NetHack is a single-player
roguelike video game originally released in
1987 with
ASCII graphics. It is a descendant of an earlier game called
Hack , which is a descendant of
Rogue . Comparing it with
Rogue,
Engadget's Justin Olivetti wrote that it took its exploration aspect and "made it far richer with an encyclopedia of objects, a larger vocabulary, a wealth of pop culture mentions, and a puzzler's attitude." In 2000,
Salon described it as "one of the finest gaming experiences the computing world has to offer."