Melon
A melon is a type of comestible that appears in NetHack.
Contents
Generation
In addition to random generation, general stores, delicatessens and health food stores can sell melons.
Applying a horn of plenty has a 9⁄1000 chance (0.9%) of generating a melon.
Description
Eating a melon grants 100 base nutrition. It is considered vegan food and takes 1 turn to consume.
Throwing a melons will cause it to "splat" and be wasted.[1]
Strategy
The melon shares the same color glyph with the corpse of Medusa, which has an outside chance of resulting in YASD if the two are confused.
History
The melon first appears in Hack for PDP-11, which is based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial food list for Hack 1.0.
Variants
UnNetHack
In UnNetHack, the "Pacman" random vault has a melon among the randomly placed 'fruit' items.
Both maps for the top floor of the Ruins of Moria have a melon on the outside of the main gate, placed atop an engraving that can only be read at night: "Speak, friend, and enter". This is a pun on "mellon", which is elvish for "friend" in J.R.R. Tolkien's setting of Middle-Earth.
SpliceHack
In SpliceHack, the defunct Dancer role starts the game with a melon among their food items.
Encyclopedia entry
"What is it, Umbopa, son of a fool?" I shouted in Zulu.
"It is food and water, Macumazahn," and again he waved the
green thing.
Then I saw what he had got. It was a melon. We had hit upon
a patch of wild melons, thousands of them, and dead ripe.
"Melons!" I yelled to Good, who was next me; and in another
second he had his false teeth fixed in one.
I think we ate about six each before we had done, and, poor
fruit as they were, I doubt if I ever thought anything nicer.
