NAME

       hack — exploring The Dungeons of Doom

SYNOPSIS

       hack [-d directory] [-n] [-u playername]
       hack [-d directory] [-s] [-X] [playername ...]

DESCRIPTION

       hack  is  a  display  oriented dungeons & dragons-like game.  Both display and command structure resemble
       rogue.  (For a game with the same structure but entirely different display - a real cave instead of  dull
       rectangles - try Quest.)

       To  get  started  you  really  only need to know two commands.  The command ? will give you a list of the
       available commands and the command / will identify the things you see on the screen.

       To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people's high scores)  you  must  locate  the
       Amulet  of  Yendor  which  is  somewhere  below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out.  Nobody has
       achieved this yet and if somebody does, he will probably go down in history as a hero among heroes.

       When the game ends, either by your death, when you quit, or if you escape from the caves, hack will  give
       you (a fragment of) the list of top scorers.  The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior but a
       rough  estimate  is  obtained  by taking the amount of gold you've found in the cave plus four times your
       (real) experience.  Precious stones may be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit.  There is a  10%
       penalty for getting yourself killed.

       The  administration  of  the  game  is kept in the directory specified with the -d option, or, if no such
       option is given, in the directory specified by the environment variable HACKDIR, or, if no such  variable
       exists, in the current directory.  This same directory contains several auxiliary files such as lockfiles
       and  the  list  of  topscorers and a subdirectory save where games are saved.  The game administrator may
       however choose to install hack with a fixed playing ground, usually /var/games/bsdgames/hack.

       The -n option suppresses printing of the news.

       The -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are  you?".   When  playername  has  as
       suffix  one  of  -T,  -S,  -K, -F, -C, or -W, then this supplies the answer to the question "What kind of
       character ... ?".

       The -s option will print out the list of your scores.  It may be followed by arguments -X where X is  one
       of  the  letters  C,  F,  K,  S,  T,  W to print the scores of Cavemen, Fighters, Knights, Speleologists,
       Tourists or Wizards.  It may also be followed by one or more player names to  print  the  scores  of  the
       players mentioned.

AUTHORS

       Jay  Fenlason  (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the original hack, very much like rogue
       (but full of bugs).
       Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources into the  current  version  -  in  fact  an  entirely
       different game.

FILES

       hack                      The hack program.
       data, rumors              Data files used by hack.
       help, hh                  Help data files.
       record                    The list of topscorers.
       save                      A subdirectory containing the saved games.
       bones_dd                  Descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a deceased adventurer.
       xlock.dd                  Description of a dungeon level.
       safelock                  Lock file for xlock.
       record_lock               Lock file for record.

ENVIRONMENT

       USER or LOGNAME           Your login name.
       HOME                      Your home directory.
       SHELL                     Your shell.
       TERM                      The type of your terminal.
       HACKPAGER, PAGER          Pager used instead of default pager.
       MAIL                      Mailbox file.
       MAILREADER                Reader used instead of default (probably /usr/bin/mail).
       HACKDIR                   Playground.
       HACKOPTIONS               String predefining several hack options (see help file).

       Several  other  environment  variables are used in debugging (wizard) mode, like GENOCIDED, INVENT, MAGIC
       and SHOPTYPE.

BUGS

       Probably infinite.  Mail complaints to mcvax!aeb .

Debian                                           March 31, 1985                                          HACK(6)