Um,I don't know...(memorial)
Ron Olson
Um, who was Izchak Miller?
Just wondering.
Ron
Caine
Wasn't he one of the original..yup here it is, straight from the
guidebook:
During the interval between the release of 3.1.3 and 3.2, one of
the founding members of the development team, Dr. Izchak Miller,
was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. This release of the
game is dedicated to him by the development and porting teams.
Caine
Pat Rankin
> Hey all-
>
> Um, who was Izchak Miller?
>
> Just wondering.
You might try asking the program. Use the '/' command, then
answer 'n' and type in "izchak". There's also the "history" choice
for the '?' command....
William Harris
>Um, who was Izchak Miller?
One of the original Devteam. One of those who, five or ten years ago, took
upon themselves to take Hack from one person's hack of Rogue code to a...,
well, a cooperative co-development of Nethack from people on Usenet.
I never met him, or Emailed him, so I have to cease my description. I invite
those who knew him personally or via Email to tell us about him. From the
fragmentary mentions I've seen of him here, I wish I'd known him.
William Harris 75176...@compuserve.com
(or) wil...@carsinfo.com
Rose Hill
luck/stupidty. But theres not one but two tombstones, puts things in
perspective, and I thank Izchak Miller for his small or big contribution
to a game I love.
Rose
William Harris (75176...@compuserve.com) wrote:
: In article <317C40...@panix.com>, ols...@panix.com says...
:
Jane D. Anonymous
Hello there, Izchak Miller was my father. When I was younger I spent
many a night, hunched over the keyboard with a cup of tea, playing
nethack with him and my brother. my dad was a philosopher with a strong
weakness for fantasy/sci fi. I remember when he started to get involved
with the Nethack team- my brother's Dungeons and Dragons monster book
found a regular place beside my dad's desk. it's nice to see him living
on in the game he loved so much :-).
Tamar Miller
Liz Kimber
I hope I speak for others, but I remember when I first got into nethack I
tried compiling it up on a pyramid and it did all sorts of nasty things
everywhere, and I spent a long time talking to Izchak Miller, he was a
kind and help and very patient man, I think its a very good idea to have
him as part of nethack, maybe even in the next version he could be a
ghost who is really helpfull.... :-)
I hope all nethackers remember him well..
Liz
/ .
/ ___
/ / ___/
/____ / /___ @ xcalibur.demon.co.uk
Tom31656
I never knew Izchak Miller myself, but he sounds like a nice guy
to have known.
BTW-In the Minetown, check out the lighting store shopkeeper's
name! Also, try chatting with him.
MordorMan-B, killed by a newt (seriously)
Deranged Quote of the Day:
"Space Cookies! Here we go!"
Jim Miller
Liz Kimber <l...@xcalibur.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>I hope I speak for others, but I remember when I first got into nethack I
>tried compiling it up on a pyramid and it did all sorts of nasty things
>everywhere, and I spent a long time talking to Izchak Miller, he was a
>kind and help and very patient man, I think its a very good idea to have
>him as part of nethack, maybe even in the next version he could be a
>ghost who is really helpfull.... :-)
I was thinking maybe a special level where a wizard (?) named Izchak
holds forth in a room with lots of scrolls and books and answers
questions, in a more direct and informative way than the oracle.
Or perhaps Izchak could be a new god who rewards explorers for good
play.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I still don't know how "Izchak" is
pronounced -- "iz-chack"?, probably not; just like "Isaac"?; or
maybe with a zh sound?
-Jim
--
| Jim Miller | "The whole problem with the world is that|
| ji...@netcom.com |fools and fanatics are always so certain of|
| j...@umcc.umich.edu |themselves, but wiser people are so full of|
|http://www.umcc.umich.edu/~jgm/ |doubts." -- Bertrand Russell |
Tsan Yu
75176...@compuserve.com (William Harris) writes:
>In article <317C40...@panix.com>, ols...@panix.com says...
>>Um, who was Izchak Miller?
Possible Spoiler ...
The shopkeeper of the lighting shop in the town level of the
gnomish mines is a tribute to Izchak Miller, a founding member
of the NetHack development team and a personal friend of a large
number of us. Izchak contributed greatly to the game, coding a
large amount of the shopkeep logic (hence the nature of the tribute)
as well as a good part of the alignment system, the prayer code and
the rewrite of "hell" in the 3.1 release. Izchak was a professor
of Philosophy, who taught at many respected institutions, including
MIT and Stanford, and who also worked, for a period of time, at
Xerox PARC. Izchak was the first "librarian" of the NetHack project,
and was a founding member of the DevTeam, joining in 1986 while he
was working at the University of Pennsylvania (hence our mailing
list address). Until the 3.1.3 release, Izchak carefully kept all
of the code synchronized and arbitrated disputes between members of
the development teams. Izchak Miller passed away at the age of 58,
in the early morning hours of April 1, 1994 from complications due
to cancer. We dedicate NetHack 3.2 in his memory.
[ Mike Stephenson, for the NetHack DevTeam ]
William Harris
In article <jimgmDq...@netcom.com>, ji...@netcom.com says...
>I was thinking maybe a special level where a wizard (?) named Izchak
>holds forth in a room with lots of scrolls and books and answers
>questions, in a more direct and informative way than the oracle.
For Nethack, that would be too darn helpful. Izchak running the lighting store
(which is always guaranteed to be there) in Minetown is cute.
The Izchak level, if anyone ever creates it, shouldn't be -too- helpful. Maybe
you have to fight through hordes of monsters (that doesn't require much
thought - this is Nethack. :-) to get to Izchak's inner sanctum, where he's
got some sort of guaranteed goodie that he gives to you? I've always liked the
idea of a Gnomish Mines-like series of levels that ended up with a guaranteed
bag of holding.
City Computers
I for one think that it was an /exceptionally/ good idea to honour Mr.
Miller in this way. It just makes it more ... obvious(?) .. real(?)
that a lot of people have put an awful lot of work into what we take
as a game. I will always be grateful. I have played this game in
several incarnations since /1982/. There is /no/ other game I have
that comes even slightly close to this. A year, is about the previous
record. Kinda pales in comparison a bit, doesn't it?
I've also played a few of the other variants, such as Moria and Omega,
and, while there is /nothing/ *wrong* with those games, I simply find
myself coming back to Nethack over and over again. Let me put it this
way. Currently residingt comfortably on my hard disk, in a protected
directory, snuggle NH3.1.3, NHPlus, NHTNG, Slashv6, NH--, and NH3.2.
What can I say?! I crave variety. And not a sign of any other
roguelike games! However, I /must/ reiterate, I do not think there is
anything *wrong* as such with the other games, it's just that they
don't _do it for me_! Nethack just seems to be a more slick and
polished product.
I firmly believe that we will be playing Nethack for as long as people
have computers. Probably with virtual reality headsets, in a global
multi-user dungeon, in real time, but we will still get YASD's! One of
these days, we'll see an episode of Star Trek:DS9 or Voyager, and
Nethack will appear on a terminal!
Rgds,
Alan
Max Laurenz
On Sun, 28 Apr 1996, Liz Kimber wrote:
>
> I hope I speak for others, but I remember when I first got into nethack I
> tried compiling it up on a pyramid and it did all sorts of nasty things
> everywhere, and I spent a long time talking to Izchak Miller, he was a
> kind and help and very patient man, I think its a very good idea to have
> him as part of nethack, maybe even in the next version he could be a
> ghost who is really helpfull.... :-)
>
> I hope all nethackers remember him well..
>
> Liz
I think her idea is great. Do it please.
MAX (Wolf-S, now 36th level in NH 3.2.)
Glaube ist Hoffnung. Aus Hoffnung entstehen Taten.
Taten veraendern Dich und Du veraenderst die Welt.
--------------------------------------------
Maximilian Laurenz
Smail: Englschalkingerstr. 264
81927 Muenchen
GERMANY
Email: lau...@informatik.uni-muenchen.de
WWW: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/3485/
btne...@midtown.net
> Izchak Miller passed away at the age of 58,
>in the early morning hours of April 1, 1994 from complications due
>to cancer. We dedicate NetHack 3.2 in his memory.
> [ Mike Stephenson, for the NetHack DevTeam ]
>
For the founding father of Nethack, I can recall no truly more ironic day to
"ascend". Perhaps this could be incorporated into the helpful ghost idea.
On one day of the year, he may be more playful that helpful.....
Intinerant,killed by an iron ball collision