ZAPM

This article is about ZAPM may not be a true variant of NetHack, but given it's importance in the 2008 /dev/null/nethack tournament, it deserves at least a stub writeup. For other uses, see ZAPM (disambiguation).

ZAPM is a sci-fi roguelike game by Cyrus Dolph. From the homepage: "It's my humble attempt to create "the sci-fi Nethack". It is very much a work in progress."

The latest preview version 0.6.2 was released 2004-07-02.

The aim of ZAPM is to explore a derelict space hulk in search of the fabled "Bizarro Orgasmatron", rumored to be the most powerful artifact in the galaxy and the only hope of saving the universe from an unknown doom.

Classes

ZAPM has only 4 playable classes: Psion, Quarterback, Space Marine and Software Engineer.

• Psions are mutants, using their supercharged DNA to survive the hostile space hulk.
• Quarterbacks are strong athletes, looking to take on a new challenge but with the physical strength to survive - hopefully.
• Space Marines are well-equipped "badasses" that fight aliens for a living. A space hulk may not be too much of a challenge.
• Software engineers are physically weak but computer whizzes. They inherently know the ZAPM equivalent of BUC of items and can use technical items from the beginning of the game.

Differences and similarities

Being roguelike, ZAPM has some things that are familiar, some that are different:

NetHack	ZAPM
Scrolls	Floppy disks - requires a computer to "run", can sometimes be reused
Potions	Canisters
Wands	Ray guns
Doors	Automatic opening doors, locked doors with individual key cards, faulty doors that slam on the player
Launchers	Guns of many descriptions
Traps	Traps
Spellcasting	Mutant powers - cost temporary Charisma rather than Pw
Monsters of almost all ASCII letters	Monsters with letters a-z,A-Z
Corpses	Only droids and bots leave disabled versions once dead, unable to be eaten

ZAPM is a refreshing jaunt with plenty of differences to vanilla and is quite enjoyable.