GBHack: Dungeons of Doom
A roguelike dungeon crawler for the Game Boy Color, inspired by NetHack. Procedural dungeons, permadeath, unidentified items, pets, shops, and the Amulet of Yendor.
Use your keyboard to play. Touch controls available on mobile.
| Keyboard | Game Boy | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Arrow keys | D-pad | Move |
| Z | A | Action menu |
| X | B | Context / diagonals |
| Enter | Start | Character sheet |
| Shift | Select | System menu |
How to Play
Procedural Dungeons
15 randomly generated levels of rooms, corridors, and shops. Find the Amulet of Yendor on level 15 and escape back to the surface to win. No two runs are alike.
25 Monster Types
From newts and jackals to dragons and vampires. Snakes and spiders poison you, nymphs steal your gold, wraiths drain your max HP, and imps teleport mid-fight. Some monsters chase on sight, others wander until you get close.
Unidentified Items
Potion and scroll names are randomized each game. That "bubbly potion" might heal you or poison you. Drink a potion or read a scroll to learn what it does, or use a Scroll of Identify to play it safe. Once identified, all items of that type reveal their true name.
Cursed Items
Items can be blessed, uncursed, or cursed. Equip a cursed weapon or armor and you can't take it off. Use a Scroll of Remove Curse to free yourself. Pets instinctively avoid stepping on cursed items on the ground.
Hunger & Survival
Every action costs nutrition. Eat food rations, apples, tins, or monster corpses to stay alive. Let your nutrition hit zero and you starve to death. Manage your supplies carefully as you descend.
Pet Companion
Choose a cat or dog at the start. Your pet follows you and fights hostile monsters. It eats corpses off the ground to heal itself. When you take stairs, your pet tags along if it's within two squares — otherwise it's left behind. Stay close — if you stray too far for too long, your pet goes feral and turns on you.
Shops
Shopkeepers set up on floors 3–10. Pick up items to try them, but you'll owe gold. Drop unwanted items to sell at half price. Try to leave without paying and the shopkeeper attacks.
Permadeath & Bones
Death is permanent and your save is deleted. Some of your items may appear in a future game as bones left behind by your fallen adventurer. Your score is your XP plus gold collected.
Original Soundtrack
Six music tracks and 15 sound effects composed for the Game Boy's hardware sound chip.
Code by @statico and Claude Code
Music by Beatscribe and Yoki (Trominal)
Art by Kenney (CC0) · Inspired by NetHack
Built with GBDK, hUGEDriver, and CBT-FX
Made with love for the Game Boy