


SLASHEM(6)                                             SLASHEM(6)


NAME
       slashem - Exploring The Mazes of Menace

SYNOPSIS
       slashem  [  -d  directory  ] [ -n ] [ -[ABCEHKPRSTVW@] ] [
       -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]
       slashem [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -[ABCEHKPRSTVW]  ]  [
       playernames ]

DESCRIPTION
       SLASH'EM  is  a  display oriented Dungeons & Dragons(tm) -
       like game.  The standard tty display and command structure
       resemble  rogue.   It is an extension of SLASH which is an
       extension of NetHack.

       Other, more graphical display options  exist  if  you  are
       using either a PC, or an X11 interface.

       To  get started you really only need to know two commands.
       The command ?  will give you a list of the available  com-
       mands  (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 dun-
       geon  and  get it out.  Nobody has achieved this yet; any-
       body who does will probably go down in history as  a  hero
       among heros.

       When  the  game  ends, whether by your dying, quitting, or
       escaping from the caves, SLASH'EM will give you  (a  frag-
       ment 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.

       The  environment  variable  NETHACKOPTIONS  can be used to
       initialize many run-time options.  The ? command  provides
       a  description of these options and syntax.  (The -dec and
       -ibm command line options are equivalent to the  decgraph-
       ics  and ibmgraphics run-time options described there, and
       are provided purely for convenience on systems  supporting
       multiple types of terminals.)

       The  -u playername option supplies the answer to the ques-
       tion "Who are you?".  It overrides any name from  NETHACK-
       OPTIONS,  HACKOPTIONS, USER, LOGNAME, or getlogin(), which
       will otherwise be tried in order.  If none of  these  pro-
       vides  a  useful  name,  the player will be asked for one.
       Player names (in conjunction with uids) are used to  iden-
       tify save files, so you can have several saved games under



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SLASHEM(6)                                             SLASHEM(6)


       different names.  Conversely, you must use the appropriate
       player name to restore a saved game.

       A playername suffix or a separate option consisting of one
       of -A -B -C -D -E -F -G -H -I -K -L -M -N -P -R -S  -T  -U
       -V  -W can be used to determine the character role.  Like-
       wise, -@ can be used to explicitly request that  a  random
       role be chosen.  It may need to be quoted with a backslash
       (-\@) if @ is the "kill" character (see  "stty")  for  the
       terminal,  in order to prevent the current input line from
       being cleared.

       The -s option alone will print out the list of your scores
       on  the  current  version.   An  immediately  following -v
       reports on all versions present in the score file.  The -s
       may  also be followed by arguments -A -B -C -D -E -F -G -H
       -I -K -L -M -N -P -R -S -T -U -V -W to print the scores of
       Archeologists,   Barbarians,  Cave(wo)men,  Doppelgangers,
       Elves, Flame Mages, Gnomes, Healers, Ice  Mages,  Knights,
       Lycanthropes,  Monks, Necromancers, Priest(esse)s, Rogues,
       Samurai, Tourists, Undead Slayers, Valkyries, or  Wizards.
       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.

       The -n option suppresses printing of  any  news  from  the
       game administrator.

       The  -Z or -X option will start the game in a special non-
       scoring discovery mode.  -Z will, if  the  player  is  the
       game  administrator,  start  in  debugging  (wizard)  mode
       instead.

       The -d option, which must be  the  first  argument  if  it
       appears,  supplies  a  directory  which is to serve as the
       playground.  It overrides the value from NETHACKDIR, HACK-
       DIR,  or the directory specified by the game administrator
       during  compilation  (usually  /usr/games/lib/nethackdir).
       This option is usually only useful to the game administra-
       tor.  The playground must contain several auxiliary  files
       such  as help files, the list of top scorers, and a subdi-
       rectory save where games are saved.

AUTHORS
       Jay Fenlason (+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon  Payne)
       wrote the original hack, very much like rogue (but full of
       bugs).

       Andries Brouwer continuously deformed their  sources  into
       an entirely different game.

       Mike  Stephenson  has continued the perversion of sources,
       adding various warped character classes and sadistic traps



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SLASHEM(6)                                             SLASHEM(6)


       with  the  help  of many strange people who reside in that
       place between the worlds, the Usenet Zone.   A  number  of
       these  miscreants  are immortalized in the historical roll
       of dishonor and various other places.

       The resulting mess is now called NetHack,  to  denote  its
       development  by the Usenet.  Andries Brouwer has made this
       request for the distinction, as he may eventually  release
       a new version of his own.

       Tom  Proudfoot  took  NetHack and rendered it into SLASH -
       SuperLotsaAddedStuffHack,  adding more character  classes,
       levels monsters and all manner of changes.

       Warren  Cheung  took  SLASH and rendered it into SLASHEM -
       SuperLotsaAddedStuffHack  -  Extended  Magic,   with  more
       improvements to the bloated behemoth.

FILES
       All    files    are    in    the    playground,   normally
       /usr/games/lib/nethackdir.  If DLB was defined during  the
       compile,  the data files and special levels will be inside
       a larger file, normally nhdat, instead of  being  separate
       files.
       slashem                     The program itself.
       data, oracles, rumors       Data files used by SLASH'EM.
       options, quest.dat          More data files.
       help, hh                    Help data files.
       cmdhelp, opthelp, wizhelp   More help data files.
       *.lev                       Predefined special levels.
       dungeon                     Control file for special
                                   levels.
       history                     A short history of SLASH'EM.
       license                     Rules governing
                                   redistribution.
       record                      The list of top scorers.
       logfile                     An extended list of games
                                   played.
       xlock.nnn                   Description of a dungeon
                                   level.
       perm                        Lock file for xlock.dd.
       bonesDD.nn                  Descriptions of the ghost and
                                   belongings of a deceased
                                   adventurer.
       save                        A subdirectory containing the
                                   saved games.

ENVIRONMENT
       USER or LOGNAME      Your login name.
       HOME                 Your home directory.
       SHELL                Your shell.
       TERM                 The type of your terminal.
       HACKPAGER or PAGER   Replacement for default pager.
       MAIL                 Mailbox file.



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SLASHEM(6)                                             SLASHEM(6)


       MAILREADER           Replacement for default reader
                            (probably /bin/mail or
                            /usr/ucb/mail).
       NETHACKDIR           Playground.
       NETHACKOPTIONS       String predefining several NetHack
                            options.

       In  addition, SHOPTYPE is used in debugging (wizard) mode.

SEE ALSO
       dgn_comp(6), lev_comp(6), recover(6)

BUGS
       Probably infinite.



       Dungeons & Dragons is a Trademark of TSR Inc.







































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