On NetHack's 35th Anniversary, It's Displayed at Museum of Modern Art (linkedin.com) 45
Switzerland-based software developer Jean-Christophe Collet writes:
A long time ago I got involved with the development of NetHack, a very early computer role playing game, and soon joined the DevTeam, as we've been known since the early days. I was very active for the first 10 years then progressively faded out even though I am still officially (or semi-officially as there is nothing much really "official" about NetHack, but more on that later) part of the team.
This is how, as we were closing on the 35th anniversary of the project, I learned that NetHack was being added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art of New York. It had been selected by the Architecture and Design department for its small collection of video games, and was going to be displayed as part of the Never Alone exhibition this fall.
From its humble beginnings as a fork of the 1982 dungeon-exploring game "Hack" (based on the 1980 game Rogue), Nethack influenced both Diablo and Torchlight, Collet writes. But that's just the beginning: It is one of the oldest open-source projects still in activity. It actually predates the term "open-source" (it was "free software" back then) and even the GPL by a few years. It is also one of the first, if not the first software project to be developed entirely over the Internet by a team distributed across the globe (hence the "Net" in "NetHack").
In the same spirit, it is one of the first projects to take feedback, suggestions, bug reports and bug fixes from the online community (mostly over UseNet at the time) long, long before tools like GitHub (or Git for that matter), BugZilla or Discord were even a glimmer of an idea in the minds of their creators....
So what did I learn working as part of the NetHack DevTeam?
First, I learned that you should always write clean code that you won't be embarrassed by, 35 years later, when it ends up in a museum....
Collet praises things like asynchronous communication and distributed teams, before closing with the final lesson he learned. "Having fun is the best way to boost your creativity and productivity to the highest levels.
"There is no substitute.... I am incredibly grateful to have been part of that adventure."
This is how, as we were closing on the 35th anniversary of the project, I learned that NetHack was being added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art of New York. It had been selected by the Architecture and Design department for its small collection of video games, and was going to be displayed as part of the Never Alone exhibition this fall.
From its humble beginnings as a fork of the 1982 dungeon-exploring game "Hack" (based on the 1980 game Rogue), Nethack influenced both Diablo and Torchlight, Collet writes. But that's just the beginning: It is one of the oldest open-source projects still in activity. It actually predates the term "open-source" (it was "free software" back then) and even the GPL by a few years. It is also one of the first, if not the first software project to be developed entirely over the Internet by a team distributed across the globe (hence the "Net" in "NetHack").
In the same spirit, it is one of the first projects to take feedback, suggestions, bug reports and bug fixes from the online community (mostly over UseNet at the time) long, long before tools like GitHub (or Git for that matter), BugZilla or Discord were even a glimmer of an idea in the minds of their creators....
So what did I learn working as part of the NetHack DevTeam?
First, I learned that you should always write clean code that you won't be embarrassed by, 35 years later, when it ends up in a museum....
Collet praises things like asynchronous communication and distributed teams, before closing with the final lesson he learned. "Having fun is the best way to boost your creativity and productivity to the highest levels.
"There is no substitute.... I am incredibly grateful to have been part of that adventure."
Had many great moments in that game (Score:3)
Although I've not playing NetHack in a while, I remember many great moments in that game, from things to do with pets to an amazing escape from the dungeon where I just barley squeaked out... all of the little discoveries too of things like the full moon altering the game.
It's amazing how you can have just as many fond memories of a game based on ASCII symbols as you can with a game that has the most advanced graphics and AI.
In particular I'd like to praise them for the amazing pet AI they have built into NetHack - yes sometimes the pets get in your way or are annoying but a lot of the time they are really helpful and it was awesome that way back then you could train them. Maybe it would be even better with more modern AI approaches but what it did eve way back then was really great.
Re: (Score:2)
Nethack isn't available on the iPhone you "lovingly" crammed in your rancid, santorum-crusted, anus without lube.
wat [apple.com]
and also wat [apple.com]
Looks like it's time to turn AC comments off once more, I've noticed the AC comment quality toilet-diving again.
Re: (Score:2)
I think part of NetHack's timeless appeal is the fact that it doesn't overwhelm you with fancy gfx or sounds, so most of the fun scenes will be played out in your head.
While I've never finished the game or even got my hands on the bloody Amulet of Yendor, I remember some very funny situations like walking into a polymorph trap, turning into a Nazgul with two little pet dragons that had hatched from my backpack after countless of rounds or storage, wielding "Stormbringer" received from a wish, beating up the
Polymorph was fun! (Score:1)
Yes it's moments like that that made the game really fun!
I remember polymorphing my pet a number of times though I remember sometimes that would end up badly...
There's just such a broad range of things that can happen (or that you can do) you get so many unique experiences.
It's amazing how even powered up like you were, or I was at times, death was always much closer at hand than you knew. Or you could just be laid low by lack of food.
I only made it out with the Amulet once, and I think I only ever made it
I've spent a lot of hours in there (Score:3, Interesting)
And never ascended, alas. Clearly I didn't spend that many hours :) Nethack is remarkable not just for its age or popularity, but also for its portability. I've played it on DOS, lots of different Windows, Linux, SCO Xenix and Unix, MacOS, AmigaOS, IRIX, blah blah blah you name it.
One thing it doesn't do, though, is predate "open source" — e.g. Bill Joy uses the phrase "open source code" in this video from 1985 [archive.org] at about 13 minutes and 50 seconds — and he didn't coin it, either. Nethack dates from 1987.
Re: (Score:2)
Definitely a bit of crossed wires in the message here.
Re: (Score:1)
But the codebase dates from 1983. It was originally known as "Hack" and was maintained for the first several years by a smaller team (sometimes just one person); development had slowed considerably, until the Dev Team formed in '87. Development later slowed again (after the release of 3.4), and eventually had to be revived again, by adding new members to the team again; but this time the name was not changed.
I'll say this again (Score:3)
I have ascended with a wishless tourist, and I consider that more of an accomplishment than my bachelor's degree.
Yes that is difficult (Score:1)
I have ascended with a wishless tourist, and I consider that more of an accomplishment than my bachelor's degree.
I have only ascended once, I can't remember many details like what class I was (I'm pretty sure I used wishes though), but I remember sweating all the way back up. I totally agree. I seem to remember my pet was key to my survival, though I can't remember if it lived...
Re: (Score:2)
pic or never happened ...
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty sure Slashdot filters ASCII art these days.
I will say that I had multiple notebooks filled with everything I could figure out on my own, and I'd gotten pretty far in the PC version of Rogue before I started playing Nethack in the first place.
After I won that particular , I went through and read the spoilers and it was infuriating as a pretty hardcore player to find some runs I might've gotten deeper into had I known one stupid detail.
Re: (Score:3)
After I won that particular , I went through and read the spoilers and it was infuriating as a pretty hardcore player to find some runs I might've gotten deeper into had I known one stupid detail.
Nethack's worst failing as a game is that many pieces are not very discoverable. There's a lot of stuff you just have to look up. I had that experience with every other game of its kind too, but the only other one I ever put much time into is larn because I happened to have it for DOS, and I couldn't be online all the time then since I would be using up the phone line.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd gotten pretty far in the PC version of Rogue before I started playing Nethack in the first place
I won Rogue (once) on Coherent 386, and I saved my Inventory. Going back to ascending in Nethack. I think if someone ascended Nethack, they would at least save their results somewhere, unless they were very lucky and did not realize how much of an accomplishment that is. For the curious, below is my inventory I saved from one game of Rogue I won. If it was Nethack, I would have it bronzed and mounted.
Rogue Score 24,020
a) +1 ring of add strength b} +8 plate mail [15] c) 3 scrolls of hold monster d) plati
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, I'm impressed. I've ascended a couple of times in SLASH'EM as a doppleganger wizard, but that combination (while really fun) makes the game easier than most. As a tourist is a real achievement.
Re: (Score:2)
I never ascended and I really doubt I will. But have played/wasted more time on nethack then anything else :)
junethack is on going now (https://junethack.net/) which I am again getting my a**kicked, but having lots of fun. I love being a wizard, and I know that is probably my biggest issue with not ascending. But I play for fun
Re: (Score:2)
The Junethack tournament focuses on the many variants of nethack that have spawned over the years. The November tournament plays the baseline version enhanced with a few challenges. Both run an entire month are much fun!
https://tnnt.org/ [tnnt.org]
https://junethack.net/ [junethack.net]
Re: (Score:1)
Moria, Angband & TOME.. good old memories! (Score:3)
While I never played NetHack, I have lots of nostalgia and good memories for having played so much Moria and its successor Angband and TOME. That story on Slashdot made me find out Tales of Maj’ Eyal (successor of TOME) https://te4.org/ [te4.org] Is still pretty active, nice!
However, with over 30 years that has passed since when I started playing Moria and roguelikes, I unfortunately don’t want to play on a computer anymore (I already spend my workday in front of it) and there doesn’t seem to be a mobile version.
Those games might not have the best graphics (hey, they were 100% ASCII for so long), but I don’t mind, they were a lot of fun, and this is was a game should be about :-)
Re: (Score:2)
and there doesn’t seem to be a mobile version.
i can't believe there is a platform where nethack or some offspring doesn't run, it's likely the most "ported" game of all times. i remember having played it on an atari portfolio. someone above posted links even for the posh apple snowflake thingy, so look again.
Re: (Score:2)
I posted the app store links, just because I was irritated by what I felt had to be false, and yeah, one search and I found that it was.
But I suspect the GP is talking about TOME. The requirements [te4.org] say it's an OpenGL/SDL application. It should be possible to get that to work on Android [youtube.com] using the NDK. The author's site seems to be dead, if you go there you just get an empty index, and the main.cpp is 404. Might be able to get it from the internet archive though.
Re: (Score:2)
Great there are mobile versions of NetHack, there is indeed :-) I was referring to mobile versions of Tales of Maj’ Eyal. I mentioned in my first sentence that I never played NetHack itself. Thanks!
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, that's what I meant, not TOME. It is theoretically possible for your favorite game to be made into an Android version per above link to video, because its graphics output is based on OpenGL and SDL 2. I suspect that the amount of work involved is somewhere between trivial and annoying depending on what OpenGL features were used, but it didn't look like it was much.
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, there is. It's called the Z-machine, and there are emulators (usually called "interpreters") for it, for every platform you've ever heard of and many that you haven't. There are hundreds of games for the z-machine, the most famous of which are probably Zork I, II, and III. NetHack *can't* run on the z-machine (or some of the platforms that it in turn runs on) because NetHack needs dynamic memory allocation and filesys
Re: (Score:2)
this is very interesting!
i am not sure however if z-machine counts as "platform" as it is really just an abstraction layer for a specific type of game. as such that interpreter needs a platform to run and odds are there could be (or most likely already is) a port of nethack running alongside natively on that platform, there would be no point in expecting nethack to be rewritten in ZIL even if the language constraints permitted such a thing (surely a challenge worth an exceptional nerd badge!).
Re: (Score:1)
> likely already is) a port of nethack running alongside natively on that platform
No, as I said before, there are working z-machine emulators for some platforms that are
categorically incapable of running NetHack. The z-machine was specifically designed to
be able to run on anything, and it was designed in the seventies. One of its design
constraints is no dynamic memory allocation. All memory is allocated at compile time,
s
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing can beat the feel of running through them with keybind muscle memory...
Pdp11 rogue player reporting in (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
An Amulet of Yendor to all!
Ugh, another cheap, plastic, imitation...
Teaches patience and persistence (Score:2)
Teaches patience and persistence https://mrflash818.livejournal... [livejournal.com]
Do you fear the ampersand? (Score:2)
I still play it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
nethack-x11? blasphemy! But I have run console nethack on every generation of Windows except this latest junk, and on DOS from 3.0 on up too. Nethack for DOS used to run in 448k on my IBM PC 5150. I just looked and it says it requires 530kB now, so I wouldn't have been able to run version 3.3.1 on my first PC :)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Meh. Rogue on the IBM PC used the special CP437 characters and color text (including blinking) to make the game more readable and it was much better for it.
Rogue wasn't supposed to be cryptic, after all. They did the best they could within the limits of the technology of the time.
NetHack has options like IBMgraphics and DECgraphics and even a way to mimic the look of Rogue. Imagine what could be done with UTF-8!
There is a certain personality type that's attracted to the needlessly cryptic look. For some
Re: (Score:2)
I find that it's easier to tell what things are in the text version because the tiles are too small for good detail. It's simply easier to see.
More than the sum of its parts. (Score:1)
Sometimes I can't tell if I love it or hate it, but I can't stop playing it. Haunting, engaging, compelling, infuriating, unfair, rewarding, hilarious, insightful... and you'd be surprised what types of real-world risk aversion skills can be learned from it. It does deserve to be preserved for posterity. Congratulations to everyone who has worked on this simple masterpiece of a game over the years.
Classic (Score:5, Funny)
Time for this old quote: You look both ways down a hallway, start to sweat, then realize you're looking at an email address
Re: (Score:1)
Free Software and Open Source. (Score:3)
pity young software developers... (Score:2)
They won't know the joy of running NetHack while waiting for your compile/build to complete. We had a hacked version of NetHack called "twinkie" because there was a party room ("a big delight") on every level.
You bastard. (Score:2)