Hack (video game)
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- Not to be confused with .hack video game and anime franchise.
Hack is a roguelike computer game inspired by Rogue that introduced shops as gameplay elements and expanded available monsters, items, and spells. It later became the basis for NetHack.
History and development
Hack was created in 1982 by Jay Fenlason with the assistance of Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jonathan Payne. A greatly extended version was posted on Usenet in 1984 by Andries Brouwer. It is licensed under a 3-clause BSD-like license.[1]
Gameplay
The object of the game is to delve into a dungeon to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. There are many monsters to defeat, including hobgoblins, leprechauns, acid blobs, bats, centaurs, chameleons, dragons, ghosts, imps, trolls, and more. You must have a fire-resistance ring on to enter Hell, and taking it off while there causes an instadeath. (In later versions however, Hell is renamed and having fire-resistance is no longer necessary.) There are special rooms such as shops, crypts, and vaults. Also found in the game are traps, food items, weapons, tools, armor, potions, scrolls, wands, gems and rings.
Interface
Hack does not implement a graphical user interface; arrangements of ASCII or Extended ASCII glyphs represent game elements. Some later ports of Hack, on AmigaOS for example, use graphical tiles in place of these letters and symbols.
Typical Hack session
You hear some noises in the distance.
------
|..$+# |...<|
+...|#|....|
----- ##+....|
|....|
|...|############### ------
|...|# #-----+-----
|..%|## #|.........|
# -----# #|.[......%L
-+---- ############## #|.........|
|....| # #+@........|
|....+#### ##-----------
|....|
|....+
------
Level 1 Hp 15(15) Ac 9 Str 16 Exp 1
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Key:
- @ - the player character
- + - a door
- $ - gold
- % - food
- L - monster; a leprechaun
- [ - armor
- # - corridor
- < - stairway leading upwards
References
External links
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