Jay Fenlason's Hack - Revision history

Umbire the Phantom: /* Armor */ word choice

2026-07-08T04:07:11Z

‎Armor: word choice

Umbire the Phantom: redirects are fine, redlinking accordingly to line up ones to create - nymph has its own monster article, so piercer et. al. should get the same treatment

2026-06-17T08:47:18Z

redirects are fine, redlinking accordingly to line up ones to create - nymph has its own monster article, so piercer et. al. should get the same treatment

Ray Chason: /* Other monsters kept in separate structures */ Add a column for the Fenlason Hack

2026-06-17T02:58:33Z

‎Other monsters kept in separate structures: Add a column for the Fenlason Hack

Ray Chason: /* Main monster list */ Add a column for the original Fenlason Hack

2026-06-17T02:56:46Z

‎Main monster list: Add a column for the original Fenlason Hack

Show changes

Lysdexia: /* Background */ when; format

2026-06-09T21:02:47Z

‎Background: when; format

Lysdexia: these curly quotes stand out

2026-06-09T15:55:11Z

these curly quotes stand out

Lysdexia: fill in Craddock interviews which I had no idea of; overwrite User:Critlist’s ChatGPT slop; trivia; cleanup

2026-06-09T15:53:40Z

fill in Craddock interviews which I had no idea of; overwrite User:Critlist’s ChatGPT slop; trivia; cleanup

Critlist: Clarify differences between Fenlason’s Hack and Brouwer’s Hack 1.0

2026-02-03T19:07:30Z

Clarify differences between Fenlason’s Hack and Brouwer’s Hack 1.0

Critlist: Correct special room information across Hack variants

2026-02-03T18:52:23Z

Correct special room information across Hack variants

Critlist: Update Variants section to reflect preserved original Hack source

2026-02-03T07:47:19Z

Update Variants section to reflect preserved original Hack source

@@ Line 445: / Line 445: @@
 ===Armor===
-In Hack121, the only armor types available are suits of armor and [[shield]]s; PDP-11 Hack implements suits of armor and an [[elven cloak]]. Hack 1.0 adds a [[helmet]], a shield, and a pair of [[gloves]], allowing five pieces of armor to be worn at the same time. All armor is worn or removed using the same command.
+In Hack121, the only armor types available are suits of armor and [[shield]]s; PDP-11 Hack implements two additional suits of armor and an [[elven cloak]]. Hack 1.0 adds a [[helmet]], a shield, and a pair of [[gloves]], allowing five pieces of armor to be worn at the same time. All armor is worn or removed using the same command.
 The list of hack121 suits is reordered here to match the PDP-11 and Hack 1.0 orders:

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Wikipedia|Hack (Unix video game)}}
 {{NetHack Versions}}
 '''Hack''' is a roguelike role-playing game written by [[Jay Fenlason]], with contributions from Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne, from which all subsequent versions of [[Hack]] and all versions of ''[[NetHack]]'' are descended.  '''Jay Fenlason's Hack''' is the term given to the original Hack, without the extensive modifications by [[Andries Brouwer]] which are present in the more widely distributed version.
@@ Line 142: / Line 141: @@
 |floating eye (E)
 |-
-|[[homunculus|homonculous]] ''<nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>'' (h)
+|[[homonculous]] ''<nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>'' (h)
 |hurkle (h)
 |homunculus (h)
@@ Line 177: / Line 176: @@
 |fog cloud (f)
 |-
-|[[Nymph (monster class)|nymph]] (N)
+|[[Nymph (monster)|nymph]] (N)
 |robber (R)
 |nymph (N)
 |nymph (N)
 |-
-|[[piercer]] (p)
+|[[Piercer (monster)|piercer]] (p)
 |stalactoid (s)
 |piercer (p)
@@ Line 197: / Line 196: @@
 |quivering blob (q)
 |-
-|[[violet fungus|violet fungi]] ''<nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>'' (v)
+|[[violet fungi]] ''<nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>'' (v)
 |grabber (G)
 |violet fungi (v)
@@ Line 217: / Line 216: @@
 |cockatrice (c)
 |-
-|[[gelatinous cube|gelatenous cube]] ''<nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>'' (g)
+|[[gelatenous cube]] ''<nowiki>[sic]</nowiki>'' (g)
 |[[ghost]] (')
 |gelatinous cube (g)
@@ Line 252: / Line 251: @@
 |rust monster (R)
 |-
-|giant [[scorpion]] (s)
+|[[Giant scorpion (monster)|giant scorpion]] (s)
 |unox (u)
 |giant scorpion (s)
@@ Line 307: / Line 306: @@
 |yeti (Y)
 |-
-|invisible [[stalker]] (I)
+|[[invisible stalker]] (I)
 |phase shifter (P)
 |invisible stalker (I)

@@ Line 392: / Line 392: @@
 {|class="wikitable"
 !Hack121
 !PDP-11 Hack
 !Hack 1.0
 |-
-|[[vampire bat]] (b)
+|[[vampire bat]] (B)
+|
+|
 |-
 |shopkeep (☺)
 |shopkeeper (@)
 |''in main monster table''
 |-
 |[[guard]] (☺)
 |treasurer (@)
 |guard (@)
 |-
+|
 |[[little dog]] (d)
 |little dog (d)
 |-
+|
 |[[dog]] (d)
 |dog (d)
 |-
+|
 |large dog (d)
 |large dog (d)
 |-
+|
 |[[giant eel]] (;)
+|
 |-
+|
 |ghost (tab)

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 Lincoln-Sudbury’s student Computer Center Users Society were allowed by Harvey to self direct rather than be assigned formal graded coursework.<ref name=harvey-lsrhs>Brian Harvey, "[https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/lsrhs.html Computer Hacking and Ethics: A Case Study: The Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School]", ACM Select Panel on Hacking, 1985.</ref>  There they had access to a PDP-11 16-bit minicomputer running Unix, where Jay, according to the read me in Hack’s distribution, ported the Logo version as his first semester programming project.  He credited Kenny Woodland for various and BUZZ(), Mike Thome for the chamelian [sic], and Jon Payne for the badly-working lock file and CURS().  Due to the memory constraint, he couldn’t fulfil his other wanted improvements over Rogue of far lighting, containers, and set dungeon levels.<ref name=Game_Developer_Dungeon_Hacks/>
-Jay, Jon who wrote the text editor JOVE, and the other computer club members copied their software onto a 9-track tape for Harvey to mail to USENIX in January<ref name=Game_Developer_Dungeon_Hacks/>, and that with software from other groups was included in the USENIX 1982 first distribution tape for the summer conference.<ref>"[https://archive.org/details/login_june-1982/page/n13/mode/2up ;login:]" Vol. 7, No. 3 (June 1982), USENIX Association.</ref> Although no online copy of the tape is known to exist, Hack was popular and one of the most notable programs included along with JOVE.<ref name=Linuxcom>Julie Bresnick, "[https://www.linux.com/news/train-life-nethacks-papa/ On the train of life with Nethack’s papa]", Linux.com, December 5, 2000.</ref>
+Jay, Jon who wrote the text editor JOVE, and the other computer club members copied their software onto a 9-track tape for Harvey to mail to USENIX in January<ref name=Game_Developer_Dungeon_Hacks/>, and that with software from other groups was included in the USENIX 1982 first distribution tape mailed out in June and offered at the summer conference between July 6 and 9.<ref>''[https://archive.org/details/login_june-1982/page/n13/mode/2up ;login:]'' Vol. 7, No. 3 (June 1982), USENIX Association.</ref> Although no online copy of the tape is known to exist, Hack was popular and one of the most notable programs included along with JOVE.<ref name=Linuxcom>Julie Bresnick, "[https://www.linux.com/news/train-life-nethacks-papa/ On the train of life with Nethack’s papa]", Linux.com, December 5, 2000.</ref>
 ==Variants==

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 At present, source code for the original was long believed to be unavailable online; however, a preserved copy of Jay Fenlason’s original Hack project tree has since surfaced via academic and archival channels. This project tree, preserved by Brian Harvey, contains the working directory for the USENIX 82.1 submission as well as evidence of further iterative development.<ref name=fenlason-tree>[https://github.com/Sustainable-Games/fenlason-hack Fenlason Hack source tree], GitHub repository preserved by Dan Stormont, accessed 3 February 2026.</ref>
-A DOS port with user interface changes is also available in binary form; all of Andries Brouwer’s versions are available as source code, and the source code for an early variant dubbed “Hack for PDP-11”, based on an early draft of Brouwer’s version, is also available.
+A DOS port with user interface changes is also available in binary form; all of Andries Brouwer’s versions are available as source code, and the source code for an early variant dubbed "Hack for PDP-11", based on an early draft of Brouwer’s version, is also available.
 ==Background==

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 {{NetHack Versions}}
-'''HACK''' is a roguelike role-playing game written by [[Jay Fenlason]], with contributions from Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne, from which all subsequent versions of [[Hack]] and all versions of ''[[NetHack]]'' are descended.  '''Jay Fenlason's Hack''' is the term given to the original Hack, without the extensive modifications by [[Andries Brouwer]] which are present in the more widely distributed version.
+'''Hack''' is a roguelike role-playing game written by [[Jay Fenlason]], with contributions from Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne, from which all subsequent versions of [[Hack]] and all versions of ''[[NetHack]]'' are descended.  '''Jay Fenlason's Hack''' is the term given to the original Hack, without the extensive modifications by [[Andries Brouwer]] which are present in the more widely distributed version.
-At present, source code for the original was long believed to be unavailable online; however, a preserved copy of Jay Fenlason’s original Hack project tree has since surfaced via academic and archival channels. This project tree, preserved by Brian Harvey, contains the working directory for the USENIX 82-1 submission as well as evidence of further iterative development.<ref name=fenlason-tree>[https://github.com/Sustainable-Games/fenlason-hack Fenlason Hack source tree], GitHub repository preserved by Dan Stormont, accessed 3 February 2026.</ref>
+At present, source code for the original was long believed to be unavailable online; however, a preserved copy of Jay Fenlason’s original Hack project tree has since surfaced via academic and archival channels. This project tree, preserved by Brian Harvey, contains the working directory for the USENIX 82.1 submission as well as evidence of further iterative development.<ref name=fenlason-tree>[https://github.com/Sustainable-Games/fenlason-hack Fenlason Hack source tree], GitHub repository preserved by Dan Stormont, accessed 3 February 2026.</ref>
 A DOS port with user interface changes is also available in binary form; all of Andries Brouwer’s versions are available as source code, and the source code for an early variant dubbed “Hack for PDP-11”, based on an early draft of Brouwer’s version, is also available.
 ==Background==
-Development of Hack began in 1981 at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Massachusetts, where Jay Fenlason and other students had access to a PDP-11 system running Unix. The school’s computing environment, administered by a student-run Computer Center Users Society, emphasized experimentation and peer collaboration rather than formal coursework.<ref name=harvey-lsrhs>[https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/lsrhs.html Brian Harvey, “Computer Hacking and Ethics: The Lincoln-Sudbury Case Study”], ACM Select Panel on Hacking, 1985.</ref>
+Development of Hack began in the summer of 1981 when Jay Fenlason and other sophomores at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Massachusetts were hired as teaching assistants by their computing director Brian Harvey for his summer Logo workshop at San Francisco State University.  They also spent time at UC Berkeley where a student introduced Jay to Rogue.  After 8 hours of playing between two trips he began to recreate the workings in Logo on Apple II, the first development version of Hack (likely named HACK due to Apple DOS’s capital limitation) meant to improve on the shortcomings of Rogue like one-track aggressive monsters and their capital-only icons and item nonstacking.<ref name=Game_Developer_Dungeon_Hacks>David Craddock, "[https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/dungeon-hacks-chapter-5-when-the-inmates-run-the-asylum---hack-ing-at-lincoln-sudbury-high-school Dungeon Hacks, Chapter 5: When the Inmates Run the Asylum - Hack-ing at Lincoln-Sudbury High School]", Game Developer, August 10, 2015.</ref>
-Fenlason developed Hack as an original program exploring dungeon-based gameplay, focusing on procedural room and corridor generation, monster behavior, and item interaction. By the first half of 1982, Hack had reached a sufficiently complete state to be submitted for external distribution.
+Lincoln-Sudbury’s student Computer Center Users Society were allowed by Harvey to self direct rather than be assigned formal graded coursework.<ref name=harvey-lsrhs>Brian Harvey, "[https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/lsrhs.html Computer Hacking and Ethics: A Case Study: The Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School]", ACM Select Panel on Hacking, 1985.</ref>  There they had access to a PDP-11 16-bit minicomputer running Unix, where Jay, according to the read me in Hack’s distribution, ported the Logo version as his first semester programming project.  He credited Kenny Woodland for various and BUZZ(), Mike Thome for the chamelian [sic], and Jon Payne for the badly-working lock file and CURS().  Due to the memory constraint, he couldn’t fulfil his other wanted improvements over Rogue of far lighting, containers, and set dungeon levels.<ref name=Game_Developer_Dungeon_Hacks/>
-Hack was included in the USENIX 82-1 software distribution tape, submitted by Brian Harvey, then Computer Director at Lincoln-Sudbury. Contemporary evidence from *;login:* (Vol. 7, No. 3, June 1982) confirms that the tape had been completed prior to the Summer 1982 USENIX conference in Boston, where it was subsequently distributed. Hack therefore predates the conference presentations held at that meeting.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/login_june-1982/page/n13/mode/2up *;login:* Vol. 7, No. 3 (June 1982)], USENIX Association.</ref>
+Jay, Jon who wrote the text editor JOVE, and the other computer club members copied their software onto a 9-track tape for Harvey to mail to USENIX in January<ref name=Game_Developer_Dungeon_Hacks/>, and that with software from other groups was included in the USENIX 1982 first distribution tape for the summer conference.<ref>"[https://archive.org/details/login_june-1982/page/n13/mode/2up ;login:]" Vol. 7, No. 3 (June 1982), USENIX Association.</ref> Although no online copy of the tape is known to exist, Hack was popular and one of the most notable programs included along with JOVE.<ref name=Linuxcom>Julie Bresnick, "[https://www.linux.com/news/train-life-nethacks-papa/ On the train of life with Nethack’s papa]", Linux.com, December 5, 2000.</ref>
 ==Variants==
-The original Hack developed by Jay Fenlason is now known to survive in the form of a preserved project tree, including the version submitted to the USENIX 82-1 distribution tape and evidence of further iterative development. Several derivative and ported versions of Hack were also created during the early 1980s. This section describes notable variants and ports that circulated independently of the original development tree.
+The original Hack developed by Jay Fenlason is now known to survive in the form of a preserved project tree, including the version submitted to the USENIX 82.1 distribution tape and evidence of further iterative development.<!--insert Dan Stormont/dainialpadraig work--> Several derivative and ported versions of Hack were also created during the early 1980s. This section describes notable variants and ports that circulated independently of the original development tree.
 ===Hack 1.21 (hack121)===
 A 16-color CGA-mode DOS port of Jay Fenlason's Hack is available in binary form at [http://www.juiblex.co.uk/nethack/front.html Ali Harlow's website] as [http://www.juiblex.co.uk/nethack/source/hack121.zip hack121.zip] ([http://roguelikedevelopment.org/archive/files/executables/hack121.zip mirror]).  It is known as "hack121", after the filename of its distribution package.
-It refers to itself as version "1.21 (Slak was here!)", "Slak" apparently being [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/net.wanted.sources/eihTycnxH1w/wwNdkdvDSZkJ Jay Fenlason himself]; nonetheless, some changes have clearly been made by the porter ([[IBMgraphics]] and the fusion of mklev into hack).
+It refers to itself as version "1.21 (Slak was here!)", "Slak" apparently being [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/net.wanted.sources/eihTycnxH1w/wwNdkdvDSZkJ Jay Fenlason himself]: his Usenet post signature includes a vanity bang path where the last syllable liaises to "slack" if "!" were read as "l" from lsrhs!hack.  bbncca was the domain for BBN Communications Corp., the first ever email host.  His account was really "[https://archive.org/download/usenet-net/net.wanted.sources.mbox.zip notice]", for the equivalent global email address notice@lsrhs.UUCP, in a more ordinary path utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!think!mit-eddie!genrad!grkermi!lsrhs!notice.  He left score files in Hack and Hack 1.21 as Jay the Hacker and J. Random Hacker, each.
-See [http://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.sources/KfIu2etTMew this newsgroup posting] for a possible lead as to who ported it.
+Nonetheless, some changes have clearly been made by the porter ([[IBMgraphics]] and the fusion of mklev into hack).  See [http://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.sources/KfIu2etTMew this newsgroup posting] for a possible lead as to who ported it.
-No source code for this program is known to exist, and it is not known for sure if the porter made any modifications which affect gameplay.  Nonetheless, it is probably the closest to the original that is known to be extant.
+No source code for this program is known to exist, and it is not known for sure if the porter made any modifications which affect gameplay.  This is probably the closest to the original that is known to be extant.
 <gallery>
@@ Line 74: / Line 72: @@
 ==Special room types==
-No special room types are present in the version of Hack submitted to the USENIX 82-1 software distribution tape. The preserved USENIX version contains no shops or other designated special rooms.
+No special room types are present in the version of Hack submitted to the USENIX 82.1 software distribution tape. The preserved USENIX version contains no shops or other designated special rooms.
 The DOS binary known as hack121 begins the game in a shop. This represents the earliest known appearance of a shop in any Hack-related variant. As no source code for hack121 is known to survive, and the provenance of the port is uncertain, it is not possible to determine whether the shop was introduced by the porter or derived from a later, now-lost version of Fenlason’s Hack.
@@ Line 91: / Line 89: @@
 ===Main monster list===
-These are given in the order of their appearance in the code; it will be seen that the lists are quite similar.
+These are given in the order of their appearance in the code; the lists are quite similar.
 {|class="wikitable"
@@ Line 376: / Line 374: @@
 The giant eel appears in essentially its modern form.  The current version of AEB Hack at the release of the PDP-11 Hack was [[Hack 1.0.1|1.0.1]], and this version did not have giant eels.  Giant eels do appear in [[Hack 1.0.2]], and the source code credits the publishers of PDP-11 Hack,  Michiel Huisjes and Fred de Wilde, for the inspiration.  That credit is still present in [[NetHack 3.4.3]]{{refsrc|mkroom.c|447}}.
-==Available Objects==
+==Available objects==
 Hack121, PDP-11 Hack, and Hack 1.0 show many similarities in their object lists.  Except as noted, the object lists are presented in the order in which they occur in the code.  PC/IX Hack is the same as PDP-11 Hack except as otherwise noted.

@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 [[Hack 1.0]] was developed by [[Andries Brouwer]] and posted to Usenet in December 1984.  All other versions of Hack and NetHack are descended from this version.
-==Main differences from Andries Brouwer's Hack==
+==Main differences from Andries Brouwer’s Hack==
-*The concept of a [[role]] was introduced in Hack 1.0, and is not present in the other versions.  Hack121 begins with a screen from which the player may buy equipment; this is mentioned by Robert Grover as a feature of Fenlason's original version.  Brouwer presumably removed this screen fairly early on: PDP-11 Hack, being derived from an early draft of Andries Brouwer's Hack, starts the player off as a generic fighter character.
+Fenlason’s original Hack differs substantially from Andries Brouwer’s Hack 1.0 in both structure and gameplay systems. The preserved Fenlason codebase contains a single-character dungeon exploration game without [[roles]], [[pets]], [[shops]], or other complex subsystems that later became central to Hack and NetHack.
-*The exact goal of the adventurer is uncertain.  The [[Amulet of Yendor]] is not mentioned.
-*Hack121 does not have [[pet]]s.  PDP-11 Hack starts the player off with a little [[dog]], suggesting that pets were a relatively early addition by Brouwer.
+Hack 1.0 introduces player roles, a formalized end goal centered on the [[Amulet of Yendor]], a pet system, and multiple new gameplay subsystems including shops, special room types, and the segmented worm mechanic. Brouwer later described Hack 1.0 as being almost entirely rewritten relative to Fenlason’s original sources.
 ==Special room types==

@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 ==Special room types==
-It seems likely that [[shop]]s were the only special room type in Fenlason's original code.
+No special room types are present in the version of Hack submitted to the USENIX 82-1 software distribution tape. The preserved USENIX version contains no shops or other designated special rooms.
-Hack121 has shops.  No other special room types are presently known to exist in hack121.
+The DOS binary known as hack121 begins the game in a shop. This represents the earliest known appearance of a shop in any Hack-related variant. As no source code for hack121 is known to survive, and the provenance of the port is uncertain, it is not possible to determine whether the shop was introduced by the porter or derived from a later, now-lost version of Fenlason’s Hack.
-PDP-11 Hack has shops (mkshop), [[zoo]]s (mkzoo), [[graveyard]]s (mkyard), [[swamp]]s (mkswamp) and [[vault]]s (mk_knox).  The developers of PDP-11 Hack, per their readme, implemented vaults, swamps, zoos and graveyards themselves, leaving shops as the only roomtype which was present in the sources they originally obtained.  Vaults, in particular, are implemented very differently to Hack 1.0.
+Hack for PDP-11 and PC/IX includes shops as well as additional special room types such as zoos, graveyards, swamps, and vaults. According to the PDP-11 Hack documentation, these room types were implemented by the port’s developers themselves, with shops already present in the codebase they obtained. Vaults in particular are implemented in a manner distinct from later Hack and NetHack versions.
-Hack 1.0 has vaults (not delegated), shops (mkshop) and zoos (mkzoo).
+Andries Brouwer’s Hack reintroduces shops and expands the use of special room types, forming the basis for their continued development in later Hack and NetHack variants.
 ==Mazes==