NetHack
1987
- role-playing (rpg)
- fantasy
- single player
The story
NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987 with ASCII graphics. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack, which was inspired by Rogue. The player chooses a character race and class; their mission is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor in a randomly generated dungeon.
What it’s like
Dense grids of ASCII on a black terminal screen: every monster a letter, every potion a punctuation mark, the dungeon drawn in pale dashes and pipes that flicker into view as you walk through unlit corridors. There is no music to speak of, only the terse chime of a message line and the rustle of your own decisions, so the atmosphere is built almost entirely from text and anticipation. The vibe is austere, wry and quietly tense, a cold-lamp study of risk where a single misstep can end a run that took hours. Sessions are turn-based and unhurried, suited to a late evening alone, a long-haul flight on a laptop, or a stretch of tinkering when you have time to pore over inventory and weigh each unidentified flask. Pacing is patient but the dungeon is never safe: death is permanent and every run reshuffles the map, so the arc belongs to the player's own gradual learning, failing, and returning with sharper instincts. Its humour is dry and its dread comes from mechanics rather than gore; violence is abstract, with combat reported in single lines and deaths recorded as epitaphs, so it stays low in graphic intensity though it can be cruel and punishing. Fans of roguelikes, systems-heavy fantasy and open-source tinkering will find it most rewarding.
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