NAME
glhack - Exploring The Mazes of Menace
SYNOPSIS
glhack [options]
glhack -s [options]
DESCRIPTION
glHack is a port of the game NetHack, using hardware acceleration via
OpenGL(R) to render the 2D tile graphics. It uses LibSDL as the video
and input library. There is good support for software rendering as
well.
NetHack is a display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) - like game. The
standard tty display and command structure resemble rogue.
To get started you really only need to know two commands. The ‘?’
command will give you a list of the available commands (as well as
other information) and the ‘/’ command will identify the things you see
on the screen.
To win the game (as opposed to merely playing to beat other people’s
high scores) you must locate the Amulet of Yendor which is somewhere
below the 20th level of the dungeon and get it out. This is not an
easy feat!
When the game ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or escaping from
the caves, glHack will give you (a fragment of) the list of top
scorers. The scoring is based on many aspects of your behavior, but a
rough estimate is obtained by taking the amount of gold you’ve found in
the cave plus four times your (real) experience. Precious stones may
be worth a lot of gold when brought to the exit. There is a 10%
penalty for getting yourself killed.
NETHACK OPTIONS
These are the standard options that NetHack supports.
-u playername
This option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".
It overrides any name from the options or configuration file,
the USER orLOGNAME shell variables, or getlogin(), which will
otherwise be tried in order. If none of these provides a useful
name, the player will be asked for one. Player names (in
conjunction with uids) are used to identify save files, so you
can have several saved games under different names. Conversely,
you must use the appropriate player name to restore a saved
game.
A playername suffix can be used to specify the profession, race,
alignment and/or gender of the character. The full syntax of
the playername that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg".
"ppp" is at least the first three letters of the profession
(this can also be specified using the -p option). "rrr" is at
least the first three letters of the character’s race (this can
also be specified using the -r option). "aaa" is at least the
first three letters of the character’s alignment, and "ggg" is
at least the first three letters of the character’s gender. Any
of the suffix parts suffix may be left out.
-p profession
This can be used to determine the character role. You can
specify either the male or female name for the character role,
or the first three characters of the role as an abbreviation.
‘@’ and random can also be used to mean "choose a random role".
-r race
Likewise this can be used to explicitly request that a race be
chosen.
Note: Leaving out any of these characteristics will result in
you being prompted during the game startup for the information.
-@ Choose all (remaining) character attributes randomly. It
doesn’t affect any characteristics that have already been
specified by other means.
-s This option alone will print out the list of your scores on the
current version. The -s may also be followed by arguments -p
and -r to print the scores of particular roles and races only.
It may also be followed by one or more player names to print the
scores of the players mentioned, by ’all’ to print out all
scores, or by a number to print that many top scores.
-dec and -ibm
These command line options are equivalent to the decgraphics and
ibmgraphics in-game options, and are provided purely for
convenience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.
-D or -X
These option will start the game in a special non-scoring
discovery mode. If the player is the game administrator, -D
will start in debugging (wizard) mode instead.
-n This option suppresses printing of any news from the game
administrator.
-d This option is usually only useful to the game administrator.
If it appears, it must be the first argument, and supplies a
directory which is to serve as the playground. It overrides the
value from NETHACKDIR, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by
the game administrator during compilation (usually
/usr/lib/games/glhack). The playground must contain several
auxiliary files such as help files, the list of top scorers, and
a subdirectory save where games are saved.
GLHACK OPTIONS
These are the command line options specific to glHack.
They all begin with a double dash (‘--’). Values are normally
separated from the option with a space, like "--depth 32".
Alternatively, a value can be placed after an ‘=’ sign without any
spaces, like "--depth=32". This should be used if the value begins
with a minus (‘-’) sign, otherwise the number will be mistaken as a new
option.
Options that take a value are shown here with example values.
--mode 640x480
Specifies the video mode. Normally glHack will autodetect the
mode, but using this option will override that. The default
value (when all else fails) is 800x600.
--depth 8
Video depth (bits per pixel). Possible values are 15, 16, 24
and 32, and 8 when using the software renderer. The default
value is autodetected.
--windowed
Play inside a window, rather than fullscreen.
--gamma=-2
Gamma correction value. Range is -5 to +5, where positive
values make the screen brighter, and negative values make it
darker. Zero is the default (no adjustment).
--tileheight 64
Choose the tileset, which can be 16, 32 or 64. The default is
32. To get the Isometric 3D tileset, use the value 64.
--fontsize 22
Choose the font size, out of 8, 14, 20 or 22. The default is
20. The given size will be used for all text windows,
overriding any wincap settings in the config file.
--help Show a help page.
--version
Show the current version. This can also be done within the game
using the #version command.
ENVIRONMENT
USER or LOGNAME
Your login name (used as the player name).
HOME Your home directory (used to find the config file).
NETHACKOPTIONS
String predefining several standard NetHack options.
GLHACKOPTIONS
String predefining several glHack-specific options.
NETHACKDIR
Playground directory (see -d option above).
In addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.
SECURITY
glHack runs set-gid games. This is needed to create/modify the
persistent game files. In general, set-gid programs are a lot more
secure than set-uid programs. An attacker who successfully compromises
a set-gid game executable can only mess around with various game data
files (typically those in /var/games and /var/lib/games).
Since glHack is based on NetHack 3.4.0, any security issues with
NetHack 3.4.0 (past or future) will almost certainly apply to this
release of glHack.
Currently there is only one place in the glHack-specific code that
creates or writes to a file: the screenshot code. Taking screenshots
is restricted to the game administrator (the "wizard" account).
As far as I know, glHack will never execute another program. The
following features of the NetHack 3.4.0 codebase which do execute other
programs are disabled in glHack’s standard (compile-time)
configuration: running a compression utility (COMPRESS), running a
shell (SHELL), reading mail (MAIL), and running an external pager (TTY
code).
FILES
~/.glhackrc
Configuration file for glHack. See the glhackrc(5) manual page
for more information.
/usr/lib/games/glhack
The static playground. Read-only files are stored here. Files
found here will be marked "(STATIC)" in the entries below.
/var/lib/games/glhack
The variable playground. Persistent (read/write) data files are
stored here. These files are marked "(VAR)" below.
nhdat (STATIC)
Archive containing all the stuff that NetHack requires to play
(level files, text files, help files, etc). The format is DLB
(Data LiBrarian) and is NetHack-specific.
license (STATIC)
Rules governing redistribution.
glhack_recover (STATIC)
This program can be used to recover a game after glHack has
crashed (assuming the files were not corrupted). It can only be
run as the superuser (root).
gl*.png (STATIC)
Images (fonts, tilesets, etc) used by glHack.
gl*.lst (STATIC)
Miscellaneous data files (e.g. tile facing info) used by glHack.
record (VAR)
The list of top scorers.
logfile (VAR)
An extended list of games played.
perm (VAR)
Empty file used for locking purposes.
bonDD.nn (VAR)
Bone files: descriptions of the ghost and belongings of a
deceased adventurer.
NNNNname.dd (VAR)
Temporary files for a user who is currently playing glHack, or
after glHack has crashed. The ‘NNNN’ part is the numeric
userid, followed by the player’s name.
save/ (VAR)
A subdirectory containing the saved games.
NO WARRANTIES
This program is free software. It is distributed in the hope that it
will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
SEE ALSO
glhackrc(5) nethack-guidebook(6)
The glHack Homepage: http://glhack.sourceforge.net/
The official NetHack page: http://www.nethack.org/
Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of TSR Inc.
January 2003 glHack(6)