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HACK(6)				  Games	Manual			       HACK(6)

NAME
       hack -- exploring The Dungeons of Doom

SYNOPSIS
       hack [-d	directory] [-n]	[-u playername]
       hack [-d	directory] [-s]	[-X] [playername ...]

DESCRIPTION
       hack  is	a display oriented dungeons & dragons-like game.  Both display
       and command structure resemble rogue.  (For a game with the same	struc-
       ture but	entirely different display - a real cave instead of dull  rec-
       tangles - try Quest.)

       To  get started you really only need to know two	commands.  The command
       ? will give you a list of the available commands	and the	command	/ will
       identify	the things you see on the screen.

       To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to	 beat  other  people's
       high  scores)  you  must	locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere
       below the 20th level of	the  dungeon  and  get	it  out.   Nobody  has
       achieved	 this  yet  and	 if somebody does, he will probably go down in
       history as a hero among heroes.

       When the	game ends, either by your death, when you quit,	or if you  es-
       cape from the caves, hack will give you (a fragment of) the list	of top
       scorers.	  The  scoring is based	on many	aspects	of your	behavior but a
       rough estimate is obtained by taking the	amount of gold you've found in
       the cave	plus four times	your (real) experience.	 Precious  stones  may
       be  worth  a  lot  of  gold  when  brought to the exit.	There is a 10%
       penalty for getting yourself killed.

       The administration of the game is kept in the directory specified  with
       the  -d option, or, if no such option is	given, in the directory	speci-
       fied by the environment variable	HACKDIR, or, if	no such	 variable  ex-
       ists,  in  the current directory.  This same directory contains several
       auxiliary files such as lockfiles and the list of topscorers and	a sub-
       directory save where games are saved.  The game administrator may  how-
       ever  choose  to	 install  hack	with  a	 fixed playing ground, usually
       /var/games/hackdir.

       The -n option suppresses	printing of the	news.

       The -u playername option	supplies the answer to the question  "Who  are
       you?".  When playername has as suffix one of -T,	-S, -K,	-F, -C,	or -W,
       then  this  supplies the	answer to the question "What kind of character
       ... ?".

       The -s option will print	out the	list of	your scores.  It may  be  fol-
       lowed by	arguments -X where X is	one of the letters C, F, K, S, T, W to
       print the scores	of Cavemen, Fighters, Knights, Speleologists, Tourists
       or  Wizards.   It  may  also be followed	by one or more player names to
       print the scores	of the players mentioned.

ENVIRONMENT
       USER or LOGNAME		 Your login name.
       HOME			 Your home directory.
       SHELL			 Your shell.
       TERM			 The type of your terminal.
       HACKPAGER, PAGER		 Pager used instead of default pager.
       MAIL			 Mailbox file.
       MAILREADER		 Reader	 used  instead	of  default  (probably
				 /usr/bin/mail).
       HACKDIR			 Playground.
       HACKOPTIONS		 String	 predefining several hack options (see
				 help file).

       Several other environment variables  are	 used  in  debugging  (wizard)
       mode, like GENOCIDED, INVENT, MAGIC and SHOPTYPE.

FILES
       hack			 The hack program.
       data, rumors		 Data files used by hack.
       help, hh			 Help data files.
       record			 The list of topscorers.
       save			 A subdirectory	containing the saved games.
       bones_dd			 Descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a
				 deceased adventurer.
       xlock.dd			 Description of	a dungeon level.
       safelock			 Lock file for xlock.
       record_lock		 Lock file for record.

AUTHORS
       Jay  Fenlason  (+  Kenny	 Woodland, Mike	Thome and Jon Payne) wrote the
       original	hack, very much	like rogue(6) (but full	of bugs).

       Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their sources  into  the  current
       version - in fact an entirely different game.

BUGS
       Probably	infinite.  Mail	complaints to mcvax!aeb	.

FreeBSD	Ports 14.quarterly	March 31, 1985			       HACK(6)

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