NetHack Version 5.0.0 \ VOGONS

NetHack Version 5.0.0

Topic actions

First post, by akula65

Posted on 2026-05-03, 00:45

akula65 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1020
Joined: 2004-09-28, 01:29
Location: Virginia

Source: https://www.nethack.org/common/index.html

Information on the current release (NetHack 5.0.0) […]
Show full quote

Information on the current release (NetHack 5.0.0)

Read the NetHack 5.0.0 release notes.
Download NetHack 5.0.0 here.
List or Search the NetHack 5.0.0 known bugs.
Read the NetHack 5.0.0 documentation and Guidebook.

The NetHack DevTeam is announcing the release of NetHack 5.0.0 on May 2, 2026 […]
Show full quote

The NetHack DevTeam is announcing the release of NetHack 5.0.0 on May 2, 2026

NetHack 5.0 is an enhancement to the dungeon exploration game NetHack, which is a distant descendent of Rogue and Hack, and a direct descendent of NetHack 3.6.

NetHack 5.0.0 is a release of NetHack. As a .0 version, there may be some bugs encountered. Constructive suggestions, GitHub pull requests, and bug reports are all welcome and encouraged.

Along with the game improvements and bug fixes, NetHack 5.0 strives to make some general architectural improvements to the game or to its building process. Among them, 5.0:

Has its source code compliant with the C99 standard.
Removes barriers to building NetHack on one platform and operating system, for later execution on another (possibly quite different) platform and/or operating system. That capability is generally known as "cross-compiling." See the file "Cross-compiling" in the top-level folder for more information on that.
The build-time "yacc and lex"-based level compiler, the "yacc and lex"-based dungeon compiler, and the quest text file processing previously done by NetHack's "makedefs" utility, have been replaced with Lua text alternatives that are loaded and processed by the game during play.

A list of over 3100 fixes and changes can be found in the game's sources in the file doc/fixes5-0-0.txt. The text in there was written for the development team's own use and is provided "as is". Some entries might be considered "spoilers", particularly in the "new features" section.

Existing saved games and bones files will not work with NetHack 5.0.0.

Checksums (sha256) of binaries that you have downloaded from nethack.org can be verified on Windows platforms using:
certUtil -hashfile nethack-500-win-x64.zip SHA256 or
certUtil -hashfile nethack-500-win-arm64.zip SHA256

The following command can be used on most platforms to help confirm the location of various files that NetHack may use: nethack --showpaths

As with all releases of the game, we appreciate your feedback. Please submit any bugs using the problem report form. Also, please check the "known bugs" list before you log a problem - somebody else may have already found it.

Happy NetHacking!

Reply 1 of 10, by Marc Brucker

Posted on 2026-05-03, 16:25

Marc Brucker Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 8
Joined: 2024-10-16, 17:11
Location: Vermont, U.S.A.

Thank you!

Reply 2 of 10, by akula65

Posted on 2026-05-03, 20:54

akula65 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1020
Joined: 2004-09-28, 01:29
Location: Virginia

An Amiga binary is now available: https://www.nethack.org/v500/ports/download-amiga.html

Don't forget that NetHack has an RSS feed to keep you updated on NetHack news.

Reply 3 of 10, by zyzzle

Posted on 2026-05-04, 06:54

zyzzle Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 496
Joined: 2020-04-08, 04:02

If an Amiga binary can be made, a DOS binary surely should! Any coding wizards care to accept this challenge?

If any game should have a DOS binary, it's Nethack. To not have one is almost an insult of its roots and text-based rogue games in general!

Reply 4 of 10, by akula65

Posted on 2026-05-04, 08:33

akula65 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1020
Joined: 2004-09-28, 01:29
Location: Virginia

Download NetHack 5.0.0 for MS-DOS

Reply 5 of 10, by mr.cat

Posted on 2026-05-04, 12:26

mr.cat Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 409
Joined: 2020-12-13, 11:56
Location: Finland

That's for protected mode only (i386+) though. There was a real mode version available up until v3.3.1.
So porting should be technically possible, but the problem is speed.
I remember that my 386SX-25 was really struggling in some levels back in the nineties.

EDIT: As leileilol mentioned it's been 33 years since v3.3.1 already, so I'd assume any support for real mode is long gone by now.
Also, the Amiga version says 6MB minimum (8MB recommended), yeah that sounds a bit much for real mode DOS too.

Last edited by mr.cat on 2026-05-05, 07:30. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 10, by zyzzle

Posted on 2026-05-04, 22:25

zyzzle Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 496
Joined: 2020-04-08, 04:02

Thanks for link to DOS version. I guess I didn't read far enough on the main page where I saw only windows and Linux versions available. I don't think real mode version would be an easy task, because of 640kb memory limit.

Reply 7 of 10, by leileilol

Posted on 2026-05-04, 22:36

leileilol Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 12586
Joined: 2006-12-16, 18:03

nethack's been in protected mode for 33 years now.

long live PCem
FUCK "AI". It is a tool of fascism. We do not need it. We do not use it.

Reply 8 of 10, by akula65

Posted on 2026-05-12, 14:45

akula65 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1020
Joined: 2004-09-28, 01:29
Location: Virginia

Both the Windows and Amiga packages for this version have been updated.

Reply 9 of 10, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2026-05-12, 14:57

BitWrangler Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 8693
Joined: 2017-10-11, 00:55
Location: Ontario

zyzzle wrote on 2026-05-04, 22:25:

Thanks for link to DOS version. I guess I didn't read far enough on the main page where I saw only windows and Linux versions available. I don't think real mode version would be an easy task, because of 640kb memory limit.

Play an XT version of Moria on a 4.77mhz 8088 and see if you could tolerate that before you go asking for something with bigger dungeons and more complexity. I can tolerate it on a turbo XT just about, and apparently it was quite a feat to squeeze it in. 286 and 386 up versions are much more preferable... and play as smoothly as the old Amiga version of that... it's about the memory map. These kind of games originated on minicomputer mainframes, meaning certain elements of system design were embodied in their structure. Whereas on what a minicomputer programmer would call a "braindead" PC in real mode, poky little packets of 64KB are hard to deal with. 68000, and 286, 386 in other than real mode have that minicomputer like flat map.

edit: early PC roguelikes were not btw the origin of this genre, they were cut down pale imitations of the dungeons running on VAX and System V unix machines etc. so the PC versions were frequently done by students to get their "fix" over summer break when they were away from the college/university computer. Memories of playing full versions of any of the OG ones on an 8088 may have been actually been being dialed in to a server/mini and using it over terminal.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 10 of 10, by akula65

Posted on Today, 13:53

akula65 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1020
Joined: 2004-09-28, 01:29
Location: Virginia

The Windows version has been updated (again).

2026-05-12
Updated Windows binary available to fix a data corruption issue during game startup.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Release Announcements