Classic ASCII game NetHack debuts version 5.0 just 11 years after last major release
New monsters! New magic items! An Arm port! And compliance with a dead C standard
ANTIQUES CODE SHOW Admirers of Roguelike games have a new distraction: Version 5.0 of NetHack dropped last weekend.
NetHack and its ilk trace their origins back to Rogue, a game for Unix systems launched in 1980 that took the DNA of very early text games like Star Trek and Colossal Cave Adventure and mashed that up with tropes from Dungeons & Dragons. The result was a game in which players roamed around a multi-level dungeon filled with monsters, treasure, and magic items – all represented with ASCII characters.
NetHack adopted that template and arguably improved it by adding more complex quests, more levels to play, and plenty of witty pop culture references.
The game’s developers have kept it alive since its 1987 debut, and in 2015 delivered a major upgrade in the form of version 3.60. Seven point releases emerged in the years since. 2018’s version 3.6.1 saw the project move its source code to GitHub, but most recent releases fixed bugs or added minor gameplay changes.
Version 5.0, which appeared on May 2nd, is a major release.
One change is compliance with the C99 standard, a version of the open standard for the C programming language that became obsolete in 2011. If it seems a bit daft for this new version to comply with an old standard, know that the default configuration for those who compile the code is SysV/Sun/Solaris2.x – because that’s the system NetHack’s devs used to house the code.
A more modern inclusion is the addition of accessibility features.
According to the NetHack Wiki, the new version introduces four new monsters including a genetic engineer which attacks by inflicting random mutations.
It’s also now possible to revive an egg by applying royal jelly, and wearing a wet towel reduces damage from a poison cloud.
In what feels a lot like a nod to Indiana Jones admirers, players who choose the class Archaeologist will enjoy a little more luck if they wear the in-game fedora.
The Register took the new version for a spin and can report it’s as slick and fun as ever. The download for Windows includes a graphical version of the game and the ASCII/TTY interface. Pleasingly, a game saved in one will open in the other, a feature The Register notes because playing the TTY version looks a lot like using a terminal – and therefore might look like work to the untrained or youthful eye – while the Windows version is obviously a game.
NetHack’s developers have created a version for Windows on Arm. The Register tested it on PCs running Qualcomm and AMD processors: Both versions ran just fine. Binaries for MSDOS and the Amiga are also available. The game’s source code includes versions for Linux, macOS, Windows CE, OS/, Unix (*BSD, System V, Solaris, HP-UX and other *nixes too) BeOS, and VMS.
That list of OSes means almost every Register reader can surely experience one of the foundational texts of computer gaming by spending some time playing NetHack! ®