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READ.ME
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1996-06-08
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NetHack is Copyright (C) Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
and M. Stephenson. NetHack may be freely redistributed.
See license for details.
Installing NetHack 3.2 for the PC
=================================
(last revision: June 08, 1996)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello ..., welcome to NetHack!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The current (Version 3.2.1) official binary distributions of
NetHack 3.2 run on 386 or higher PC compatibles running MS-DOS or
PC-DOS version 3.3 or later. The real-mode overlaid version might
run on a 286, but it has not been tested on one.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to set up the game:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In order to install this particular version of NetHack, you will need a PC
compatible with a 386 or higher processor running MS-DOS or PC-DOS
3.3 or later.
For the real-mode overlaid binary (nh321rm.zip) you will need 570k
or more of base RAM free and just over 2 MB of free disk space.
Extended memory will significantly improve performance, and so
will an active disk cache such as the one supplied with the recent
versions of DOS.
For the protected-mode binary (nh321pm.zip) you will need at least
3 MB of extended memory available for use by DPMI programs, and
just over 2 MB of disk space.
NetHack consumes a lot of RAM and the more it has available
the faster it runs; it is therefore recommended that you do NOT use
it in conjunction with large memory-resident programmes, or RAM
disks that consume significant amounts of base memory.
The most straightforward method of setting up the game is to put all of
the NetHack files into a single directory - C:\GAMES\NETHACK would be
a typical choice. Invoke the NETHACK.EXE executable in this directory
to run NETHACK.
At this point, on a thoroughly clonal machine, you should have a
playable game, but you quite likely want to poke around in NETHACK.CNF
with a text editor to set up pragmatic things (like where to
store saved games), aesthetic things (like whether to use traditional
ASCII characters or graphical tiles), and Fun Stuff (like the name of
your character and your pet). If your machine is not a solid clone,
this step can save your metaphorical bacon by eliminating some otherwise
reasonable assumptions about how things work inside....
With luck the comments in NETHACK.CNF should be adequate to
figuring out how things work.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contacts:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have problems with this package, or in general with NetHack on
the PC, you can try contacting one of the following:
NetHack Development Team nethack-bugs@linc.cis.upenn.edu
Paul T Winner p00088@psilink.com
and
Compuserve 73207,226
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bug reports nethack-bugs@linc.cis.upenn.edu
Please mention which of the 'official' nh3.2.1 binaries you are using,
which operating system and version that you are running it on,
and whether you use a disk cache, ramdisk, EMS or other such
dis-enhancement as well as the EXACT error message and diagnostic code.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frequently asked questions:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
You asked:
I try to start up NetHack on my 8088 machine, but all I
get back is the dos prompt.
Our installation expert replies:
It's like this, NetHack has become so large, and contains so
many feature laden adventures that it requires more processor
power than your machine can muster. Rather than cripple the
game for the rest of us, we chose to support only those machines
upon which the game was playable. Sure we could make it so it
would run on your machine, but it would take 3 minutes a move and
you would just gripe more.
You asked:
Wow this is a really neat game. Is there any way to explore it
without dying so much?
Our staff schizophrenic replies:
Gentle Reader, I fear this is a most delicate question. It is a
frequent theme in fantasy literature that it is far easier to be
granted a wish than it is to decide upon a good wish to make. But I
am no djinn, and I am willing to advise you on this point as well.
And so I shall make the observation that, no matter what transpires,
you will always die the same amount, viz: once. (Unless of course
some sort of magic intervenes.) Perhaps what you want is a way to
avoid dying so soon?
As it happens, this latter can be accomplished. Death, as it
transpires, is characterisable as _finitely avoidable_ in NetHack, for
there is a Mystic Prompt known to those who have read the Man Page of
Doom, the words of which, it is sometimes whispered, are as follows:
Die? [yn]
The benefit of being asked this question at the, shall we say,
appropriate, crucial moments is available -- for a price.
Classically, an acceptable consideration would be the player's soul;
but since according to the hallowed doctrines of most major religions,
@-signs don't have souls to sell, we will be contented with your
score.... For lo! The game contains an X command, and by the
strangely inexplicable power of the elder gods this X standeth for the
word Discover (or EXplore, in the ancient tongue), and the typing of
this Mystic Device shall effect the deal as described above,
paragraphs 2 and 3.
Furthermore, and alternately, IF YOU ORDER IMMEDIATELY at the
outset of a game, AS AN ADDED FREE BONUS YOU WILL RECEIVE A GENUINE
HAND-CRAFTED WAND OF THREE WISHES! Just type NETHACK -X on the
command line and, since NetHack is freely distributable, SEND NO MONEY
NOW. As a variation on this theme, the -D flag will put the game into
its debugging mode, IF you are a wizard... "Speak, wizard, and enter",
to paraphrase the Old Master.
You asked:
Ok the game works. Where do I begin to learn how to play?
A passing strange person replies:
Of course it works. What do you think I am, a radio?
Once you've got into the game, some good commands to try (and
they don't even count as moves!) are ? and /. At risk of sounding
like a marketing blurb, the HELP key (which on your terminal will be
marked with a question mark - and be warned that you may have to
depress the shift key to activate this function!) gives you instant
access to our online help facility. It's kind of a menu with lovely
options like "c" (where you get to see MY NAME in the history of
NetHack!), "i" (which gives you all the important legal blurb which
tells you about your rights and responsibilities as a NetHack
licensee), and the more boring items "a" and "b" which merely explain
all the commands and the display symbols and uninteresting stuff like
that. What the hell. It's there, you can use it.
The / key is pretty good, too. If there's something on the
screen that you don't know what it is, well, it's probably a letter or
a symbol or something. That's wisdom, see? But to get onto the
Eternal Verities, suppose you want to know what it MEANS? Aha! Hit
/, say "y", I want to specify it by cursor (cursors are blinking
underscores, and if you're British like me you can curse them with
your numeric bloody keypad, too -- Americans needn't understand this
joke), whatever it is, and then you can point out the object of your
confusion and have it explicated in frabjous detail. Helps you avoid
getting your face et, sometimes, that. Always nice, not having your
face et.
Oh, right, I almost forgot. There's the Guidebook, too, for
the quiche-eaters in our midst.... You may have got one with your
game.
You asked:
Are ASCII