xref: /src/games/hack/READ_ME

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	help		Introductory information (no doubt outdated).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.