Nethack-Gnome WTF

[razumny]

Hey guys

I am running a 7.04 install of Ubuntu on a HP nc 600, which runs smoothly.

I am having problems with Nethack though; it installs just fine; but when I start it up, it closes straight after character creation; and when I then start it up again, I get a message saying that there is already a session of Nethack running.

I get this message even when I've uninstalled Nethack, rebooted the computer and reinstalled Nethack

I'd like to play nethack, can anyone help?

[meborc]

be sure to uninstall nethack-common package also... then install "nethack-console"

this will reinstall nethack-common

the console version runs just fine... i never liked the gnome version :)

sorry... this is not a fix, but if you are true nethack warrior, you don't mind

[deadlydeathcone]

Seconding the console version, as the graphical ones either have problems or don't seem to have been updated in four years.

If you don't mind the changes in Slash'em you could try slashem-sdl, as its interface is actually pretty nice and has decent tilesets as well. Other than that you could check out Vulture's Eye, although I personally can't stand it.

[razumny]

Well, my problem is I've never actually *played* nethack...

[deadlydeathcone]

Well, my problem is I've never actually *played* nethack...

apt-get install slashem-sdl

You'll attack a lot fewer dogs that turn out to be Dragons.

Since you've never played, slashem is based on nethack code, and over the years nethack developers have in turn added many things slash'em introduced to nethack itself. They're incredibly similar at this point.

As for gameplay, this game will make zero sense when you start playing and won't for a while because of the huge learning curve along with horribly convoluted controls that will seem nearly close to nonsensical. It'll seem pretty horrible at first, but when this game clicks it CLICKS.

A few things that will help:

Play as a Monk - they start with lots of food, don't use weapons or armor, and are complete tanks in the early game. The downside is that starting with their quest nemesis the difficulty ramps up vertically, but you won't have to worry about that for a while.

Controls -
control-d: kick open a door or chest
o: open a door
s: search for hidden doors
e: eat
alt-p: pray to your god. DO THIS! If you're on the absolute verge of death, this will nearly always save you.
alt-t: use a technique. You'll use this a lot if playing a monk.

Guides -
SLASHEM SURVIVAL & STRATEGY GUIDE (http://www.nethack.de/spoiler/strategy.txt)

Everything else (http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~eva/nethack/spoilerlist.html)

This might all look terrible, but if you have some time on your hands it's worth getting into as it's really fun - like a nearly impossible version of Diablo with many more game mechanics, and the entire point is to repeatedly die and get screwed over in the most amusing ways possible. It's pretty well summed up in
this thread (http://www.the-underdogs.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25473&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0&sid=e13cc85d8d53554efefba8de8398a7cf), which is actually what convinced me to get into the game in the first place.

Have (eventual) fun.