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NetHack

Congratulations adventurer!
Your quest is at an end for you have reached the home of NetHack.
Within, the Wizard of Yendor has no power, the Oracle speaks with utmost clarity, and the grid bugs do not bite.
Click friend and enter.

Windows Beta3 Binary Available

A beta build with a fix for nethackw crashing at startup is available for Windows.

MacOS Beta Binary Available

A beta build with fixes for some performance issues is available for MacOS.
Note 1: this package will OVERWRITE any previous NetHack package on your system. Please finish any in-progress games before installing this!
Note 2: this package is not signed, sorry.

For developers: the current branch has been changed from NetHack-3.6.0 to NetHack-3.6.2-beta01.

Current Version

Click here for information on version 3.6.1

Future Deprecation Warnings

C360-25 record file corruption

A repair program is now available.

Help!

What is NetHack? How do I get it? Read our Information page.
What is rec.games.roguelike.nethack? How do I access it? Why do I want to? Read our USENET information page.
Information for Developers

NetHack References on the Web

NetHack in 12 Amazing Terminal Based Games for Linux Enthusiasts

NetHack mentioned in a history of ASCII Art

Computerized Dungeons and Randomly Generated Worlds: From Rogue to Minecraft Published in Proceedings of the IEEE ( Volume: 105, Issue: 5, May 2017 )

NetHack Mr. Wendel on Games

NetHack: THE BEST GAME OF ALL TIME? on Linux Voice

NetHack in Time's list of All-TIME 100 Video Games

NetHack in IGN's "Fifteen Really, Really, Really Hard Games"

NetHack in Gamasutra's "Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs"

NetHack shows up in The DM Of The Rings

NetHack meets EverQuest II. (At least on April Fool's Day.)

NetHack (a song parody), by Rob Balder

The Beeb discovers NetHack - the Computer Game

Top 11 Signs You've Got an Old Computer

Play NetHack, a theme song for NetHack.

Our pet dog is one of the Top Ten Videogame Sidekicks. Congratulations!

Dudley's dungeon, a web comic

BBspot on NetHack: New ATI Card Pushes Limits in ASCII Gaming

The USENET Oracle contemplates encountering a woodchuck
The USENET Oracle contemplates the amulet
The USENET Oracle contemplates stairs
The USENET Oracle contemplates sacrifice
The USENET Oracle contemplates coping with loss
The USENET Oracle contemplates NetHack in Denver
The USENET Oracle contemplates the greatness of NetHack

NetHack in the comics at User Friendly:

NetHack makes techtv's list of https://web.archive.org/web/20020604185956/http://www.techtv.com/extendedplay/story/0,24330,3310903,00.html Best Internet Games

Backhanded compliment of the month award: ignpsx's review of Darkstone:

Ten bucks buys you an awful lot of dungeon-hacking -- it sure ain't NetHack but it ain't bad.

Gamespy.com's "The History of Computer Games" continues with Worlds in Boxes - and NetHack gets another mention.
Gamespot.com: Unsung Heroes - NetHack
Gamespy.com: NetHack is simply an anomaly...
See what happens when NetHack meets T-rex - isn't USENET great?
Salon Technology: "The Best Game Ever"
NetHack mentioned in Gamespy.com's developer week: "The History of Computer Games - Part I"

NetHack in Print

IEEE Spectrum, February 2016, "Games: NetHack and the Joy of Text".

IEEE Computer, February 2011, "Certainty through Uncertainty?". We even got a screenshot.

30th Annual IEEE/NASA Software Engineering Workshop, April 2006, "Understanding Open Source Software through Software Archaeology: The Case of NetHack". The abstract is available online.

"Fatal Distractions", 1994, David Gerrold, The Waite Group.

NetHack Quotes

Nethack is one of my all-time favorite games, one I've been playing since 1200 baud was smokin' fast.
-- Actor Wil Wheaton, http://www.wilwheaton.net

In short, NetHack 3.1.3 is the most elaborate role-playing environment you are ever likely to explore. This is a place to return again and again, each time for a different experience. You're really going to have to play it for a year or two and see for yourself.
-- "Fatal Distractions" by David Gerrold

Thank you for the latest release of gradewrecker. My GPA just went in the corner and shot itself.
-- USENET posting, author unknown

NetHack News

27 Apr 2018	Nethack 3.6.1 released CURRENT VERSION
27 Apr 2018	Future Deprecation Warnings
26 Apr 2018	C360-25 record file corruption repair program available.
09 Jan 2018	The bug list is now available in JSON format. See the bugs page for links to it.
12 Sep 2017	This site is now available via http and https.
Older News

To the Site Map
[ Switch to HTTPS ]

You are visiting us using the http: protocol instead of the more secure https: protocol. We continue to support http: for those people unable to use https:, however we recommend https: instead. To switch to https:, click on the "Switch to HTTPS" link above and use https: the next time you visit us.

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