1 MSDOS specific help file for aNetHack 0.0.1
2 (Last Revision: December 4, 1999)
4 Copyright (c) aNetHack PC Development Team 1993-1999.
5 aNetHack may be freely distributed. See license for details.
7 New players should be sure to read GuideBoo.txt which contains essential
8 information about playing aNetHack. It can be found in the same
9 directory as your aNetHack executable.
11 The MSDOS port of aNetHack supports some additional or enhanced commands
12 as well as some defaults.nh file options specific to configuration choices
13 used during the building of PC aNetHack. Listed below are those commands
14 and defaults.nh file options.
16 Recognized MSDOS specific defaults.nh entries are outlined below.
20 IBMgraphics Use IBM extended characters for the dungeon
22 BIOS Allow the use of IBM ROM BIOS calls
24 rawio Allow the use of raw I/O (may only be set
27 preload_tiles Preload tiles into RAM at start of game.
28 Faster, but uses more memory.
35 Players will need this if they have a real, true, (old)
36 monochrome adapter, and they are seeing underlined,
37 and flashing, and reverse-video characters on the
38 screen. Or they find that some things are missing from
39 the display. This means that the auto-detection
40 for monochromes has failed. The color support
41 stuff is active in video.c, but may be (will have
42 to be) overridden by adding an OPTIONS=nocolor to
48 ie: OPTIONS=video:autodetect
50 Possible values are: AUTODETECT, DEFAULT, VGA
52 AUTODETECT Checks for a supported hi-res video
53 adaptor, and if it detects one, aNetHack
54 will run in "TILE MODE."
56 DEFAULT aNetHack will run in TTY mode. This is
57 the same as not specifying OPTIONS=VIDEO
60 VGA Forces use of VGA specific video routines.
61 Any forcing of specific video routines has
62 potential to cause machine lock-ups if
63 the specified video hardware is not present.
67 Players may wish to add this option because one of their
68 shades of gray is difficult to read on their video
69 display hardware. Allows a level of intensity to be
70 assigned to the 3 possible shades of gray in aNetHack,
71 those being BLACK, GRAY, WHITE. To each of those
72 shades, the player may assign a DARK, NORMAL, or LIGHT value.
73 Here is the default if not specified:
75 ie. OPTIONS=VIDEOSHADES:dark-normal-light
77 Anytime the same intensity value (DARK NORMAL LIGHT) is used
78 for more than one shade of gray, it will not be possible
79 to visually distinguish those two shades from each
82 ie. OPTIONS=VIDEOSHADES:normal-normal-light
84 This, while eliminating the dark shade normally used for
85 displaying black items, means that the player won't be
86 able to distinguish black items and creatures from gray
87 items and creatures visually.
89 Note also that the controversial gray schema used in
90 pl 3.1.2 as the default, corresponded to:
92 OPTIONS=VIDEOSHADES:normal-dark-normal
94 This is NOT the default in pl 3.1.3 and above, so many people
95 will probably not even need to use this option, and will find
96 the default just fine. The maps are built using gray,
97 and in pl 3.1.3, that is mapped to normal by default. In
98 3.1.2, it was mapped to dark (as above).
102 This option is only provided because some people on
103 r.g.r.n mentioned how they liked to modify the color
104 values from the default ANSI.SYS behaviour, and were
105 "upset" to find out that they could no longer do so
106 under 3.1.2. The color map is as accurate as possible
107 on standard PC video hardware as it stands, and any
108 deviation from the default, will mean that people
109 are mapping blue to green for example. The option is
110 available to provide as much flexibility as possible,
111 but it is not encouraged to be used.
113 One possible use might be for the dark blue in
114 fountains. On video hardware that has trouble
115 displaying blacks, there may also be problems displaying
116 the darker blue used in fountains. If that is the case
117 then the default map:
119 OPTIONS=VIDEOCOLORS:4-2-6-1-5-3-12-10-14-9-13-11
121 could be changed to the following to map blue to br.
124 OPTIONS=VIDEOCOLORS:4-2-6-9-5-3-12-10-14-9-13-11
126 The mapping order for the options:
128 red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan
129 br.red, br.green, yellow, br.blue,
132 The PC hardware uses the following values:
134 red(4), green(2), brown(6), blue(1), magenta(5),
135 cyan(3), bright red(12), bright green(10), yellow(14),
136 bright blue(9), bright magenta(13), bright cyan(11),
137 normal white(7), bright white(15).
140 The following options are NOT currently recognized under the MSDOS
143 LEVELS= Where to store/create per level
145 SAVE= Where to save games.
146 BONES= Where to store bones files.
149 MSDOS Additional/Enhanced Commands:
151 If you have opted to use the "graphical" or "tiled" option, (usually set via
152 OPTIONS=VIDEO:AUTODETECT ((see above)), then the following function keys are
155 F3 cycle through the current position indicator, or halo. Usually this
156 halo highlights the player's tile, unless the game is asking you for
157 an answer to a question that requires positional information, (ie,
158 the discover command).
159 F4 toggle level overview mode on/off
160 F5 toggle tiled display on/off. (Switches between tiled and traditional
163 While playing aNetHack under MSDOS you can press the ALT key in combination
164 with another key to execute an extended command as an alternative method
165 to pressing a # key sequence:
167 Alt-2 twoweapon - toggle two-weapon combat
168 Alt-a adjust - adjust inventory letters.
169 Alt-c chat - talk to someone or something.
170 Alt-d dip - dip an object into something.
171 Alt-e enhance - enhance your skill with a weapon.
172 Alt-f force - force a lock.
173 Alt-i invoke - invoke an object's powers.
174 Alt-j jump - jump to a location.
175 Alt-l loot - loot a box on the floor.
176 Alt-m monster - use a monster's special ability.
177 Alt-n name - name an item or type of object.
178 Alt-o offer - offer a sacrifice to the gods.
179 Alt-p pray - pray to the gods for help.
180 Alt-q quit - quit the game. (Same as #quit)
181 Alt-r rub - rub a lamp.
182 Alt-s sit - sit down.
183 Alt-t turn - turn undead.
184 Alt-u untrap - untrap something.
185 Alt-v version - list compile time options for this version of aNetHack.
186 Alt-w wipe - wipe off your face.
188 If you are playing on NEC PC-9800, use the GRPH key instead of the ALT key.