HACK, the greatest Computer Game Ever!

[Freethinker]

After having broken my addiction to HACK many years ago, I ran across a copy of it recently and started playing it again!

Does anyone else know of this game? Play it?

My addiction has started again! Nice doggy! Late hours, tired eyes, ... MORE COFFEE!

Damn cockatrice:!

[Aki]

where can i get this game? is it free?

[Freethinker]

OK, let me provide a little explanation. HACK is what is known as a Roguelike game. Rogue was a D&D based game originally made for unix systems in the early '80's. It was HACKED to add more functions and features, thus HACK the game. It came out '84-85 for DOS.

The current version is available for various operating systems including Windows and PALM OS.

But it is still based on the original low tech/ high game play design of the game. If you are looking for the latest and greatest 3D gaming engine, DOOM 3 is out soon. (Make sure you have the latest video card, plenty of RAM and lots of Processor power.) Hack uses ANSI character based display. The game screen is alpha characters, e.g. YOU are the "@" symbol, your companion dog is a lower case "d".

But it offers far more interaction and has more strategy than the more graphically advanced games.

That said, you can learn about the game and it's history at:

http://www.freewebs.com/drussell/RevivedHack.htm


It will lead you to, and you can download the game at:

http://www.freewebs.com/drussell/Download.htm

[IrishEyes]

I'm not very into computer games. I was a Solitaire addict for a very long time, but have outgrown that. Actually though, thanks to Mr. Irish's recent install of LINUX on my computer, I've been trying out some of the regularly installed games. My current fave is KAtomic. I've actually gotten my kids into this one as well. Has anyone else seen or played this game? I think it is a great exercise in thinking outside the box, and it is also a very basic intro to chemistry. What fun!!

[Tormod]

I tried to install Linux once, yeah, but failed miserably (although I DID get to play KAtomic!).

Thanks for the tip, FT. I've never tried Hack...better check it out. Too bad there is no Mac version since I have Mac at work...

[Freethinker]

To perhaps give some reference, my sons' systems can and do handle the just released DOOM 3. They love it. Yet they still regularly load up hack and spend hours on it.

Irish, not only is hack avail for linux, that is it's native environment.

[Buffy]

Oh, jeez. Now I've wasted a whole 15 mins. I've never liked the Doom games, but I thought I was done with my Hack addiction. I should delete this Revised Hack thing before I waste anymore time. For historical purposes, I recommend this to everyone who wants to know what it was like back in the dark ages before memory mapped video...this one was a breakthrough...and thanks to Ken Arnold, it ran on an ADM 3a....

You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike...

Cheers,
Buffy

[Fishteacher73]

ADOM is another good rogue-like game. (Ancient Domains Of Mystery). I played for hours and hours...Massive in scale and complexity.

You should be able to find it at:

http://www.adom.de/

Good luck..

[pgrmdave]

Does anybody know where I could find the source code for Rogue?

[Buffy]

Originally Posted by pgrmdave

Does anybody know where I could find the source code for Rogue?

I prefer hack, which is really just rogue except it keeps a database of past games and creates "ghosts" from your old dead selves, so it makes it more interesting. There are some compiled windows versions around, but you can use most sources of rogue or hack along with PDCurses to emulate the screen library. The definitive archive appears to be here: http://roguelikedevelopment.org/archive/

I have the original hack source lying around somewhere, and if you pester me enough I might go find it.

You hit the Gnome, the Gnome hits,
Buffy