NAME

       slashem - Exploring The Mazes of Menace

SYNOPSIS

       slashem [ -d directory ] [ -n ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ] [ -g gender ] [ -a alignment ] [
       -[DX] ] [ -u playername ] [ -dec ] [ -ibm ]

       slashem [ -d directory ] -s [ -v ] [ -p profession (role) ] [ -r race ] [ -g gender ] [ -a alignment ] [
       maxrank ] [ 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  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.  Nobody has
       achieved this yet; anybody 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  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.

       The environment variable SLASHEMOPTIONS 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 equiva‐
       lent to the decgraphics and ibmgraphics run-time options described there, and  are  provided  purely  for
       convenience on systems supporting multiple types of terminals.)

       Because  the option list can be very long (particularly when specifying graphics characters), options may
       also be included in a configuration file.  The default is  located  in  your  home  directory  and  named
       .slashemrc on Unix systems.  On other systems, the default may be different, usually SLASHEM.cnf.  On DOS
       or Windows, the name is defaults.nh, while on the Macintosh or BeOS, it is SlashEM Defaults.  The config‐
       uration file's location may be specified by setting SLASHEMOPTIONS to a string consisting of an @ charac‐
       ter followed by the filename.

       The  -u playername option supplies the answer to the question "Who are you?".  It overrides any name from
       the options or configuration file, USER, LOGNAME, 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 charac‐
       ter.  The full syntax of the playername that includes a suffix is "name-ppp-rrr-aaa-ggg".  "ppp"  are  at
       least  the  first three letters of the profession (this can also be specified using a separate -p profes‐
       sion option).  "rrr" are at least the first three letters of the character's race (this can also be spec‐
       ified using a separate -r race option).  "aaa" are at last the first three  letters  of  the  character's
       alignment, and "ggg" are at least the first three letters of the character's gender.  Any of the parts of
       the suffix may be left out.

       -p  profession  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.  -p @ has been
       retained 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.

       Likewise, -r race can be used to explicitly request that a race be chosen, -g gender the  gender  of  the
       chareacter and finally -a alignment to chose the alignment of the character.

       Leaving  out  any  of these characteristics will result in you being prompted during the game startup for
       the information.

       Instead of chosing the above separately you can add them  as  suffixes  to  the  playername:  -u  player‐
       name-race-gender-alignment

       The  -s  option alone will print out the list of your scores on the current version.  An immediately fol‐
       lowing -v reports on all versions present in the score file.  The -s may be also be  followed  by  player
       type  arguments  ( -p , -r , -g and -a ) to print the scores of particular types of players 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.

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

       The  -D or -X option will start the game in a special non-scoring discovery mode.  -D 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, HACKDIR, or the directory specified by the game
       administrator during compilation (usually /usr/local/slashemdir).  This option is usually only useful  to
       the game administrator.  The playground must contain several auxiliary files such as help files, the list
       of top scorers, and a subdirectory 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  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  vari‐
       ous 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/local/slashemdir.  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.
       MAILREADER           Replacement for default reader
                            (probably /bin/mail or /usr/ucb/mail).
       NETHACKDIR           Playground.
       SLASHEMOPTIONS       String predefining several SLASH'EM
                            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 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

4th Berkeley Distribution                         24 March 2002                                       SLASHEM(6)