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		Software -> Nethack with Graphical Tiles - Online!

Nethack with Graphical Tiles - Online!

It's possible to play Nethack online. While it's still single player, you get the advantages of (1) being able to spectate and commentate on other people's games, (2) getting advice from more experienced players, (3) finding the ghosts and abandoned equipment of other players, and (4) getting your name on a shared high score board.

The most popular server for online Nethack is currently Nethack.alt.org, where you can play by Telnet or using your web browser. There's also an annual Nethack tournament, again played online, and a number of other servers exist, some running new and experimental Nethack-based games.

Nethack - Now with Graphics!

Standard Nethack uses text characters to represent everything. But there are official versions of the game for Windows, Linux and Mac that use graphical tiles. These are more expressive, and some players prefer them, although the truly "old-school" probably hold them in the same regard as any other attempt to make Nethack more accessible.

Until now the graphical version of Nethack could only be played offline, on your own computer. All of the online servers are text only.

Experimental Nethack Server

The service is no longer online, having been closed on 28th March 2010 after three months of operation. I found that I could not spare the time needed to build a really good online Nethack service, which is about much more than the game software!

However, all of the software is still available to anyone wanting to host their own graphical Nethack server. Here it is:

• Patch for vanilla Nethack 3.4.3. Adds the new "vtiles" module to sys/unix and win/tty. This patch should be compiled into your version of Nethack. It takes effect only when $TERM = "tilehack". Tiles are drawn using VT100-style escape codes; there are additional escape codes to set the cursor colour according to the player's HP, as in Qt Nethack.
• 16x16 tile set, expanded into separate PNG files. These should be placed so that they are accessible under the /nhtiles directory of your web server.
• Heavily modified Shellinabox software. The modifications alter the Javascript code to add support for the tile-drawing escape codes. Some features are disabled, e.g. printing, and the cursor keys are enabled for Nethack.
• Additionally, you need to create a termcap/terminfo entry for tilehack. Copy the "xterm" entry to a new entry named "tilehack". On Debian Linux, you can do this as follows: cp /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm /usr/share/terminfo/t/tilehack

Shellinabox is GPLv2-licensed software, written and copyright by Markus Gutschke. This proof of concept project would have been much more difficult if I had not been able to build upon this excellent piece of free software.

I must also thank M. Drew Streib, whose server Nethack.alt.org inspired this project, and the Nethack Dev Team for their awesome game. The Nethack Guidebook has a very very long list of contributors.

Thanks

		Copyright (C) Jack Whitham 1997-2010