Phuquit
8th January 2007, 08:05 PM
Nethack, and its big brother Slash'em, are old school RPGs which might not have immediate appeal to the X-Box generation, but nonetheless feature absorbing gameplay.
Nethack can be played online using a client like Telnet or Putty, or can be downloaded to your PC, completely free, from here (http://www.nethack.org/v343/downloads.html).
Slash'em is also open source, and features more character classes and races, more levels, and lots of new items and monsters.
You can download Slash'em here (http://www.slashem.org/stable.html).
The game interface can be very confusing when you first start, since it's in ASCII, so a good alternative would be to download a stand-alone graphic interface which uses the same engines as the original games.
My recommendation would be Vulture's Eye (Nethack) and Vulture's Claw (Slash'em).
Fortunately, these are also open source, and can be downloaded as a bundle containing both games from here (http://www.darkarts.co.za/projects/vultures/wiki/downloads/2.1.0).
The object of the game is to retrieve a particular artifact from the Dungeons of Doom, which you must offer to your God in return for immortality.
Along the way, you will fight many strange creatures using the various spells and magic weapons that you find lying around. You will die many strange, painful, and humiliating deaths before you ever come close to achieving your goal.
But fear not - there is a wealth of information and survival guides on the 'net to help you in your quest...
So what are you waiting for?
Nethack can be played online using a client like Telnet or Putty, or can be downloaded to your PC, completely free, from here (http://www.nethack.org/v343/downloads.html).
Slash'em is also open source, and features more character classes and races, more levels, and lots of new items and monsters.
You can download Slash'em here (http://www.slashem.org/stable.html).
The game interface can be very confusing when you first start, since it's in ASCII, so a good alternative would be to download a stand-alone graphic interface which uses the same engines as the original games.
My recommendation would be Vulture's Eye (Nethack) and Vulture's Claw (Slash'em).
Fortunately, these are also open source, and can be downloaded as a bundle containing both games from here (http://www.darkarts.co.za/projects/vultures/wiki/downloads/2.1.0).
The object of the game is to retrieve a particular artifact from the Dungeons of Doom, which you must offer to your God in return for immortality.
Along the way, you will fight many strange creatures using the various spells and magic weapons that you find lying around. You will die many strange, painful, and humiliating deaths before you ever come close to achieving your goal.
But fear not - there is a wealth of information and survival guides on the 'net to help you in your quest...
So what are you waiting for?