Saving

Saving a game is very simple. You have to just press S (Shift + s) and the game is saved.

To load the game, you just have to type the same name as in the saved file. If you use different names, then you can play multiple characters simultaneously.

Example

What is my name? Jack, and I am (whatever).

I start the game.

Wow! It is late! I have to stop playing now!

I press S. Yes, I do really want to save.

Next day:

What a wonderful day to play NetHack! I start the game.

What is my name? I type Jack. (Note: this is case sensitive!)

I press OK. Now I have loaded my saved NetHack file!

Unix

On Unix systems, your NetHack player's name is your username by default. To use a different name, use the -u switch to nethack like thus:

$ nethack -u Jack

This will either start Jack's game or load Jack's saved game.

Public servers

On nethack.alt.org and other dgamelaunch-style servers, your player's name is the name of your account. To play two characters simultaneously, you must create a second account.

This would also be true of the /dev/null/nethack tournament servers, but the tourney rules do not allow you to have more than one account.

See also

• Hangup your NetHack process if you must save but cannot use the S command.
• Savescumming, while associated with saving, is not the same thing!