xref: /netbsd-src/games/hack/hack.6 (revision 9fbd88883c38d0c0fbfcbe66d76fe6b0fab3f9de)
1.\"	$NetBSD: hack.6,v 1.7 2001/04/02 22:42:38 wiz Exp $	-*- nroff -*-
2.Dd March 31, 1985
3.Dt HACK 6
4.Os
5.Sh NAME
6.Nm hack
7.Nd Exploring The Dungeons of Doom
8.Sh SYNOPSIS
9.Nm /usr/games/hack
10.Op Fl d Ar directory
11.Op Fl n
12.Op Fl u Ar playername
13.Nm /usr/games/hack
14.Op Fl d Ar directory
15.Op Fl s
16.Op Fl X
17.Op Ar playername ...
18.Sh DESCRIPTION
19.Nm
20is a display oriented dungeons & dragons - like game.
21Both display and command structure resemble rogue.
22(For a game with the same structure but entirely different display -
23a real cave instead of dull rectangles - try Quest.)
24.Pp
25To get started you really only need to know two commands.  The command
26.Ic ?
27will give you a list of the available commands and the command
28.Ic /
29will identify the things you see on the screen.
30.Pp
31To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people high
32scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere below
33the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out.  Nobody has achieved this
34yet and if somebody does, he will probably go down in history as a hero
35among heroes.
36.Pp
37When the game ends, either by your death, when you quit, or if you escape
38from the caves,
39.Nm
40will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scorers.  The scoring
41is based on many aspects of your behavior but a rough estimate is
42obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in the cave plus four
43times your (real) experience. Precious stones may be worth a lot of gold
44when brought to the exit.
45There is a 10% penalty for getting yourself killed.
46.Pp
47The administration of the game is kept in the directory specified with the
48.Fl d
49option, or, if no such option is given, in the directory specified by
50the environment variable
51.Ev HACKDIR ,
52or, if no such variable exists, in the current directory.
53This same directory contains several auxiliary files such as lockfiles and
54the list of topscorers and a subdirectory
55.Pa save
56where games are saved.
57The game administrator may however choose to install hack with a fixed
58playing ground, usually
59.Pa /var/games/hackdir .
60.Pp
61The
62.Fl n
63option suppresses printing of the news.
64.Pp
65The
66.Fl u
67.Ar playername
68option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".
69When
70.Ar playername
71has as suffix one of
72.Em -T ,
73.Em -S ,
74.Em -K ,
75.Em -F ,
76.Em -C ,
77or
78.Em -W ,
79then this supplies the answer to the question "What kind of character ... ?".
80.Pp
81The
82.Fl s
83option will print out the list of your scores. It may be followed by arguments
84.Fl X
85where X is one of the letters C, F, K, S, T, W to print the scores of
86Cavemen, Fighters, Knights, Speleologists, Tourists or Wizards.
87It may also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the
88players mentioned.
89.Sh AUTHORS
90Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
91original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
92.br
93Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into the current
94version - in fact an entirely different game.
95.Sh FILES
96.Bl -tag -width 24n -compact
97.It Pa hack
98The hack program.
99.It Pa data, rumors
100Data files used by hack.
101.It Pa help, hh
102Help data files.
103.It Pa record
104The list of topscorers.
105.It Pa save
106A subdirectory containing the saved games.
107.It Pa bones_dd
108Descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a deceased adventurer.
109.It Pa xlock.dd
110Description of a dungeon level.
111.It Pa safelock
112Lock file for xlock.
113.It Pa record_lock
114Lock file for record.
115.El
116.Sh ENVIRONMENT
117.Bl -tag -width 24n -compact
118.It Ev USER No or Ev LOGNAME
119Your login name.
120.It Ev HOME
121Your home directory.
122.It Ev SHELL
123Your shell.
124.It Ev TERM
125The type of your terminal.
126.It Ev HACKPAGER, PAGER
127Pager used instead of default pager.
128.It Ev MAIL
129Mailbox file.
130.It Ev MAILREADER
131Reader used instead of default (probably /usr/bin/mail).
132.It Ev HACKDIR
133Playground.
134.It Ev HACKOPTIONS
135String predefining several hack options (see help file).
136.El
137.Pp
138Several other environment variables are used in debugging (wizard) mode,
139like
140.Ev GENOCIDED ,
141.Ev INVENT ,
142.Ev MAGIC
143and
144.Ev SHOPTYPE .
145.Sh BUGS
146Probably infinite.
147Mail complaints to mcvax!aeb .
148