Hack (video game)

:"Not to be confused with the ".hack" video game and anime franchise."Hack" is a roguelike computer game inspired by "Rogue" that introduced pets and 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 Jon Payne. A greatly extended version was posted on Usenet in 1984 by Andries Brouwer.

Gameplay

The object of the game is to delve into a dungeon to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor.

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

"Key:"
*@ - the player character
*+ - closed door
*$ - gold
*% - food
*L - monster; a leprechaun
* [ - armor
*# - corridor
*< - stairway leading upwards

External links

* [http://homepages.cwi.nl/~aeb/games/hack/hack.html "Hack" 1.03]
*
* [http://www.digital-eel.com/files/hack121.zip "Hack" 1.2.1] (Zip archive for DOS)