NetHack History file for release 3.2

Behold, mortal, the origins of NetHack...

Jay Fenlason wrote the original Hack with help from Kenny Woodland,
Mike Thome, and Jon Payne.

Andries Brouwer did a major re-write, transforming Hack into a very different
game, and published (at least) three versions (1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.0.3) for
UNIX(tm) machines to the Usenet.

Don G. Kneller ported Hack 1.0.3 to Microsoft(tm) C and MS-DOS(tm), producing
PC HACK 1.01e, added support for DEC Rainbow graphics in version 1.03g, and
went on to produce at least four more versions (3.0, 3.2, 3.51, and 3.6).

R. Black ported PC HACK 3.51 to Lattice(tm) C and the Atari 520/1040ST,
producing ST Hack 1.03.

Mike Stephenson merged these various versions back together, incorporating
many of the added features, and produced NetHack version 1.4.  He then
coordinated a cast of thousands in enhancing and debugging NetHack 1.4 and
released NetHack versions 2.2 and 2.3.
 
Later, Mike coordinated a major rewrite of the game, heading a team which
included Ken Arromdee, Jean-Christophe Collet, Steve Creps, Eric Hendrickson,
Izchak Miller, Eric S. Raymond, John Rupley, Mike Threepoint, and Janet Walz,
to produce NetHack 3.0c.  The same group subsequently released ten patch-
level revisions and updates of 3.0.

NetHack 3.0 was ported to the Atari by Eric R. Smith, to OS/2 by Timo
Hakulinen, and to VMS by David Gentzel.  The three of them and Kevin Darcy
later joined the main development team to produce subsequent revisions of
3.0.

Olaf Seibert ported NetHack 2.3 and 3.0 to the Amiga.  Norm Meluch, Stephen
Spackman and Pierre Martineau designed overlay code for PC NetHack 3.0.
Johnny Lee ported NetHack 3.0 to the Macintosh.  Along with various other
Dungeoneers, they continued to enhance the PC, Macintosh, and Amiga ports
through the later revisions of 3.0.
 
Headed by Mike Stephenson and coordinated by Izchak Miller and Janet Walz,
the development team which now included Ken Arromdee, David Cohrs,
Jean-Christophe Collet, Kevin Darcy, Matt Day, Timo Hakulinen, Steve Linhart,
Dean Luick, Pat Rankin, Eric Raymond, and Eric Smith undertook a radical
revision of 3.0.  They re-structured the game's design, and re-wrote major
parts of the code.  They added multiple dungeons, a new display, special
individual character quests, a new endgame and many other new features, and
produced NetHack 3.1.

Ken Lorber, Gregg Wonderly and Greg Olson, with help from Richard Addison,
Mike Passaretti, and Olaf Seibert, developed NetHack 3.1 for the Amiga.

Norm Meluch and Kevin Smolkowski, with help from Carl Schelin, Stephen
Spackman, Steve VanDevender, and Paul Winner, ported NetHack 3.1 to the PC.

Jon W{tte and Hao-yang Wang, with help from Ross Brown, Mike Engber, David
Hairston, Michael Hamel, Jonathan Handler, Johnny Lee, Tim Lennan, Rob Menke,
and Andy Swanson developed NetHack 3.1 for the Macintosh, porting it for
MPW.  Building on their development, Barton House added a Think C port.  

Timo Hakulinen ported NetHack 3.1 to OS/2.  Eric Smith ported NetHack 3.1
to the Atari.  Pat Rankin, with help from Joshua Delahunty, is responsible
for the VMS version of NetHack 3.1.  Michael Allison ported NetHack 3.1 to
Windows NT.

Dean Luick, with help from David Cohrs, developed NetHack 3.1 for X11.
Warwick Allison added in the "tiled" version of the game and generated most
of the individual tiles for NetHack 3.2.

The 3.2 development team, comprised of: Michael Allison; Ken Arromdee; David
Cohrs; Jessie Collet; Steve Creps; Kevin Darcy; Timo Hakulinen; Steve
Linhart; Dean Luick; Pat Rankin; Eric Smith; Mike Stephenson; Janet Walz; and
Paul Winner, released version 3.2 in April of 1996.

Version 3.2 marks the tenth anniversary of the formation of the development
team.  In a testament to their dedication to the game, all thirteen members
of the original development team remained on the team at the start of work
on the current release.  During the interval between the release of 3.1.3
and 3.2, one of the founding members of the development team, Dr. Izchak
Miller, passed away.  This release of the game is dedicated to him by the
development and porting teams.

Version 3.2 is more stable than previous versions, (it is hoped).  Many bugs
have been fixed, abuses eliminated, and game features tuned for better game
play.  The menus have been modified to give players more choices in styles
for menus which require pick list selections.  A graphical display has been
added for some ports.  (Added to the X11 port by Dean Luick, to the
Amiga port by Ken Lorber, and to the DOS port by Michael Allison.)  The
spell system and weapon proficiency portions of the game were adapted by
Stephen White from his NHPlus variant.  (The #qualifications' and '#enhance'
extended commands were added to make use of these changes.)  Additional game
changes worth mentioning: light sources no longer have to be carried by the
player to be used; wands can be destroyed if desired (use the 'a'pply
command); treasures can be found buried in walls or in the floor; the
'#untrap' command has been improved; and, wands of probing now provide more
information.  Other more subtle changes have also been added to the game.
You will have to play the game to discover them.

Pat Rankin maintained 3.2 for VMS.

Michael Allison, Yitzhak Sapir, and Paul Winner, with help from Steve Linhart,
Kevin Smolkowski, Mike Stephenson and Stephen White ported 3.2 for MSDOS.
Keizo Yamamoto and Ken Washikita ported 3.2 for the NEC 98xx machines popular
in Japan.

Ken Lorber, Andy Church, and Gregg Wonderly, with help from Richard Addison,
ported 3.2 for the Amiga.

Dean Luick ported 3.2 to the Macintosh.

Eric Smith and Warwick Allison ported 3.2 for the Ataris.

Michael Allison ported 3.2 for the Microsoft Windows NT platform.

Timo Hakulinen remains responsible for the OS/2 port.

			   - - - - - - - - - -

From time to time, some depraved individual out there in netland sends a
particularly intriguing modification to help out with the game.  The Gods of
the Dungeon sometimes make note of the names of the worst of these miscreants
in this, the list of Dungeoneers:

    Andy Church             Izchak Miller             Mike Passaretti
    Andy Swanson            Janet Walz                Mike Stephenson
    Ari Huttunen            Jean-Christophe Collet    Norm Meluch
    Barton House            Jochen Erwied             Olaf Seibert
    Benson I. Margulies     John Kallen               Pat Rankin
    Bill Dyer               John Rupley               Paul Winner
    Boudewijn Wayers        John S. Bien              Pierre Martineau
    Bruce Holloway          Johnny Lee                Ralf Brown
    Bruce Mewborne          Jon W{tte                 Richard Addison
    Carl Schelin            Jonathan Handler          Richard P. Hughey
    David Cohrs             Joshua Delahunty          Rob Menke
    David Gentzel           Keizo Yamamoto            Roland McGrath
    David Hairston          Ken Arromdee              Ross Brown
    Dean Luick              Ken Lorber                Scott R. Turner
    Del Lamb                Ken Washikita             Stephen Spackman
    Deron Meranda           Kevin Darcy               Stephen White
    Eric Backus             Kevin Sitze               Steve Creps
    Eric Hendrickson        Kevin Smolkowski          Steve Linhart
    Eric R. Smith           Kevin Sweet               Steve VanDevender
    Eric S. Raymond         Mark Gooderum             Tim Lennan
    Frederick Roeber        Matthew Day               Timo Hakulinen
    Gil Neiger              Merlyn LeRoy              Tom Almy
    Greg Laskin             Michael Allison           Tom West
    Greg Olson              Michael Hamel             Warwick Allison
    Gregg Wonderly          Michael Sokolov           Yitzhak Sapir
    Hao-yang Wang           Mike Engber
    Helge Hafting           Mike Gallop
