Hack can be considered as an improved version of the original Rogue game. A knight starts with a better armor and weapon than most characters and with an ability to turn undead. Keystone Kops are hunting player characters which rob stores. The cream pies can blind the character and the cream pies can be used for food.
Food is actually one of the main problems of the game.
When killed, creatures will leave behind corpses and many of them are edible. The original Hack was written by Jay Fenlason with help from Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome, and Jon Payne. R. Black ported PC Hack 3.51 to the Atari ST, producing ST Hack 1.03. Mike Stephenson merged these various Hack versions together, incorporating many of the added features, and produced NetHack version 1.4. Despite the name, NetHack is a single-player game like Hack.