NetHack History file for release 3.2 Behold, mortal, the origins of NetHack... Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack with help from Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne. Andries Brouwer did a major re-write, transforming Hack into a very different game, and published (at least) three versions (1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3) for UNIX(tm) machines to the Usenet. Don G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft(tm) C and MS-DOS(tm), producing PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC Rainbow graphics in version 1.03g, and went on to produce at least four more versions (3.0, 3.2, 3.51, and 3.6). R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to Lattice(tm) C and the Atari 520/1040ST, producing ST Hack 1.03. Mike Stephenson merged these various versions back together, incorporating many of the added features, and produced NetHack version 1.4. He then coordinated a cast of thousands in enhancing and debugging NetHack 1.4 and released NetHack versions 2.2 and 2.3. Later, Mike coordinated a major rewrite of the game, heading a team which included Ken Arromdee, Jean-Christophe Collet, Steve Creps, Eric Hendrickson, Izchak Miller, Eric S. Raymond, John Rupley, Mike Threepoint, and Janet Walz, to produce NetHack 3.0c. The same group subsequently released ten patch- level revisions and updates of 3.0. NetHack 3.0 was ported to the Atari by Eric R. Smith, to OS/2 by Timo Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel. The three of them and Kevin Darcy later joined the main development team to produce subsequent revisions of 3.0. Olaf Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga. Norm Meluch, Stephen Spackman and Pierre Martineau designed overlay code for PC NetHack 3.0. Johnny Lee ported NetHack 3.0 to the Macintosh. Along with various other Dungeoneers, they continued to enhance the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports through the later revisions of 3.0. Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller and Janet Walz, the development team which now included Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jean-Christophe Collet, Kevin Darcy, Matt Day, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Raymond, and Eric Smith undertook a radical revision of 3.0. They re-structured the game's design, and re-wrote major parts of the code. They added multiple dungeons, a new display, special individual character quests, a new endgame and many other new features, and produced NetHack 3.1. Ken Lorber, Gregg Wonderly and Greg Olson, with help from Richard Addison, Mike Passaretti, and Olaf Seibert, developed NetHack 3.1 for the Amiga. Norm Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl Schelin, Stephen Spackman, Steve VanDevender, and Paul Winner, ported NetHack 3.1 to the PC. Jon W{tte and Hao-yang Wang, with help from Ross Brown, Mike Engber, David Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan Handler, Johnny Lee, Tim Lennan, Rob Menke, and Andy Swanson developed NetHack 3.1 for the Macintosh, porting it for MPW. Building on their development, Barton House added a Think C port. Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2. Eric Smith ported NetHack 3.1 to the Atari. Pat Rankin, with help from Joshua Delahunty, is responsible for the VMS version of NetHack 3.1. Michael Allison ported NetHack 3.1 to Windows NT. Dean Luick, with help from David Cohrs, developed NetHack 3.1 for X11. Warwick Allison added in the "tiled" version of the game and generated most of the individual tiles for NetHack 3.2. The 3.2 development team, comprised of: Michael Allison; Ken Arromdee; David Cohrs; Jessie Collet; Steve Creps; Kevin Darcy; Timo Hakulinen; Steve Linhart; Dean Luick; Pat Rankin; Eric Smith; Mike Stephenson; Janet Walz; and Paul Winner, released version 3.2 in April of 1996. Version 3.2 marks the tenth anniversary of the formation of the development team. In a testament to their dedication to the game, all thirteen members of the original development team remained on the team at the start of work on the current release. During the interval between the release of 3.1.3 and 3.2, one of the founding members of the development team, Dr. Izchak Miller, passed away. This release of the game is dedicated to him by the development and porting teams. Version 3.2 is more stable than previous versions, (it is hoped). Many bugs have been fixed, abuses eliminated, and game features tuned for better game play. The menus have been modified to give players more choices in styles for menus which require pick list selections. A graphical display has been added for some ports. (Added to the X11 port by Dean Luick, to the Amiga port by Ken Lorber, and to the DOS port by Michael Allison.) The spell system and weapon proficiency portions of the game were adapted by Stephen White from his NHPlus variant. (The #qualifications' and '#enhance' extended commands were added to make use of these changes.) Additional game changes worth mentioning: light sources no longer have to be carried by the player to be used; wands can be destroyed if desired (use the 'a'pply command); treasures can be found buried in walls or in the floor; the '#untrap' command has been improved; and, wands of probing now provide more information. Other more subtle changes have also been added to the game. You will have to play the game to discover them. Pat Rankin maintained 3.2 for VMS. Michael Allison, Yitzhak Sapir, and Paul Winner, with help from Steve Linhart, Kevin Smolkowski, Mike Stephenson and Stephen White ported 3.2 for MSDOS. Keizo Yamamoto and Ken Washikita ported 3.2 for the NEC 98xx machines popular in Japan. Ken Lorber, Andy Church, and Gregg Wonderly, with help from Richard Addison, ported 3.2 for the Amiga. Dean Luick ported 3.2 to the Macintosh. Eric Smith and Warwick Allison ported 3.2 for the Ataris. Michael Allison ported 3.2 for the Microsoft Windows NT platform. Timo Hakulinen remains responsible for the OS/2 port. - - - - - - - - - - From time to time, some depraved individual out there in netland sends a particularly intriguing modification to help out with the game. The Gods of the Dungeon sometimes make note of the names of the worst of these miscreants in this, the list of Dungeoneers: Andy Church Izchak Miller Mike Passaretti Andy Swanson Janet Walz Mike Stephenson Ari Huttunen Jean-Christophe Collet Norm Meluch Barton House Jochen Erwied Olaf Seibert Benson I. Margulies John Kallen Pat Rankin Bill Dyer John Rupley Paul Winner Boudewijn Wayers John S. Bien Pierre Martineau Bruce Holloway Johnny Lee Ralf Brown Bruce Mewborne Jon W{tte Richard Addison Carl Schelin Jonathan Handler Richard P. Hughey David Cohrs Joshua Delahunty Rob Menke David Gentzel Keizo Yamamoto Roland McGrath David Hairston Ken Arromdee Ross Brown Dean Luick Ken Lorber Scott R. Turner Del Lamb Ken Washikita Stephen Spackman Deron Meranda Kevin Darcy Stephen White Eric Backus Kevin Sitze Steve Creps Eric Hendrickson Kevin Smolkowski Steve Linhart Eric R. Smith Kevin Sweet Steve VanDevender Eric S. Raymond Mark Gooderum Tim Lennan Frederick Roeber Matthew Day Timo Hakulinen Gil Neiger Merlyn LeRoy Tom Almy Greg Laskin Michael Allison Tom West Greg Olson Michael Hamel Warwick Allison Gregg Wonderly Michael Sokolov Yitzhak Sapir Hao-yang Wang Mike Engber Helge Hafting Mike Gallop