Having beat Nethack five times I can't say it's not a great game. That said, there are a lot better games, and even many better roguelikes. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is my recommendation. It's insanely difficult, but in a better way than Nethack (you get killed when you make tactical mistakes, not when you trip down stairways, get crushed by drawbridges, run into various insta-kill monsters, etc). Not that I want to discourage anyone from trying Nethack... it's just not the best introduction to the roguelike genre.

Surprisingly stylish site given the game itself.

Is this a joke or not? I'm sorry, I can't tell.

It's not that the game is bad, it's just that it won't appeal to the same people the website design appeals, for example.

And it's a very strange game.

Wow, only 35k users?

I used to think 'Nethack' was multiplayer over the Internet - the 'Net' bit - but it doesn't appear it is. Is it?

I know it's kind of a spiritual successor, but Dwarf Fortress might just take the cake...

I'm suddenly tempted to give SLASH'EM another go.