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- NetHack History file for release 3.2
-
- Behold, mortal, the origins of NetHack...
-
- Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack with help from Kenny Woodland,
- Mike Thome, and Jon Payne.
-
- Andries Brouwer did a major re-write, transforming Hack into a very different
- game, and published (at least) three versions (1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3) for
- UNIX(tm) machines to the Usenet.
-
- Don G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft(tm) C and MS-DOS(tm), producing
- PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC Rainbow graphics in version 1.03g, and
- went on to produce at least four more versions (3.0, 3.2, 3.51, and 3.6).
-
- R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to Lattice(tm) C and the Atari 520/1040ST,
- producing ST Hack 1.03.
-
- Mike Stephenson merged these various versions back together, incorporating
- many of the added features, and produced NetHack version 1.4. He then
- coordinated a cast of thousands in enhancing and debugging NetHack 1.4 and
- released NetHack versions 2.2 and 2.3.
-
- Later, Mike coordinated a major rewrite of the game, heading a team which
- included Ken Arromdee, Jean-Christophe Collet, Steve Creps, Eric Hendrickson,
- Izchak Miller, Eric S. Raymond, John Rupley, Mike Threepoint, and Janet Walz,
- to produce NetHack 3.0c. The same group subsequently released ten patch-
- level revisions and updates of 3.0.
-
- NetHack 3.0 was ported to the Atari by Eric R. Smith, to OS/2 by Timo
- Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel. The three of them and Kevin Darcy
- later joined the main development team to produce subsequent revisions of
- 3.0.
-
- Olaf Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga. Norm Meluch, Stephen
- Spackman and Pierre Martineau designed overlay code for PC NetHack 3.0.
- Johnny Lee ported NetHack 3.0 to the Macintosh. Along with various other
- Dungeoneers, they continued to enhance the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports
- through the later revisions of 3.0.
-
- Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller and Janet Walz,
- the development team which now included Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs,
- Jean-Christophe Collet, Kevin Darcy, Matt Day, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart,
- Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Raymond, and Eric Smith undertook a radical
- revision of 3.0. They re-structured the game's design, and re-wrote major
- parts of the code. They added multiple dungeons, a new display, special
- individual character quests, a new endgame and many other new features, and
- produced NetHack 3.1.
-
- Ken Lorber, Gregg Wonderly and Greg Olson, with help from Richard Addison,
- Mike Passaretti, and Olaf Seibert, developed NetHack 3.1 for the Amiga.
-
- Norm Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl Schelin, Stephen
- Spackman, Steve VanDevender, and Paul Winner, ported NetHack 3.1 to the PC.
-
- Jon W{tte and Hao-yang Wang, with help from Ross Brown, Mike Engber, David
- Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan Handler, Johnny Lee, Tim Lennan, Rob Menke,
- and Andy Swanson developed NetHack 3.1 for the Macintosh, porting it for
- MPW. Building on their development, Barton House added a Think C port.
-
- Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2. Eric Smith ported NetHack 3.1
- to the Atari. Pat Rankin, with help from Joshua Delahunty, is responsible
- for the VMS version of NetHack 3.1. Michael Allison ported NetHack 3.1 to
- Windows NT.
-
- Dean Luick, with help from David Cohrs, developed NetHack 3.1 for X11.
- Warwick Allison added in the "tiled" version of the game and generated most
- of the individual tiles for NetHack 3.2.
-
- The 3.2 development team, comprised of: Michael Allison; Ken Arromdee; David
- Cohrs; Jessie Collet; Steve Creps; Kevin Darcy; Timo Hakulinen; Steve
- Linhart; Dean Luick; Pat Rankin; Eric Smith; Mike Stephenson; Janet Walz; and
- Paul Winner, released version 3.2 in April of 1996.
-
- Version 3.2 marks the tenth anniversary of the formation of the development
- team. In a testament to their dedication to the game, all thirteen members
- of the original development team remained on the team at the start of work
- on the current release. During the interval between the release of 3.1.3
- and 3.2, one of the founding members of the development team, Dr. Izchak
- Miller, passed away. This release of the game is dedicated to him by the
- development and porting teams.
-
- Version 3.2 is more stable than previous versions, (it is hoped). Many bugs
- have been fixed, abuses eliminated, and game features tuned for better game
- play. The menus have been modified to give players more choices in styles
- for menus which require pick list selections. A graphical display has been
- added for some ports. (Added to the X11 port by Dean Luick, to the
- Amiga port by Ken Lorber, and to the DOS port by Michael Allison.) The
- spell system and weapon proficiency portions of the game were adapted by
- Stephen White from his NHPlus variant. (The #qualifications' and '#enhance'
- extended commands were added to make use of these changes.) Additional game
- changes worth mentioning: light sources no longer have to be carried by the
- player to be used; wands can be destroyed if desired (use the 'a'pply
- command); treasures can be found buried in walls or in the floor; the
- '#untrap' command has been improved; and, wands of probing now provide more
- information. Other more subtle changes have also been added to the game.
- You will have to play the game to discover them.
-
- Pat Rankin maintained 3.2 for VMS.
-
- Michael Allison, Yitzhak Sapir, and Paul Winner, with help from Steve Linhart,
- Kevin Smolkowski, Mike Stephenson and Stephen White ported 3.2 for MSDOS.
- Keizo Yamamoto and Ken Washikita ported 3.2 for the NEC 98xx machines popular
- in Japan.
-
- Ken Lorber, Andy Church, and Gregg Wonderly, with help from Richard Addison,
- ported 3.2 for the Amiga.
-
- Dean Luick ported 3.2 to the Macintosh.
-
- Eric Smith and Warwick Allison ported 3.2 for the Ataris.
-
- Michael Allison ported 3.2 for the Microsoft Windows NT platform.
-
- Timo Hakulinen remains responsible for the OS/2 port.
-
- - - - - - - - - - -
-
- From time to time, some depraved individual out there in netland sends a
- particularly intriguing modification to help out with the game. The Gods of
- the Dungeon sometimes make note of the names of the worst of these miscreants
- in this, the list of Dungeoneers:
-
- Andy Church Izchak Miller Mike Passaretti
- Andy Swanson Janet Walz Mike Stephenson
- Ari Huttunen Jean-Christophe Collet Norm Meluch
- Barton House Jochen Erwied Olaf Seibert
- Benson I. Margulies John Kallen Pat Rankin
- Bill Dyer John Rupley Paul Winner
- Boudewijn Wayers John S. Bien Pierre Martineau
- Bruce Holloway Johnny Lee Ralf Brown
- Bruce Mewborne Jon W{tte Richard Addison
- Carl Schelin Jonathan Handler Richard P. Hughey
- David Cohrs Joshua Delahunty Rob Menke
- David Gentzel Keizo Yamamoto Roland McGrath
- David Hairston Ken Arromdee Ross Brown
- Dean Luick Ken Lorber Scott R. Turner
- Del Lamb Ken Washikita Stephen Spackman
- Deron Meranda Kevin Darcy Stephen White
- Eric Backus Kevin Sitze Steve Creps
- Eric Hendrickson Kevin Smolkowski Steve Linhart
- Eric R. Smith Kevin Sweet Steve VanDevender
- Eric S. Raymond Mark Gooderum Tim Lennan
- Frederick Roeber Matthew Day Timo Hakulinen
- Gil Neiger Merlyn LeRoy Tom Almy
- Greg Laskin Michael Allison Tom West
- Greg Olson Michael Hamel Warwick Allison
- Gregg Wonderly Michael Sokolov Yitzhak Sapir
- Hao-yang Wang Mike Engber
- Helge Hafting Mike Gallop
-