from Hacker News

NetHack 3.6.6

by paraiuspau on 3/13/20, 11:37 AM with 89 comments

  • by bhaak on 3/13/20, 11:53 AM

    Most of those security bugs have been found by using http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/ for fuzzing the config parser of NetHack.

    Also read the hilarious account how neglecting the integer range of parsing a number lead to a config that gives you an almost invincible character from the start:

    https://dpmendenhall.blogspot.com/2020/03/nethack-366-or-how...

  • by picozeta on 3/13/20, 2:42 PM

    It's famous in the roguelike world but I dislike that it is practically pretty much impossible to win without spoilers [0] (which means you have to read about it in wikis and co. to find a strategy that works).

    [0 I know there are some people who managed to ascend (win) without reading up, but they are probably in the < 0.01% so it's definitely not the norm.

  • by tmountain on 3/13/20, 5:40 PM

    I've been playing--and sucking at--roguelikes for years, and I wanted to chime in to suggest "Caves of Qud" for anyone that likes this genre. It's a modern roguelike that's still in active development with a really imaginative universe: "The game features a mix between a post-apocalyptic and a fantasy setting, and is heavily inspired by the pen-and-paper role-playing game Gamma World and Dungeons & Dragons."

  • by classified on 3/13/20, 12:45 PM

    I am still a hardcore fan of Angband:

    https://rephial.org/

    Different types of information (inventory, map, monster info, etc) can all be put in separate windows, so my screen is plastered with Angband windows when I play. Makes for great immersion, and the windows all retain their position and size between program starts.

    It may even be older than Nethack.

  • by pmoriarty on 3/13/20, 5:54 PM

    I love Nethack, and have returned to it time and time again since the 80's. However, much as I love it, for about 6 years now I've been drawn away to Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup[1], which has in some ways evolved past Nethack.

    One of the main draws to DCSS for me has been its autoexplore feature, which makes exploring the dungeon much less of a chore than it was in Nethack. It also has much better use of color in text mode (the only mode I play both games in). Then it has an enormous variety of gods, powers, races, classes, and spells.

    Unfortunately, it does have some downsides compared to Nethack. The interactions with gods, shops, and pets tends to be richer and more complex in Nethack. The things you can do to and with items is as well. The trend in DCSS has been to kind of dumb it down over the years, taking away friction points that made it more complex and thus (arguably) less fun for a certain kind of player. My own taste is for more complexity and more options, so I'm not a huge fan of going in that direction, but I still stick with DCSS because it's great despite that.

    You can play and watch other people play the game by ssh'ing in to crawl.akrasiac.org, with a username and password of "joshua" (a reference to the classic 80's hacking movie Wargames).

    Another game, in some ways very different but in other ways very much in the spirit of both of these games that I've really enjoyed has been Path of Exile.[2] It's not minimalist like Nethack or DCSS, but it definitely has a lot of roguelike elements and is pretty complicated for a mainstream, modern game of this sort, and is a worthy successor of both of these games, in my eyes. It's free to play too, so if you have the slightest interest, give it a go.

    [1] - https://crawl.develz.org/

    [2] - https://www.pathofexile.com/

  • by mysterydip on 3/13/20, 1:56 PM

    My first experience with NetHack was in college, when my roommate convinced me to give it a try. I took about 10 steps in and saw "a rock falls on your head. you die." After several more failures (who knew eating kobolds was bad for you?), starvation, and death, I found the most fun in gaming the character creation system until I got a ring of teleport, going to the nearest shop, taking everything I could, and escaping without paying :D

  • by Tepix on 3/13/20, 12:04 PM

    Nethack is great, is there a server where people can watch someone play the game and have a (audio) chat while watching?

    There's so much stuff to learn, I'd love to chat with an experienced players while they are venturing deeper into the dungeons.

  • by kalium_xyz on 3/13/20, 11:48 AM

    https://www.nethack.org/security/CVE-2020-5254.html Never considered nethack as part of my security model

  • by grawprog on 3/13/20, 6:45 PM

    Just wanted to say, the nethack and unnethack android ports have probably the best controls and interface you could have for a roguelike as complex as them. They're smooth and easy to play, well as far as nethack goes and honestly probably my preferred way to play them these days.

    And as far as mobile games go, can't think of any others that offer so much depth, gameplay and replayability without iap's and bullshit for free.

    Sorry if this sounds like an ad, but I love nethack and getting to carry it around in my pocket and have it play well is just fucking awesome.

  • by crawdingle on 3/13/20, 4:55 PM

    How is Nethack like the Grand Prix? Anyone who says they won without a spoiler is a liar.

  • by atemerev on 3/13/20, 5:35 PM

    So, if you were wondering what to do the next, say, fourteen days...

  • by hypertexthero on 3/13/20, 4:04 PM

    See also:

    Brogue — https://sites.google.com/site/broguegame/ — colorful, user-friendly rogue-like available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

    Streets of Rogue — https://streetsofrogue.com/ — with online cooperative play also available for Mac, Windows and Nintendo Switch.

  • by partomniscient on 3/14/20, 3:09 AM

    I'm just impressed they managed to go from 3.6.5 to 3.6.6 during a leap year, in fact not too far off from Feb 29.

  • by haolez on 3/13/20, 3:07 PM

    I love NetHack. My only gripe with it is that the AI is dumb most of the times and the context of some levels is simply bizarre. The Castle, for example, is just a huge pile of different monsters all trying to kill you just because :)

  • by glouwbug on 3/13/20, 3:09 PM

    The nethack codebase is so old school. Functions are KNR syntax

  • by blasdel on 3/13/20, 11:54 AM

  • by tuerai on 3/14/20, 3:03 PM

    Anyone here ever play IVAN? (Iter Vehemens Ad Necem) It's a pretty fun roguelike with a unique fluid system.

  • by rs23296008n1 on 3/13/20, 1:25 PM

    I had completely forgotten about this old chestnut. Have they made a multiplayer version yet?

  • by mseidl on 3/13/20, 12:14 PM

    This game taxes my graphics card like a mofo