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

Cool maths

[Saiyine]

So a game created "a couple of years" before 1984 is twenty years old today?

Re:Cool maths

[Zach Garner]

So a game created "a couple of years" before 1984 is twenty years old today?

That's the difference between creation date and release date. It's common to focus more on the release date.

For a real world example: Many americans believe that people are created sometime before they are born. But still the birth date (somewhat equivalent to a software release date) is used for most purposes.

Re:Too young

[Tired_Blood]

Ahhh, whatever.

Even though a defensive rant is probably unneccessary (I'm still unsure if your comment is in jest), here goes:

That savegame procedure IS cheating (technically speaking) but, honestly, what's it matter to you? There's no way that that cheat could affect your appreciation of the game (it's not multiplayer and I never made any claim of progress).

The point is, I just recently started so I'm still learning (a couple months, as opposed to your claim of a couple decades) and my process is much more efficient than the normal course. By the time I'm comfortable with exploring more of it, I'll do it the normal way. Dying at level 2 the 74th time in a row gets old (normally by starvation).

Btw, the only reason I included that 'cheat' is to show the parent's author just how unique each instance of the game really is.

One last thing: you could also say that all games that allow saved games allow cheating too. It's not like I'm always changing the date to full moon nights (and no, I don't do that).