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NetHack4 Blog
nethack4.org · Company blog · on HN since 2014
The NetHack4 developers write about their fork of the NetHack roguelike, covering C programming, save systems, game design and terminal palettes.
What HN saysHN commenters point to it as the fork made when official NetHack development stalled, and recommend it for its interface and usability improvements.
15HN people shared it
8linked it in comments
10stories submitted
724story points
6 months agolast shared
2014people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Nethack 46 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · 1 comments on HN
- 2Memory management in C programs (2014)3 people · 381 points · first shared 2014 · 103 comments on HN
- 3Strategy headroom2 people · first shared 2015
- 4Building C Projects1 people · 191 points · first shared 2014 · 45 comments on HN
- 5NetHack4 Philosophy1 people · 97 points · first shared 2025 · 35 comments on HN
- 6Optimizing the Nethack 4.3 Save System (2014)1 people · 50 points · first shared 2021 · 6 comments on HN
- 7The Waterfall Model1 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 8Palettes in terminals: why gamma is a problem (2017)1 people · 1 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 9NetHack Playtesting Feedback1 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 10Faq1 people · first shared 2025
- 11Nethack4.git1 people · first shared 2018
What HN people wrote when they linked it
jsn · 2026-05-02
The DevTeam released nethack-3.4.3 in Dec 2003, and then pretty much went dormant for 11 years -- no new releases, no roadmap, nothing. So some time around 2013 some people not connected to the DevTeam created this project: http://nethack4.org/ . So now the DevTeam skips 4.x version numbers completely to avoid confusion.
stryan · 2026-05-02
Possibly to avoid conflicts with Nethack4[0], which was a fork of the Nethack 3.x series back when development was stalled. I think the guy behind it later joined the main Nethack dev team.
[0] http://nethack4.org/
robrtsql · 2025-11-12
They cover that in the FAQ: http://nethack4.org/faq.html
Basically, NetHack development stalled out, so the developer(s?) behind NetHack 4 decided to fork it. Unlike other forks whose main goal is to put cool stuff in the game without regard for taste or balance, they wanted to stay true to the original.
Not that I agree with the fork name. It's best to not call your fork something that could be confused with the original, were the original devs to ever reach a 4.0 release.
bmn__ · 2023-01-22
Skip the official/mainline game, go directly to the fork with usability enhancements.
https://github.com/search?q=nethack4
http://nethack4.org
logicprog · 2019-05-13
There are a lot of variations of NetHack, among them the official successor project, Nethack4[1]. One of its goals is to have a better interface.
[1]: http://nethack4.org/
jammi · 2018-04-29
Personally, since I'm less interested in MS-DOS modes and fixed-length 8bit charset modes, I switched to the redesigned NetHack 4, which works fine with modern UTF-8 terminals.
NetHack 4 is geared towards progression of the game and staying up to date with the changing world rather than mothballing the old game. It's a separate project from NetHack 3.x, with different goals and development teams.
http://nethack4.org
__s · 2018-04-29
Yes, in fact NetHack is supposed to be a more forgiving roguelike. See http://nethack4.org/blog/strategy-headroom.html
aeze · 2015-02-18
I wouldn't said it's inherently bad game design, different people have different preferences. Here's a good blog post discussing such decisions.
http://nethack4.org/blog/strategy-headroom.html