Who is "David" and why is it his treasure zoo?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Welcome to David's treasure zoo!

The words have flashed by my eyes so many times now that they've
practically lost all meaning. It was an issue many years forgotten from
when I first played NetHack, and over the course of countless games, I
only now thought to ask about it: who is David?

I scoured google groups, I've checked the source, and I've...
well, those are the only two things I could think to do, short of this
post. Over five years ago, the best people could figure was that
"David" had been a programmer of some sort. One person assured that it
had been "David's treasure zoo" since the days of Hack.

As time progresses, the likelihood of anybody remembering the
infamous David only decreases, but maybe the stray, faceless lurker
will pop his head in and say, "Hi. I'm David. I was Izchak's roommate
in college, and I had about a zillion hamsters that would scatter his
valuables all over the floor--for nesting purposes and whatnot. He'd
have to fight them to the bitter death for it, but overall it was a net
gain for him, 'cause the little fellows stole a lot of my money, too.
Anyway, what's 'NetShack'?"

It's surprising how few people have thought to inquire about it.
If nothing else, I move that we accept the above story as
etched-in-stone fact. Who's with me?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Jove wrote:
> This is Usenet. You can't get "This is Usenet" accepted as
> etched-in-stone fact here.

Usenet? What are you talking about? This is Google Groups!



ML

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

heh...

I only figured out that it was always 'david's treasure zoo' a couple
days ago myself, after having been playing for a couple years and even
ascending here and there. Why? Because my name's David and all my
characters get named David too! I always assumed that it just said it
was your zoo, whoever you were, since it would be really odd to assume
that my character's name just happened to line up with the one name
that the game always uses. And, once in a (very) long time, when I was
demonstrating something in someone else's game and happened to find a
zoo, I was always just used to it saying David and didn't realize that
that wasn't my character's name. It only just dawned on me a few days
ago, when I had gotten mad when trying to type my name and was
therefore playing as AEPCIWCEJPIECICWEHICW (the male chaotic human
Ranger), and I noticed a slight difference between that and David.

Oh well...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

On 14 Sep 2005 08:48:55 -0700, "Satanicus"
<WestSideLester@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Welcome to David's treasure zoo!
>
> The words have flashed by my eyes so many times now that they've
>practically lost all meaning. It was an issue many years forgotten from
>when I first played NetHack, and over the course of countless games, I
>only now thought to ask about it: who is David?

Well, you're slow, but you get there. ;^)

>
> I scoured google groups, I've checked the source, and I've...
>well, those are the only two things I could think to do, short of this
>post. Over five years ago, the best people could figure was that
>"David" had been a programmer of some sort. One person assured that it
>had been "David's treasure zoo" since the days of Hack.

Your blind acceptance of the cover story only aids the
conspiracy.

>
> As time progresses, the likelihood of anybody remembering the
>infamous David only decreases, but maybe the stray, faceless lurker
>will pop his head in and say, "Hi. I'm David. I was Izchak's roommate
>in college, and I had about a zillion hamsters that would scatter his
>valuables all over the floor--for nesting purposes and whatnot. He'd
>have to fight them to the bitter death for it, but overall it was a net
>gain for him, 'cause the little fellows stole a lot of my money, too.
>Anyway, what's 'NetShack'?"

Cute, but not classic. (I.e. It's not one for the ages.)

If you could tie it in with, say, Cheech & Chong's classic
comedy sketch "Dave's not here, man", you might have something.


>
> It's surprising how few people have thought to inquire about it.
>If nothing else, I move that we accept the above story as
>etched-in-stone fact. Who's with me?


This is Usenet. You can't get "This is Usenet" accepted as
etched-in-stone fact here.


(That'll teach posters to ask my opinion. ;-)

--
All the best,

Jove

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

"Satanicus" <WestSideLester@hotmail.com> writes:
> Welcome to David's treasure zoo!
>
> The words have flashed by my eyes so many times now that they've
> practically lost all meaning. It was an issue many years forgotten from
> when I first played NetHack, and over the course of countless games, I
> only now thought to ask about it: who is David?
>
> I scoured google groups

Remembering to search net.games.hack and rec.games.hack as well as rgrn?

> I've checked the source, and I've...
> well, those are the only two things I could think to do, short of this
> post. Over five years ago, the best people could figure was that
> "David" had been a programmer of some sort. One person assured that it
> had been "David's treasure zoo" since the days of Hack.

Indeed it has; added by aeb, as far as I can see. In the very earliest
versions, players with the login name of 'david' would get a
guaranteed zoo on each eligible level, rather than the standard 1/7
chance; this was removed in Hack 1.0.2.

> As time progresses, the likelihood of anybody remembering the
> infamous David only decreases

Well, aeb is still about, I think. Whether _he_ remembers who David was is
another matter.

--
: Dylan O'Donnell http://www.spod-central.org/~psmith/ :
: "Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice." :
: -- Ciszek's Adaptation of Clarke's Third Law :

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Satanicus wrote:
> Welcome to David's treasure zoo!
>
> The words have flashed by my eyes so many times now that they've
> practically lost all meaning. It was an issue many years forgotten from
> when I first played NetHack, and over the course of countless games, I
> only now thought to ask about it: who is David?
>

Looking through the fortunes of Brouwer's Hack, a David London is
mentioned. I would say that he is a good candidate. Maybe he suggested
some features for Brouwer to add to the game, or provided patches that
were integrated into it, and they carried his name.