The Absurd NetHack Tileset



The Absurd NetHack Tileset is a tileset for NetHack created by John Shaw. It features large, realistic images of map features. It was once available in 64x64, 72x72, 96x96 and 128x128 sizes. Unfortunately these once-popular tilesets are no longer available at the official web site. The page still exists, but the links point to a site that has been taken over by a domain squatter, and does not deliver the promised files.

Two sizes survive at the Wayback Machine: Searching for the other links produces matches, but attempting to download the files gives only errors.
 * Absurd 64x64
 * Absurd 72x72

In addition, a version of the 128x128 Absurd Tileset is available at Clive Crous's Subversion repository. There is also a version for SLASH'EM here; this is the only known available Absurd Tileset for SLASH'EM. These tilesets do not have the chiseled stone background that is so prominent in the Wayback Machine copies. Furthermore, they are in the PNG file format, and will need to be converted to BMP to use with the Microsoft Windows versions of these games. (Just load into Paint and then resave as BMP. Be sure to select "24-bit bitmap" or the image will lose a lot of its quality.)

No copy of the 96x96 tileset is known to be available.

Bug W343-2
The DevTeam lists W343-2 as "not a bug" (more precisely, there's really nothing that can be done about it):

Windows 98 is unable to load tiles that are too large. This is an OS issue.

Even the 64x64 size is larger than any other popular tileset. Tjus Absurd is quite likely to be large enough to trigger this bug, and can be expected to do so on Windows 95 and Windows Me as well. Users of these versions of Windows should probably choose another tileset.