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gustavorg · 3 years ago
I must be some kind of medieval purist because today in the middle of 2023 I still play the original rogue, in its 3.6.3 and 5.4 versions, and I can barely tolerate some of the changes. That's what I don't like about Hack and its "new" incarnation, Nethack. Changes were introduced that change the original spirit. I also played Moria and Adom for years with mixed results. I was never able to play Nethack. I'm going to try, maybe this time I will succeed.
bhaak · 3 years ago
It's as if they are different games with different design philosphies. :-)
rtontic · 3 years ago
Yeah, as sibling said, they are quite different games actually. Rogue to me feels a lot more minimalist, while nethack is 'everything AND a kitchen sink!'.
minikomi · 3 years ago
How else would one identify rings without the sink, though?
fencepost · 3 years ago
Isn't it SLASH'EM that's "everything and the sink?"
Arrath · 3 years ago
May I ask if you've tried other roguelikes over the years?

Caves of Qud is, imo, a particularly exemplary entry into the genre. Its a different approach with a very unique setting and evocative way of story telling. Its just plain...weird.

Pet_Ant · 3 years ago
What changes are the ones that bother you? As someone whose played with neither (though I have played with NetHack's source code) I'm curious.
yyyk · 3 years ago
DCSS would more be in your alley, since the devs actively try to simplify mechanics (perhaps too much IMHO).
chantok · 3 years ago
Just different games. I prefer Moria over Angband. Don’t like some of the changes.
lordleft · 3 years ago
NetHack feels less cohesive and kind of all over the place. Greatly prefer ADOM
JohnFen · 3 years ago
I think nethack is OK, but I'm with you about rogue being the best.
InvOfSmallC · 3 years ago
Did you try Brogue? I love it.
aezart · 3 years ago
My favorite thing about Brogue is that I don't have to build a character before starting. You just jump in and grow your character naturally through equipment choices.
bitofhope · 3 years ago
Just a security patch, but I like seeing NetHack featured.

Looking forward to 3.7 where they finally address a glaring omission where up until now deities have been weirdly indifferent about people vomiting on altars.

Tepix · 3 years ago
Where do people play nethack online these days?

There's a list of public servers in the wiki at https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Public_server but it's hard to tell at a glance which ones are most popular.

em.slashem.me has an SSL certificate which expired last April.

raspyberr · 3 years ago
I think nethack.alt.org has the most players but what I've noticed is that hardfought.org has a much chattier community on IRC.
bhaak · 3 years ago
And Discord. Some of the NetHack IRC channels are bridged with the RL Discord.

https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Libera#.23.23nethack-discord

ianlevesque · 3 years ago
If Dwarf Fortress can get a fantastic GUI, does that mean we can get one for NetHack too? I can dream.
Rietty · 3 years ago
I would check out Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup if you like roguelikes. It is similar to Nethack and has both tiles and an ASCII version.
riffraff · 3 years ago
DCSS is great, the web UI works flawlessly.

https://underhound.eu:8080/#lobby

It has a very different philosophy from NetHack tho, in that you generally have clear trade-offs between your choices (e.g. there isn't a "best" armor or weapon, you have limited skill upgrades and need to choose how to spend them etc..), compared to the "keep buffing up until you're god" you get in NetHack.

Both are a lot of fun and frustration.

aricz · 3 years ago
I'll add Angband to the list. A hack-and-slash roguelike. 1 town, 100 dungeon levels, kill Morgoth and win the game. Diablo 1 was heavily inspired by this game (and Moria).
nix23 · 3 years ago
I add "Caves of Qud" and "Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead" to the list.
unflaggedbird · 3 years ago
Adding Brogue [1] to the list. Neat and very well balanced.

[1] https://github.com/tmewett/BrogueCE

sohkamyung · 3 years ago
There are a number of GUI interfaces to NetHack on their wiki [1]

[1] https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Graphical_user_interface

pabs3 · 3 years ago
Unfortunately some of these aren't very good in some cases, for eg you can't click on the map in the X11 version under GNOME XWayland and the Qt interface just doesn't start on Debian.
stusmall · 3 years ago
I spent more time in college than I care to admit playing either Falcon's Eye or Vulture's Eye. Can't really remember which.
ianlevesque · 3 years ago
Nice! Even a couple mobile versions.
boothby · 3 years ago
I'm quite fond of Pixel Dungeon. It's quite simplistic compared to NetHack but it's good fun (if you like dying early and often) and looks nice. And, bonus, it's GPL3-licensed and hasn't seen an update since 2015, so not only are there a bunch of really creative forks out there, but they're also open source.
chongli · 3 years ago
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is my favourite fork. The game is actively developed and has done a ton of cool things to change up the formula. Really great game to play on a phone!
Alex3917 · 3 years ago
The iOS app just got updated and I think it has new tiles. What we really need imho is a mobile interface like the one that Beamdog designed for the Switch version of Baldur's Gate. That way it could be played on systems like the Steamdeck.
JohnFen · 3 years ago
I had a great GUI for nethack at one time. I forget what is was called, though. There are a number of options, you should try them out.

Personally, the text interface remains my favorite. The world I build in my head is far richer than any GUI can do.

Endy · 3 years ago
Nethack already has a wonderful GUI. Characters are graphical (if it's on the screen, it's a graphic), and there's plenty of tiles you can use.
cafeinux · 3 years ago
By your logic, every CLI program is a GUI program. That may be technically not wrong, but it doesn't really mean it's true, according to what people usually mean when they talk about GUIs.
koolala · 3 years ago
See Pathos? It's streamlined but very inspired with great UI.
SLHamlet · 3 years ago
Oh wow, so happy it's still being updated. One of my first published stories was about the early dev team, but it was even ancient back then:

https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2015/12/nethack-roguelike-rpg-open...

Updated since 1987!

qrush · 3 years ago
Oh great, just the reminder I need to draw me back in and finally figure out how to ascend as a Caveman, Monk, Healer, or Priest. https://alt.org/nethack/player-stats.php?player=DoctorNick
fnordpiglet · 3 years ago
I’m just waiting for rust nethack.
jleedev · 3 years ago
Dipping for Excalibur is a great early way to get this.

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anthk · 3 years ago
Cool, but I still prefer a patched Slashem =).

Altough the references to Terry Pratchett are a good reason to play vanilla Nethack.

lkbm · 3 years ago
I still haven't tried Slashem. I've been using unnethack for the past couple years. I'm not sure why I ended up trying it after years of vanilla.
bhaak · 3 years ago
Maybe because it’s better? (: