NetHack

classical roguelike ASCII graphics computer game released in 1987

Original description from the source, not translated.

Screenshot NetHack / Wikimedia Commons / license not verified

YEAR 1987

GENRE RPG

PLATFORM Android, Linux, Microsoft Windows, macOS, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Classic Mac OS

ABOUT THE GAME

NetHack is a free and open-source, single-player roguelike video game developed by the NetHack Development Team (also known as the DevTeam), a group of developers who collaborate over the internet. It was first released on 28 July 1987 as a fork of Hack, and it is one of the oldest video games still in active development. In the game, the player creates a character, then descends through the Mazes of Menace, a multi-level dungeon, fighting monsters and collecting treasure, with the goal of retrieving the Amulet of Yendor and escaping with it. NetHack has been cited as an influence on later games, including Diablo. As a roguelike, NetHack features turn-based, grid-based dungeon crawling gameplay, procedurally generated levels, and permadeath. The game is known for its difficulty, and for the many ways in which items, monsters, and the environment can interact. It uses simple ASCII graphics by default, but it can also use alternative symbol sets, graphical tiles, and the curses interface. Compared with Rogue, the game that originated the genre, NetHack expanded on the original concept by introducing a wider variety of objects, vocabulary, and popular culture references.

Source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 — NetHack · retrieved October 19, 2026

PROVENANCE

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