Hack (video game) in Encyclopedia

Hack (video game)

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Hack (video game)

Not to be confused with .hack video game and anime franchise.

Hack is a roguelike computer game inspired by Rogue that introduced pets and shops as gameplay elements and expanded available monsters, items, and spells. It later became the basis for NetHack.

History and development
Gameplay
Interface

Typical Hack session

References
External links

History and development

Hack was created in 1982 by Jay Fenlason with the assistance of Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jonathan Payne. A greatly extended version was posted on Usenet in 1984 by Andries Brouwer.^[1]

Gameplay

The object of the game is to delve into a dungeon to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor.

Interface

Hack does not implement a graphical user interface; arrangements of ASCII or Extended ASCII glyphs represent game elements. Some later ports of Hack, on AmigaOS for example, use graphical tiles in place of these letters and symbols.

Typical Hack session

You hear some noises in the distance.
 
  
 
                                                                  ------
                                                                  |....|
                       -----                                    ##+....|
                       |..$+#                                     |...<|
                       +...|#                                     |....|
                       |...|###############                       ------
                       |...|#             #-----+-----
                       |..%|##            #|.........|
                  #    -----#             #|.[......%L
       -+----  ##############             #|.........|
       |....|   #                         #+@........|
       |....+####                        ##-----------
       |....|
       |....+
       ------
 
 
 
 
Level 1    Hp  15(15)   Ac 9    Str 16      Exp  1

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