4 ms·

A NetHack adventure

49 points by mapleoin 17y ago

mapleoin 17y ago
Skip to Part 1 if you already know what NetHack is about. I found the narrative very entertaining to read.
- dirtbox 17y ago
  Dwarf Fortress is one of my all time favourite twists on the Roguelike genre. Something Awful had a very amusing succession game that's worth a read too; http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Boatmurdered http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Boatmurdered
  - patio11 17y ago
    If you have the right kind of mind to get into Dwarf Fortress, it is one of the most interesting games I've ever played. You start to really care about these ASCII characters, especially when one devastated by his wife being killed by raiding goblins goes into mourning, snaps, and murders your blacksmith to turn his skin into gloves... and they're the best gloves your town has ever produced, worthy of a name out of legend.
  - garote 17y ago
    That read is absolutely HILARIOUS. "A few more war dogs ran out and attacked. I have to say I'm slightly terrified by them. One of the bitches actually gave birth while she was attacking, and her puppies joined in on the carnage"
- JadeNB 17y ago
  I think the beginning is worth a read in any case. This: > The answer is simple: Nethack does what computers do best - what computers were invented for. It hands you a symbolic representation of something, and lets you interact with it. The symbols are utterly mundane ... but the interaction is extraordinarily complicated. is a beautiful idea, and had never occurred to me, despite my longterm adventures in Angband. (I'm also not quite sure that it's not pushing a metaphor too far, but it's lovely anyway.)
  - garote 17y ago
    Thank you. :) Yes, I bent the metaphor over backwards, but, Nethack does the same thing to the brain, so, it's all good...
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
vlisivka 17y ago
You can watch other players in realtime here: telnet://nethack.alt.org . More resources: http://alt.org/nethack/ http://alt.org/nethack/
- garote 17y ago
  That's where I played the game mentioned in the writeup, in fact. I wonder if the replay is still buried in the server somewhere...
lotharbot 17y ago
As ascension posts go, this is pretty mundane; a fairly normal first ascension. Don't get me wrong--it's an enjoyable read--but it misses out on what makes Nethack a truly unique gaming experience. Nethack is fundamentally a hacker game. It's about exploiting the rules, exploiting the programming in order to solve unreasonably difficult problems in creative ways. Just as an example, he mentions black pudding farming simply as a tactic he's copied from others. But the true spirit of Nethack was when another player and I invented black pudding farming: putting together the tactics and equipment to make it viable in order to solve a specific problem. At a high level of play, one is constantly doing that sort of thing on the spot. Ascension posts by good players commonly introduce completely new tactics.
- Dove 17y ago
  Funny thing about Nethack... a newbie looks at it and says "what is this, a computer hacking game?" An intermediate player says "oh, I see, it's just an RPG." An advanced player says "oh, wait, it is a hacking game!"
- garote 17y ago
  Well laa dee daa, aren't you cool. Speaking as the author of that essay, I can tell you, I did my fair share of hacking. I'll go up against you in a hacker dick-measuring contest any day. Back in 1992 I was rolling my own builds of Nethack on a university server, OVER DIALUP, to play it my own way. And before Nethack I was hex-editing my copy of Beneath Apple Manor. So nyeah.
  - lotharbot 17y ago
    "I can tell you, I did my fair share of hacking." This is a fair response. I didn't feel your essay brought out that aspect of the game very well, but I have no reason to doubt it happened. IMO, the use and abuse of the game's rules are the most interesting bit of Nethack, and I wanted to highlight that. "I'll go up against you in a hacker dick-measuring contest any day." This is ridiculous and in no way appropriate. I meant nothing personal by my comment.
- mapleoin 17y ago
DLWormwood 17y ago
I admit I could never quite get the allure of NetHack. I was a Moria/Angband man in college. It seemed those games were more in line with the original Rogue, than the "everything AND the kitchen sink" special case-ism that filled NetHack. I'd rather play a game I have a reasonable chance of winning is a short period of time, than have to spend decades trying for my first ascension unless I cheat by reading the spoilers (that is, the source).
- whimsy 17y ago
  Thanks for introducing me to alternatives; I am of the same predisposition but had not heard of Moria/Angband.

A NetHack adventure

49 points by mapleoin 17y ago

mapleoin 17y ago

Skip to Part 1 if you already know what NetHack is about. I found the narrative very entertaining to read.

dirtbox 17y ago
Dwarf Fortress is one of my all time favourite twists on the Roguelike genre. Something Awful had a very amusing succession game that's worth a read too; http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Boatmurdered http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Boatmurdered
- patio11 17y ago
  If you have the right kind of mind to get into Dwarf Fortress, it is one of the most interesting games I've ever played. You start to really care about these ASCII characters, especially when one devastated by his wife being killed by raiding goblins goes into mourning, snaps, and murders your blacksmith to turn his skin into gloves... and they're the best gloves your town has ever produced, worthy of a name out of legend.
- garote 17y ago
  That read is absolutely HILARIOUS. "A few more war dogs ran out and attacked. I have to say I'm slightly terrified by them. One of the bitches actually gave birth while she was attacking, and her puppies joined in on the carnage"
JadeNB 17y ago
I think the beginning is worth a read in any case. This: > The answer is simple: Nethack does what computers do best - what computers were invented for. It hands you a symbolic representation of something, and lets you interact with it. The symbols are utterly mundane ... but the interaction is extraordinarily complicated. is a beautiful idea, and had never occurred to me, despite my longterm adventures in Angband. (I'm also not quite sure that it's not pushing a metaphor too far, but it's lovely anyway.)
- garote 17y ago
  Thank you. :) Yes, I bent the metaphor over backwards, but, Nethack does the same thing to the brain, so, it's all good...

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

vlisivka 17y ago

You can watch other players in realtime here: telnet://nethack.alt.org . More resources: http://alt.org/nethack/ http://alt.org/nethack/

garote 17y ago
That's where I played the game mentioned in the writeup, in fact. I wonder if the replay is still buried in the server somewhere...

lotharbot 17y ago

As ascension posts go, this is pretty mundane; a fairly normal first ascension. Don't get me wrong--it's an enjoyable read--but it misses out on what makes Nethack a truly unique gaming experience. Nethack is fundamentally a hacker game. It's about exploiting the rules, exploiting the programming in order to solve unreasonably difficult problems in creative ways. Just as an example, he mentions black pudding farming simply as a tactic he's copied from others. But the true spirit of Nethack was when another player and I invented black pudding farming: putting together the tactics and equipment to make it viable in order to solve a specific problem. At a high level of play, one is constantly doing that sort of thing on the spot. Ascension posts by good players commonly introduce completely new tactics.

Dove 17y ago
Funny thing about Nethack... a newbie looks at it and says "what is this, a computer hacking game?" An intermediate player says "oh, I see, it's just an RPG." An advanced player says "oh, wait, it is a hacking game!"
garote 17y ago
Well laa dee daa, aren't you cool. Speaking as the author of that essay, I can tell you, I did my fair share of hacking. I'll go up against you in a hacker dick-measuring contest any day. Back in 1992 I was rolling my own builds of Nethack on a university server, OVER DIALUP, to play it my own way. And before Nethack I was hex-editing my copy of Beneath Apple Manor. So nyeah.
- lotharbot 17y ago
  "I can tell you, I did my fair share of hacking." This is a fair response. I didn't feel your essay brought out that aspect of the game very well, but I have no reason to doubt it happened. IMO, the use and abuse of the game's rules are the most interesting bit of Nethack, and I wanted to highlight that. "I'll go up against you in a hacker dick-measuring contest any day." This is ridiculous and in no way appropriate. I meant nothing personal by my comment.
mapleoin 17y ago

DLWormwood 17y ago

I admit I could never quite get the allure of NetHack. I was a Moria/Angband man in college. It seemed those games were more in line with the original Rogue, than the "everything AND the kitchen sink" special case-ism that filled NetHack. I'd rather play a game I have a reasonable chance of winning is a short period of time, than have to spend decades trying for my first ascension unless I cheat by reading the spoilers (that is, the source).

whimsy 17y ago
Thanks for introducing me to alternatives; I am of the same predisposition but had not heard of Moria/Angband.