NetHack History file for release 3.3 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 wrote a tiled version of NetHack for the Atari; he later contributed the tiles to the DevTeam and tile support was then added to other platforms. 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 marked 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 that 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. That release of the game was dedicated to him by the development and porting teams. Version 3.2 proved to be more stable than previous versions. Many bugs were fixed, abuses eliminated, and game features tuned for better game play. During the lifespan of NetHack 3.1 and 3.2, several enthusiasts of the game added their own modifications to the game and made these "variants" publicly available: Tom Proudfoot and Yuval Oren created NetHack++, which was quickly renamed NetHack--. Working independently, Stephen White wrote NetHack Plus. Tom Proudfoot later merged NetHack Plus and his own NetHack-- to produce SLASH. Larry Stewart-Zerba and Warwick Allison improved the spellcasting system with the Wizard Patch. Warwick Allison also ported NetHack to use the Qt interface. Warren Cheung combined SLASH with the Wizard Patch to produce Slash'em, and with the help of Kevin Hugo, added more features. Kevin later joined the DevTeam and incorporated the best of these ideas in NetHack 3.3. The 3.3 development team initially consisted of Michael Allison, Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs, Jessie Collet, Steve Creps, Kevin Darcy, Timo Hakulinen, Kevin Hugo, Steve Linhart, Ken Lorber, Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Smith, Mike Stephenson, Janet Walz, and Paul Winner. Warwick Allison joined just before the release of NetHack 3.3.2. As with version 3.2, various people contributed to the game as a whole as well as supporting ports on the different platforms that NetHack runs on: Pat Rankin maintained 3.3 for VMS. Michael Allison maintained NetHack 3.3 for the MS-DOS platform. Paul Winner and Yitzhak Sapir provided encouragement. Dean Luick, Mark Modrall, and Kevin Hugo maintained and enhanced the Macintosh port of 3.3. Michael Allison maintained and enhanced the console port of 3.3 for the Microsoft Windows NT/2000 platform. Ron Van Iwaarden maintained 3.3 for OS/2. Janne Salmijarvi and Teemu Suikki maintained and enhanced the Amiga port of 3.3 after Janne Salmijarvi resurrected it for 3.3.1. Christian `Marvin' Bressler maintained 3.3 for the Atari after he resurrected it for 3.3.1. Alex Kompel contributed a new graphical port of 3.3 for Microsoft Windows. There is a NetHack web site maintained by Ken Lorber at http://www.nethack.org. - - - - - - - - - - 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: Adam Aronow Irina Rempt-Drijfhout Mike Gallop Alex Kompel Izchak Miller Mike Passaretti Andreas Dorn J. Ali Harlow Mike Stephenson Andy Church Janet Walz Norm Meluch Andy Swanson Janne Salmijarvi Olaf Seibert Ari Huttunen Jean-Christophe Collet Pat Rankin Barton House Jochen Erwied Paul Winner Benson I. Margulies John Kallen Pierre Martineau Bill Dyer John Rupley Ralf Brown Boudewijn Waijers John S. Bien Richard Addison Bruce Cox Johnny Lee Richard Beigel Bruce Holloway Jon W{tte Richard P. Hughey Bruce Mewborne Jonathan Handler Rob Menke Carl Schelin Joshua Delahunty Robin Johnson Chris Russo Keizo Yamamoto Roland McGrath David Cohrs Ken Arnold Ron Van Iwaarden David Damerell Ken Arromdee Ronnen Miller David Gentzel Ken Lorber Ross Brown David Hairston Ken Washikita Sascha Wostmann Dean Luick Kevin Darcy Scott Bigham Del Lamb Kevin Hugo Scott R. Turner Deron Meranda Kevin Sitze Stephen Spackman Dylan O'Donnell Kevin Smolkowski Stephen White Eric Backus Kevin Sweet Steve Creps Eric Hendrickson Lars Huttar Steve Linhart Eric R. Smith Mark Gooderum Steve VanDevender Eric S. Raymond Mark Modrall Tim Lennan Erik Andersen Marvin Bressler Timo Hakulinen Frederick Roeber Matthew Day Tom Almy Gil Neiger Merlyn LeRoy Tom West Greg Laskin Michael Allison Warren Cheung Greg Olson Michael Feir Warwick Allison Gregg Wonderly Michael Hamel Yitzhak Sapir Hao-yang Wang Michael Sokolov Helge Hafting Mike Engber