Nethack 20 Years Old Today

An Anonymous Reader wrote in to mention that, according to an informational page about the venerable game Hack, today is Hack's 20th birthday. From the page: "In December 1984 I distributed Hack 1.0 in the newsgroup net.sources.... [T]here were 15 pieces, all sent out on 17-Dec-84." From the reader: "This was the first widespread distribution of the game, which was created by Jay Fenlason a couple of years previously. Nethack's history continues here. You can download this descendant of Rogue from its home page, or connect to a nethack server. Many nethack veterans try their hand at Slash'EM, a.k.a., "nethack on amphetamines". Here's to another 20 years of training your dog to rip off shopkeepers."

Comments

My oldest and least successful hobby

[Nine Tenths of The W]

I must be the worst Nethack player ever - I've been through various states of addiction to it for 16 years and have still to ever get past the 14th level of the dungeon

Commercial games vs. Nethack vs. SLASH'EM

[flamearrows]

When people ask about the difficulty of nethack and SLASH'EM, they are usually told the following (on rgrn). Commercial games want you to win. Nethack doesn't care either way. SLASH'EM wants you DEAD.