Apple

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% Apple.png
Name apple
Base price 7 zm
Nutrition 50
Turns to eat 1
Weight 2
Conduct vegan

An apple is a type of veggy comestible that appears in NetHack.

Generation

Healers and Monks start each game with 5-10 apples.[1][2] Knights start each game with 10-20 apples.[3] Tourists may start with apples among their random food items.[4]

Apples make up 3200 (1.5%) of all randomly-generated comestibles. General stores, delicatessens and health food stores can sell apples.

Kicking a tree has a one-time 1415 chance of dropping (8−rnl(7)) fruits, which may be apples.[5] Cutting down a tree has a 15 chance of producing a piece of fruit that can be an apple.[6] If a tree is tunneled through, there is a 13 chance of fruit being left behind, which can be an apple.[7]

Applying a charged horn of plenty has a 1.4% chance of generating an apple or two.[8]

Description

When eaten, an apple provides 50 nutrition and takes 1 turn to consume - eating a cursed apple will also cause the hero to fall asleep for 20-30 turns if they lack sleep resistance, and food appraisal will warn a hero if they are about to eat one.[9][10]

Apples are vegan, and can be used to tame domestic herbivorous monsters and pacify domestic carnivores - herbivorous pets will consider apples to be treats.

Strategy

Apples are best saved for taming or feeding pets, and Knights in particular will want to prioritize keeping their steed fed. However, Healers, Knights, and Monks may consider eating their starting apples if extra permafood proves especially scarce.

History

The apple first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, which are based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial item list for Hack 1.0.

Origin

An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree, which is a plant of the genus Malus and includes the domestic or orchard apple tree (Malus domestica). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in their genus; they originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor Malus sieversii is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia and were introduced to North America by European colonists - they have religious, mythological and other significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition, and some of these are listed below:

  • The effect of a cursed apple when eaten is a reference to the fairy tale of Snow White and the poisoned apple.
  • The Unix-specific messages appear to be derived from joke Unix documentation within a Usenet post that is not archived by Google Groups.
  • Apple Inc. is a multinational technology brand that names their computers after the Macintosh apple, as explained below; their primary operating system, Mac OS X, is similarly named and partially based on Unix.
  • The presence of apples in a Healer's starting inventory is likely a reference to the proverb "an apple a day keeps the doctor away".
  • The apple was considered sacred to Aphrodite in ancient Greek culture: Eris, the Greek goddess of discord, became disgruntled over being excluded from the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and in retaliation tossed a golden apple inscribed Καλλίστη (Kalliste, sometimes transliterated Kallisti, "for the most beautiful one") into the wedding party. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite claimed the apple, with Paris of Troy appointed to select the recipient. After being bribed by both Hera and Athena, Aphrodite tempted him with the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen of Sparta. Paris awarded the apple to Aphrodite, thus indirectly causing the Trojan War.

Messages

You hear sinister laughter as you fall asleep...
You ate a cursed apple and fell asleep.
You fall asleep.
As above, while deaf.
Heigh-ho, ho-hum, I think I'll skip work today.
As above, but you are a dwarf and hallucinating.

Some YAFMs appear if you eat an apple or pear while playing NetHack on a Unix or classic Mac OS system:[11][12]

Message Effect
"Core dumped." (Unix (including modern macOS), not hallucinating) No effect

When a Unix program performs an illegal operation, the kernel shuts down the program, and the program often dumps a core file for loading into debuggers; the pun is that apples are usually dumped once the core is the only thing left.

"Segmentation fault -- core dumped." (75100 chance)

"Bus error -- core dumped." (24100 chance)
"Yo' mama -- core dumped." (1100 chance)
(Unix, hallucinating)

No effect

As above, but these error messages are more 'realistic' - an actual "core dumped" error on Unix comes with the cause of the crash.

"Delicious! Must be a Macintosh!" (Classic Mac OS) No effect

Apple Computer named their Macintosh computers after a real type of apple.

Variants

UnNetHack

In UnNetHack, the "Pacman" random vault has a guaranteed apple at a random position.

dNetHack

In dNetHack, non-drow Binders start with 2-4 apples. Drow and half-dragon Knights receive tripe rations for their steed instead of apples.

Andromalius is a spirit whose binding ritual can use an apple as one of the two items placed in his seal, and using two non-apple items in the binding ritual may generate an apple as the third item the character receives if they successfully bind him.

xNetHack

In xNetHack, The Apple of Discord is an artifact gold apple that can be invoked for hungerless conflict, and boosts the effects of conflict while carried by a chaotic hero that is crowned.

SpliceHack

In SpliceHack, the defunct Dancer role starts with an apple among their food items.

An apple can be combined with a cream pie at a furnace to create an apple pie.

notdNetHack

In notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, in addition to dNetHack details, Eve and Jack are each generated with 1-2 apples when summoned by an Illithanachronounbinder.

EvilHack

In EvilHack, draugr Knights do not have their starting apples replaced as with other draugr characters, since they are meant for the role's steed.

One of the crystal chests on the last level of the Ice Queen's Realm contains a few apples, and they can also be found within chests spread across the ground floor of the Wizard's Tower.

Encyclopedia entry

NEWTONIAN, adj. Pertaining to a philosophy of the universe invented by Newton, who discovered that an apple will fall to the ground, but was unable to say why. His successors and disciples have advanced so far as to be able to say when.

[ The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce ]

References