NH Watcher

A macOS screensaver that displays live NetHack games from nethack.alt.org or hardfought.org.

It connects via SSH to a dgamelaunch server, picks a random active game that fits your screen, and renders the terminal output in a fullscreen window. When a game goes idle or ends, it automatically switches to another. If no live games are available, it plays back recorded games (ttyrec files) from the NAO archive.

Installation as a screensaver

Via Homebrew:

brew tap pneumaticdeath/nhwatcher
brew install --cask nhwatcher

From source

make install

Then open System Settings > Wallpaper > Screen Saver and select NH Watcher.

Installation as a standalone app

make run

Controls (standalone mode)

Key	Action
S	Switch to a different game
Q / Escape	Quit

In screensaver mode, any keypress or mouse movement exits.

Building from source

Requires Go and Xcode command line tools.

# Build the .saver bundle
make saver

# Build just the Go binary
make app

# Run tests
go test ./internal/nao/

# Uninstall the screensaver
make uninstall

How it works

1. Connects via SSH to nethack@alt.org or one of the hardfought.org servers (no credentials needed)
2. Navigates the dgamelaunch watch menu
3. Parses the game list, filters to non-idle games that fit the terminal
4. Selects one at random and streams the live terminal output
5. Switches games after 2 minutes of inactivity or when the watched game ends
6. Falls back to ttyrec playback when no live games are available

License

MIT