For those of you who didn’t just see me gasp about this on the social networks, Dara just gave me the heads up: Nethack, which has been lying apparently idle for years, has actually released a new version. 3.6.0. NETHACK LIVES!
Those of you who have followed me long enough to have seen me post on LJ or on my annathepiper.org blog may recall that I have played this game off and on over the years, ever since 198-freggin’-7. I’ve beaten it only twice, once way back on version 2.something-or-other, before they even implemented any stats besides Strength, and back when all you had to do to beat the game was get out of the dungeon with the Amulet of Yendor. And I beat it once after that, as chronicled on LJ here, in the saga “Norse Girl Makes Good”.
I’d been wondering whether we were actually going to see a new version, since earlier this year, I saw nethack.org get updated with a notice from the Dev Team that unauthorized versions had leaked into the wild. And now apparently the wait is over. From what I’m seeing on the download page, we have official binaries available for Windows (modern versions of Windows, 7 through 10), and OS X (which they’re saying should include 10.7 and later). I’m not seeing references to official Linux binaries or packages yet, but I daresay it’ll be inevitable that packages will start showing up in Linux releases, and the source code is also available for those of you who are ambitious enough to do your own compiling.
RIGHT THEN. Looks like I’m going to have to break out Natil the Ranger again. Those grid bugs ain’t gonna zap themselves!
(And yay I get to break out my Nethack LJ and Dreamwidth icons again!)
(Does Nethack count as a casual game? Technically it might, but as anyone who’s ever played this thing knows, there is not a damn thing casual about a serious game of Nethack. ;D )