Hack is a single-player, interactive fantasy game in which you play a mighty hero, determined to recover the powerful Amulet of Yendor. This task will not be easy, however. During your quest, you will journey deep into the earth, battle strange and ferocious creatures, be blinded, confused and encounter deadly traps. And, perhaps worst of all, you will slowly starve. Have no fear, however. Although an unending horde may assail you, and you are a weakling at the start of your trek, you have the potential to far surpass all of your mightiest enemies. As you defeat your foes, you will become more powerful, learn how to fight better, and increase your stamina. You will also find many items, some ordinary, while others have great powers. In addition, you are not quite alone. You will find shops which can sell you useful items. And what fool would adventure without a faithful watchdog beside him/her. But beware! The gods frown upon those who turn against their allies. Here begins your journey into a new and exciting world... the world of HACK.

The first step is to run the game itself. Type hack (or whatever the name of your version is), and press return. The first thing which will happen is that it will welcome you to the game, and ask you what type of character you wish to play. For now, we will play a Caveman. Type "c" to indicate this to the program. After a few moments, the game will start. You will see something like this:

		------------
		|..........|   "." - empty places on the floor of the room.
		|...@......|   "-" - walls of the room.
		+.d........|   "@" - you.
		|..........|   "|" - walls of the room.
		|.....+....|   "+" - doorways leading out of the room.
		----+-------   "d" - your faithful dog.

		AC 7   Str 18  Hp 12(12)  Exp: 0  Level: 1

What you see is a single room in the Dungeon of Doom. The dungeon is divided into many "levels". Most levels consist of up to nine rooms connected by twisting passageways. If you don't understand the information display at the bottom of the above example screen, don't worry, it will be explained in a bit. The "Your Command?" at the top of the screen indicates that the program is waiting for you to give it a command. In Hack, the world literally waits for your command. Until you type something for it to do, NOTHING will happen during the game. This means that you can leave the computer, eat lunch, and come back, and the game will be exactly as you left it. (Note: The command prompt is not always as it appears above). Basically, if nothing is happening on the screen, the program is waiting for you to give it a command. Let's move the character one space to the left. Movement is performed by typing the "direction" key (be sure your 'Caps lock' key is off), which corresponds to the direction in which you want to go.

	y  k  u    For example, if  you type "h", the "@" will move one space
	 \ | /     to the left.  If you type "u", the "@" will move
	h- @ -l    diagonally up and to the right one space.
	 / | \
	b  j  n

		-------
		|.....|
		|..@>.|    "<" - set of stairs which go up to the previous level.
		+..d..|		 
		|.....|    ">" - set of stairs going to the next lower level.
		|.....+
		----+--

Notice that not only have you moved one space to the left, but the dog has moved one space to the right. The dog's movements are controlled by the program, and he will move when all the other computer controlled people (and monsters) move. The "<" symbol is the way out of the dungeon. If you leave the dungeon, then the game ends. Similarly, the ">" symbol represents stairs going down to the next level. To climb or descend the stairs, type the stair symbol you are on (i.e. to climb up, type "<". To descend, type ">"). Once you've moved a few times, you should have the idea of how basic movement works in Hack. Now to deal with other things. Type "i" (Inventory). You now see a list of objects. It will look something like this:

The list of objects is the list of items in your possession. Most items will be carried in your character's "back-pack". Those which are not, such as the club in the above example, are indicated in your inventory. "Weapon in hand" means that your character is holding that item in his hand. If he attacks a creature, he will hit it with this weapon. "being worn" means the character is wearing that item. In particular, the character will wear armor to protect himself from damage. You may have seen symbols in the room other than the ones discussed. The general rule is: if a symbol is a letter, then it is a creature. Otherwise, it is an object. There are exceptions to both parts of the rule, however, so be careful. To see a list of all the object symbols, type "?". This will send you into the help subroutine. If the program asks you "Long or Short help?": type "s" for now. A list of all the objects and commands will be shown on the screen. Read them carefully, and follow the prompts. The long help contains information about how to play Hack. It is strongly recommended that you read this also. To pick up an item, you simply walk over it. When this occurs, you will automatically attempt to pick up the item. Be aware, however, that items have weight, and so you may find yourself unable to pick up an item because it weighs too much. To move onto a space without picking up an item, type "m", and then the direction you wish to move. If there is something on the space you are on, you may look at it by typing ":" (In some versions, you can also set your "pickup" option on or off by typing the "@" symbol. This is very useful if there are a lot of items around that you don't want to pick up. The last thing which will be covered is combat. Let's say that you have been wandering about for a little while, and you've found a monster. The monster appears as a symbol on the map, just like the little dog. Combat in Hack is very simple. There are three ways to fight a monster:

1. You can bash it with your weapon. Simply attempt to move into the space the monster is currently in (e.g. if the creature is one space to the left of your character, and you type "h", you will attack it. Likewise, monsters attack you by moving into your space.
2. You can throw or shoot something at it. You must have something to throw. You can throw anything, but it is strongly recommended that you use a weapon if you want to do damage to the creature. To throw an object in your inventory, type "t". The game now asks what object you wish to throw. To see your inventory, type "*". To see the weapons in your inventory type "?". Once you have decided what to throw, type the object's letter, and then the direction you wish to throw it in. You will now (hopefully) hit the monster with whatever you threw. To use a bow and arrows for maximum effect, you must wield the bow, and then "throw" an arrow. To wield a different weapon, type "w", and then the letter of the object you wish to wield. Be careful that you are not bashing a creature with your bow, as this is not very effective. The same applies for slings, rocks, crossbows, and bolts.
3. You can zap it with a wand, or cast a spell (Nethack only) at it. The procedure is similar to that for 2. Type "z" (for zap), and the letter of the wand you wish to use. If the program now prompts you to type a direction, then type the direction in which you want to blast. There're three basic effects possible when zapping a wand:

1. The wand has no direction, and simply does something (e/g. When a wand of light is zapped, it will light up the room.
2. The wand affects whatever is in the given direction. (e.g. A wand of slow monster will slow down any monster it is zapped at.
3. The wand shoots a "ray" or "bolt" in the specified direction. It will try to hit any creature in its path, and may bounce off of walls and doors. BE CAREFUL! It is very easy to bounce such a blast into yourself (e.g. A wand of fire shoots a bolt of fire in the indicated direction). Note that you may throw or zap in any direction (including up (<) or down(>)) that you may move in.

When you attack a creature (or are attacked by one), the damage is represented by hit points, or HP for short. Every creature, including your character, has a certain number of hit points. When your character takes damage, he will lose a certain number of them. The greater the damage, the more hit points he will lose. If a creature is reduced to less than one hit point, it dies. Hence, ALWAYS BE AWARE OF HOW MANY HIT POINTS YOU HAVE LEFT, because if you lose them all, the game is over, and you have lost.

The amount of HP's damage that is done depends on a number of different factors, such as the weapon you're wielding and your current strength. Your strength is the number listed after "STR" on the bottom of the screen. This is discussed later on, and you do not have to worry too much about it to start. Any attack has a percent chance to hit which depends on a few key statistics. The first of these is the (AC) armor class of the defender. This number ranges (usually) from 10 to -10. It may go higher or lower depending on the circumstances. In particular, armor classes for a winning character very often do go below -10. The lower the number, the better the chance that any attack on that defender will miss. The second factor is the "level" of the attacker. Your level is listed on the bottom of the screen. Initially it is 1, but it will rise as you kill monsters. For every monster you kill, you will be awarded experience points (EXP). Your level is directly determined by the number of EXP you possess. In addition, your hit points will increase every time you go up a level. The final factor is a vague factor known as luck. The program will not tell you what your luck is, but it is used in many factors of the game. Basically, the higher your luck, the better you are at doing almost everything. There're ways to modify your luck, but they are virtually impossible to discover via play. If you want to know what they are, read about them in the spoilers section below.

Now you should know enough to play the game, and discover things on your own. What follows is a summary of the commands and symbols, and then a section which discusses more advanced topics. It is meant to act as a guide to players as to what their options are. The final section contains "spoilers", or information which gives away something in the game which might "spoil" the game for those who prefer to find the information on their own. CONSIDER CAREFULLY YOUR DECISION TO READ THE SPOILER SECTION. Only if you are truly stuck should you have to resort to reading it, and many players feel that spoilers are another form of cheating. That being said, enjoy the game!

The question "What kinds of things do you want to drop? [!%= au]" should be given the response of zero or more object symbols possibly followed by 'a' and /or 'u'. 'a' means: drop all such objects, without asking for confirmation.

The following is a more complete description of the Hack commands. The syntax used is: (Command name) (additional prompts). Example: an [*? or letter] means type "a". At the next prompt, type a letter, * or ?

Options include: own scores: displays all scores with the player's name in the high score list. Options are separated by the "/" character.

The following sections contains information which the player does not have to know of in order to play the game, and which can be learned through the normal course of play. Players who wish to win without any additional help should not read the following sections. Those who only wish to find some specific information may find what they want here, and then not read anything else. For those whose curiosity has gotten the better of them, read what you will.