NetHack is an open source single-player roguelike video game, first released in 1987 and maintained by the NetHack DevTeam. The game is a software fork of the 1982 game Hack, itself inspired by the 1980 game Rogue. The player takes the role as one of several pre-defined character classes to descend through multiple dungeon floors, fighting monsters and collecting treasure, to recover the "Amulet of Yendor" at the lowest floor and then escape. As a traditional roguelike, NetHack features procedural-generated dungeons and treasure, hack and slash combat, tile-based gameplay, and permadeath, forcing the player to restart anew should their character die. While Rogue, Hack and other earlier roguelikes stayed true to a high fantasy setting, NetHack introduced humorous and anachronistic elements over time, including popular cultural reference to works such as Discworld and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
