Nethack is a very old fashioned video game, but it has an interesting mechanic: the real world date on your computer affects your character’s luck in the dungeon.
“How bad can it be?”, I thought about a decade ago, loading a new game on Friday the 13th.
I took a single step.
“Your kitten has been crushed by a boulder.”
there's also code in the game to make things easier or harder, respectively, on a full and a new moon. for the most part they aren't too drastic, but the new moon does make a certain almost-instakill event much more likely. if you know, you know.
also, Friday the 13th can occur simultaneously with these moon phases, which happens infrequently enough that there's a small two-column chart on the NetHack Wiki detailing the days where Friday the 13th and a full/new moon overlap.
so, the hardest days to play NetHack are/were:
- September 13, 1996
- August 13, 1999
- November 13, 2015
- July 13, 2018
- October 13, 2023. challenge runners take note
TOMORROW