonsters didn't help either. Sigh, I don't think I'll get that far anytime soon.

    The only contest I would have some success with here is the Most Unique Deaths. I'm quite practiced in that, although not by choice. :(

    Ha. I would have never thought of try
    • I've never ascended :-(. I've read all the spoilers, and played for God knows how many friken' hours.

      Sigh....it's really hard to start playing again after some really stupid death, but I know I will....

      • it's really hard to start playing again after some really stupid death Like having your knight die falling from his horse when trying to ride it as his first move in level 1 of the dungeon? Yeah, i hate that too...
    • Re:Most Ascensions? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MilenCent ( 219397 )
      I have ascended a Valkyrie, a Barbarian, an Archeologist, a Priest, a Wizard and a Tourist. Here's the secret about Nethack: it's not that hard.

      Woah now, did I just say that? Granted, there is a lot, and I mean a LOT, to learn. It has taken me years to get to the point where I can say that.

      But once you get to that point, you start seeing how the game really gives you many possible escapes. Just remembering that you can pray to get out of trouble will prevent a huge number of deaths. Finding strategies
    • I have ascended five times [no-ip.org], including a tourist ^_^

      I have failed to ascend many many times. I still weep when looking at my records file and seing that archeologist that died in the astral plane because I didn't realize Rodney had cursed my Unicorn horn (death by Pestilence... sigh).
    • By the way, do we want to setup a clan to contest at least in the Most Unique Deaths? :)
    • As said, it's not horribly difficult after you get the hang of it. Start out with one of the easier characters like a Valkyrie or Samurai and go about it slowly. Don't rush down when your level or equipment isn't ready unless you have to. Also, unless you're near death, play for long term success instead of short term - sure it seems like you have a surplus of enchant weapon scrolls now, but it's far better to have a pimped out artifact weapon instead of a +7 rusty when it comes to the endgame. I've asc
  • @~~~~~~S (Score:3, Funny)

    by dcapel ( 913969 ) on Monday October 31, 2005 @04:59PM (#13918536) Homepage
    You see here the corpse of a server.

          ##--------
          ##........+
          #`|.........|
          ##.........|
          #@|......./|
          ##|........|
          ##--------

    Slashdot the Slashdotter St:13 Dx:9 Co:12 In:15 Wi:18 Ch:8 Lawful
    Dlvl:87 $:0 HP:13(13) Pw:2(2) AC:9 Exp:1

    (damn its hard to avoid lameness filter)
    • That wisdom is way too high. You've also got the alignment wrong. Lawful?

      (adding re: to the subject triggered the damn lameness filter)
  • i've been looking for a specifi ASCII-graphics DOS-based dungeon adventure game for a decade. i played it on a Tandy in 1987. it was pretty straightforward - roll up a character, kill stuff to level up. the thing is,i spent many months as a little kid playing it and i'd really love to find it again and play it for nostalgia's sake, and introduce it to a 10-year-old i know. i've downloaded a lot of old dos dungeon games trying to find it but no match yet.

    there were no colors or graphics (except the ascii sym
    • I'm afraid that's nowhere near enough info for me to find it for you. I'd suggest you start by googling larn and roguelike and see if you can find it. Good luck!
    • Afraid I can't help you either. But PC Rogue kept me going for many late nights when I was fifteen, and it's not hard to find. Assuming you can't find what you're looking for, and your 10-year-old can handle the every-key-does-something interface, may I humbly suggest showing him that?
    • Are you thinking of Avalon Hill's Telengard? I know the C64 Version had graphics, but the TRS-80 version was ascii... I think...
  • Is there any good guides for nethack newbies? I don't want full spoilers but I have no idea when to eat/drink and ways of telling what an item is and such, so could someone give me a useful site to head to please?
  • Nethack is great in theory, but I can never get anywhere. Every game ends up like,
    Start game
    Take three steps
    Wipe face
    >Oh no! You wiped your face off! You die!

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