nh30j.Doc

nh30j.doc is the Macintosh NetHack 3.0 manual at patchlevel 10, last revised 13 May 1991. It is the install and orientation document that ships alongside the nh30j.sea and nh30j+.sea binary archives, explaining how to unpack, configure, and start playing NetHack on a classic Mac.

What NetHack Is

NetHack is a single-player roguelike descended from Hack (1985) and Rogue (1980), in which the player explores a randomly generated dungeon in search of the Amulet of Yendor. Version 3.0 was the first release from the newly formed NetHack DevTeam, debuting in July 1989; the Macintosh port catches up with that lineage at patchlevel 10.

What The Manual Covers

The document walks through unpacking the BinHex 4.0 / Compact Pro self-extracting archives, the layout of the resulting Playground folder (Dungeon subfolder, auxiliary files, special level files for castle, endgame, and the towers), and how to use the Open NetHack helper to start a session or reset the scoreboard.

Two Binary Variants

The manual explains the difference between nh30j.hqx and nh30j+.hqx - the plus build is a memory-management bugfix recommended for certain Mac models and System Software combinations. It also notes the System Folder NetHack prefs file that stores dialog options and on-disk level files generated during play.

Hardware And Source

About 2 MB of hard disk space is required to unpack the full distribution. The document points readers at the original NetHack source (circa February 1991, mirrored on uunet.uu.net under comp.sources.games) and at the developer for bugfix details, in keeping with NetHack's open-source heritage and license.