xref: /netbsd-src/games/hack/hack.6 (revision b8c616269f5ebf18ab2e35cb8099d683130a177c)
1.\"	$NetBSD: hack.6,v 1.10 2002/09/26 18:32:01 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
10.Op Fl d Ar directory
11.Op Fl n
12.Op Fl u Ar playername
13.Nm ""
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 \*[Am] 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.
26The command
27.Ic ?
28will give you a list of the available commands and the command
29.Ic /
30will identify the things you see on the screen.
31.Pp
32To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people high
33scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere below
34the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out.
35Nobody has achieved this yet and if somebody does, he will probably go
36down in history as a hero among heroes.
37.Pp
38When the game ends, either by your death, when you quit, or if you escape
39from the caves,
40.Nm
41will give you (a fragment of) the list of top scorers.
42The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior but a rough estimate
43is obtained by taking the amount of gold you've found in the cave plus four
44times your (real) experience.
45Precious stones may be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit.
46There is a 10% penalty for getting yourself killed.
47.Pp
48The administration of the game is kept in the directory specified with the
49.Fl d
50option, or, if no such option is given, in the directory specified by
51the environment variable
52.Ev HACKDIR ,
53or, if no such variable exists, in the current directory.
54This same directory contains several auxiliary files such as lockfiles and
55the list of topscorers and a subdirectory
56.Pa save
57where games are saved.
58The game administrator may however choose to install hack with a fixed
59playing ground, usually
60.Pa /var/games/hackdir .
61.Pp
62The
63.Fl n
64option suppresses printing of the news.
65.Pp
66The
67.Fl u
68.Ar playername
69option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".
70When
71.Ar playername
72has as suffix one of
73.Em -T ,
74.Em -S ,
75.Em -K ,
76.Em -F ,
77.Em -C ,
78or
79.Em -W ,
80then this supplies the answer to the question "What kind of character ... ?".
81.Pp
82The
83.Fl s
84option will print out the list of your scores.
85It may be followed by arguments
86.Fl X
87where X is one of the letters C, F, K, S, T, W to print the scores of
88Cavemen, Fighters, Knights, Speleologists, Tourists or Wizards.
89It may also be followed by one or more player names to print the scores of the
90players mentioned.
91.Sh AUTHORS
92Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
93original hack, very much like rogue (but full of bugs).
94.br
95Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into the current
96version - in fact an entirely different game.
97.Sh FILES
98.Bl -tag -width 24n -compact
99.It Pa hack
100The hack program.
101.It Pa data, rumors
102Data files used by hack.
103.It Pa help, hh
104Help data files.
105.It Pa record
106The list of topscorers.
107.It Pa save
108A subdirectory containing the saved games.
109.It Pa bones_dd
110Descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a deceased adventurer.
111.It Pa xlock.dd
112Description of a dungeon level.
113.It Pa safelock
114Lock file for xlock.
115.It Pa record_lock
116Lock file for record.
117.El
118.Sh ENVIRONMENT
119.Bl -tag -width 24n -compact
120.It Ev USER No or Ev LOGNAME
121Your login name.
122.It Ev HOME
123Your home directory.
124.It Ev SHELL
125Your shell.
126.It Ev TERM
127The type of your terminal.
128.It Ev HACKPAGER, PAGER
129Pager used instead of default pager.
130.It Ev MAIL
131Mailbox file.
132.It Ev MAILREADER
133Reader used instead of default (probably
134.Pa /usr/bin/mail ) .
135.It Ev HACKDIR
136Playground.
137.It Ev HACKOPTIONS
138String predefining several hack options (see help file).
139.El
140.Pp
141Several other environment variables are used in debugging (wizard) mode,
142like
143.Ev GENOCIDED ,
144.Ev INVENT ,
145.Ev MAGIC
146and
147.Ev SHOPTYPE .
148.Sh BUGS
149Probably infinite.
150Mail complaints to mcvax!aeb .
151