+Hack is a display oriented dungeons & dragons - like game.
+Both display and command structure resemble rogue.
+(For a game with the same structure but entirely different display -
+a real cave instead of dull rectangles - try Quest)
+
+Hack was originally written by Jay Fenlason (at lincolnsudbury:
+ 29 East St., Sudbury Mass., 01776) with help from
+ Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne.
+Basically it was an implementation of Rogue, however, with 52+ instead of 26
+ monster types.
+The current version is more than thrice as large (with such new features as
+ the dog, the long worms, the shops, etc.) and almost entirely rewritten
+ (only the display routines are the original ones - I must rewrite these
+ too one day; especially when you are blind strange things still happen).
+
+Files for hack:
+ hack The actual game
+ record Top 100 list (just start with an empty file)
+ news Tells about recent changes in hack, or bugs found ...
+ (Just start with no news file.)
+ data Auxiliary file used by hack to give you the names
+ and sometimes some more information on the
+ objects and monsters.
+ help Introductory information (no doubt outdated).
+ hh Compactified version of help.
+ perm An empty file used for locking purposes.
+ rumors Texts for fortune cookies.
+ (Some of these contain information on the game,
+ others are just plain stupid. Additional rumors
+ are appreciated.)
+ hack.sh A shell script.
+ (We have hack.sh in /usr/games/hack and
+ hack in /usr/games/lib/hackdir/hack and all the other
+ hack stuff in /usr/games/lib/hackdir - perhaps this
+ will make the script clear.
+ There is no need for you to use it.)
+ READ_ME This file.
+ Original_READ_ME Jay Fenlason's READ_ME
+
+System files used:
+ /etc/termcap Used in conjunction with the environment variable
+ $TERM.
+ /bin/cat
+ /usr/ucb/more
+ /bin/sh Used when $SHELL is undefined.
+
+How to install hack:
+0. Compile the sources. Perhaps you should first look at the file config.h
+ and define BSD if you are on a BSDtype system,
+ define STUPID if your C-compiler chokes on complicated expressions.
+ Make sure schar and uchar represent signed and unsigned types.
+ If your C compiler doesnt allow initialization of bit fields
+ change Bitfield. When config.h looks reasonable, say 'make'.
+ (Perhaps you have to change TERMLIB in the makefile.)
+1. If it didnt exist already, introduce a loginname `play' .
+2. The program hack resides in a directory so that it is executable
+ for everybody and is suid play:
+ ---s--s--x 1 play 206848 Apr 3 00:17 hack
+ Perhaps you wish to restrict playing to certain hours, or have games
+ running under nice; in that case you might write a program play.c
+ such that the program play is suid play and executable for everybody
+ while all the games in /usr/games are readable or executable for
+ play only; all the program play does is asking for the name of a game,
+ checking that time-of-day and system load do not forbid playing,
+ and then executing the game. Thus:
+ -r-sr-sr-x 1 play 13312 May 24 12:52 play
+ ---x------ 1 play 206848 Apr 3 00:17 hack
+ If you are worried about security you might let play do
+ chroot("/usr/games") so that no player can get access to the rest
+ of the system via shell escapes and the likes.
+ If you #define SECURE in config.h then hack will not setuid(getuid())
+ before executing a chdir(). Hack will always do setuid(getuid()) with
+ a fork. If you do not define UNIX then hack will not fork.
+3. The rest of the stuff belonging to hack sits in a subdirectory hackdir
+ (on our system /usr/games/lib/hackdir) with modes
+ drwx------ 3 play 1024 Aug 9 09:03 hackdir
+ Here all the temporary files will be created (with names like xlock.17
+ or user.5).
+4. If you are not really short on file space, creating a subdirectory
+ hackdir/save (modes again drwx------) will enable users to save their
+ unfinished games.
+
+The program hack is called
+$ hack [-d hackdir] [maxnrofplayers]
+(for playing) or
+$ hack [-d hackdir] -s [listofusers | limit | all]
+(for seeing part of the scorelist).
+The shell file hack (in this kit called hack.sh) takes care of
+calling hack with the right arguments.
+
+Send complaints, bug reports, suggestions for improvements to
+mcvax!aeb - in real life Andries Brouwer.
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