xref: /dragonfly/games/hack/READ_ME (revision 335b9e93)
1Hack is a display oriented dungeons & dragons - like game.
2Both display and command structure resemble rogue.
3(For a game with the same structure but entirely different display -
4a real cave instead of dull rectangles - try Quest)
5
6Hack was originally written by Jay Fenlason (at lincolnsudbury:
7 29 East St., Sudbury Mass., 01776) with help from
8 Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne.
9Basically it was an implementation of Rogue, however, with 52+ instead of 26
10 monster types.
11The current version is more than thrice as large (with such new features as
12 the dog, the long worms, the shops, etc.) and almost entirely rewritten
13 (only the display routines are the original ones - I must rewrite these
14 too one day; especially when you are blind strange things still happen).
15
16Files for hack:
17	hack		The actual game
18	record		Top 100 list (just start with an empty file)
19	news		Tells about recent changes in hack, or bugs found ...
20			(Just start with no news file.)
21	data		Auxiliary file used by hack to give you the names
22			and sometimes some more information on the
23			objects and monsters.
24	help		Introductory information (no doubt outdated).
25	hh		Compactified version of help.
26	perm		An empty file used for locking purposes.
27	rumors		Texts for fortune cookies.
28			(Some of these contain information on the game,
29			others are just plain stupid. Additional rumors
30			are appreciated.)
31	hack.sh		A shell script.
32			(We have hack.sh in /usr/games/hack and
33			hack in /usr/games/lib/hackdir/hack and all the other
34			hack stuff in /usr/games/lib/hackdir - perhaps this
35			will make the script clear.
36			There is no need for you to use it.)
37	READ_ME		This file.
38	Original_READ_ME Jay Fenlason's READ_ME
39
40System files used:
41	/etc/termcap	Used in conjunction with the environment variable
42			$TERM.
43	/bin/cat
44	/usr/ucb/more
45	/bin/sh		Used when $SHELL is undefined.
46
47How to install hack:
480. Compile the sources. Perhaps you should first look at the file config.h
49   and define BSD if you are on a BSDtype system,
50   define STUPID if your C-compiler chokes on complicated expressions.
51   Make sure schar and uchar represent signed and unsigned types.
52   If your C compiler doesnt allow initialization of bit fields
53   change Bitfield. When config.h looks reasonable, say 'make'.
54   (Perhaps you have to change TERMLIB in the makefile.)
551. If it didnt exist already, introduce a loginname `play' .
562. The program  hack  resides in a directory so that it is executable
57   for everybody and is suid play:
58	---s--s--x  1 play	206848 Apr  3 00:17 hack
59   Perhaps you wish to restrict playing to certain hours, or have games
60   running under nice; in that case you might write a program play.c
61   such that the program play is suid play and executable for everybody
62   while all the games in /usr/games are readable or executable for
63   play only; all the program play does is asking for the name of a game,
64   checking that time-of-day and system load do not forbid playing,
65   and then executing the game. Thus:
66	-r-sr-sr-x  1 play	 13312 May 24 12:52 play
67	---x------  1 play	206848 Apr  3 00:17 hack
68   If you are worried about security you might let play do
69   chroot("/usr/games") so that no player can get access to the rest
70   of the system via shell escapes and the likes.
71   If you #define SECURE in config.h then hack will not setuid(getuid())
72   before executing a chdir(). Hack will always do setuid(getuid()) with
73   a fork. If you do not define UNIX then hack will not fork.
743. The rest of the stuff belonging to hack sits in a subdirectory hackdir
75   (on our system /usr/games/lib/hackdir) with modes
76	drwx------  3 play	1024 Aug  9 09:03 hackdir
77   Here all the temporary files will be created (with names like xlock.17
78   or user.5).
794. If you are not really short on file space, creating a subdirectory
80   hackdir/save (modes again drwx------) will enable users to save their
81   unfinished games.
82
83The program hack is called
84$ hack [-d hackdir] [maxnrofplayers]
85(for playing) or
86$ hack [-d hackdir] -s [listofusers | limit | all]
87(for seeing part of the scorelist).
88The shell file hack (in this kit called hack.sh) takes care of
89calling hack with the right arguments.
90
91Send complaints, bug reports, suggestions for improvements to
92mcvax!aeb - in real life Andries Brouwer.
93