diff --git a/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix b/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix
index d817cf643238..e5057c27e997 100644
--- a/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/games/nethack/default.nix
@@ -1,57 +1,75 @@
-a :  
-let 
-  fetchurl = a.fetchurl;
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, writeScript, ncurses, gzip, flex, bison }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "nethack-3.4.3";
 
-  version = a.lib.attrByPath ["version"] "3.4.3" a; 
-  buildInputs = with a; [
-    ncurses flex bison
-  ];
-in
-rec {
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "mirror://sourceforge/nethack/nethack-343-src.tgz";
     sha256 = "1r3ghqj82j0bar62z3b0lx9hhx33pj7p1ppxr2hg8bgfm79c6fdv";
   };
 
-  inherit buildInputs;
-  configureFlags = [];
+  buildInputs = [ ncurses ];
 
-  /* doConfigure should be removed if not needed */
-  phaseNames = ["preBuild" "doMakeInstall" "postInstall"];
-     
-  preBuild = a.fullDepEntry (''
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ flex bison ];
+
+  preBuild = ''
     ( cd sys/unix ; sh setup.sh )
-    sed -e 's@.*define HACKDIR.*@\#define HACKDIR "/tmp/nethack"@' -i include/config.h
+
     sed -e '/define COMPRESS/d' -i include/config.h
-    sed -e '1i\#define COMPRESS "/usr/local/bin/gzip"' -i include/config.h
+    sed -e '1i\#define COMPRESS "${gzip}/bin/gzip"' -i include/config.h
     sed -e '1i\#define COMPRESS_EXTENSION ".gz"' -i include/config.h
+    sed -e '/define CHDIR/d' -i include/config.h
 
     sed -e '/extern char [*]tparm/d' -i win/tty/*.c
+
     sed -e 's/-ltermlib/-lncurses/' -i src/Makefile
     sed -e 's/^YACC *=.*/YACC = bison -y/' -i util/Makefile
     sed -e 's/^LEX *=.*/LEX = flex/' -i util/Makefile
 
-    sed -e 's@GAMEDIR = @GAMEDIR = /tmp/nethack@' -i Makefile
     sed -re 's@^(CH...).*@\1 = true@' -i Makefile
-  '') ["minInit" "doUnpack"];
 
-  postInstall = a.fullDepEntry (''
+    sed -e '/^ *cd /d' -i sys/unix/nethack.sh
+  '';
+
+  postInstall = ''
+    for i in logfile perm record save; do
+      rm -rf $out/games/lib/nethackdir/$i
+    done
+
     mkdir -p $out/bin
-    ln -s $out/games/nethack $out/bin/nethack
-    sed -i $out/bin/nethack -e '5aNEWHACKDIR="$HOME/.nethack"'
-    sed -i $out/bin/nethack -e '6amkdir -p "$NEWHACKDIR/save"'
-    sed -i $out/bin/nethack -e '7afor i in $(find "$NEWHACKDIR" -type l); do if ! test -e $(readlink "$i"); then rm "$i"; fi; done;'
-    sed -i $out/bin/nethack -e '8aln -s "$HACKDIR"/* "$NEWHACKDIR" &>/dev/null'
-    sed -i $out/bin/nethack -e '9atest -L "$NEWHACKDIR/record" && rm "$NEWHACKDIR"/record'
-    sed -i $out/bin/nethack -e '10aexport HACKDIR="$NEWHACKDIR"'
-  '') ["minInit" "defEnsureDir"];
+    cat <<EOF >$out/bin/nethack
+      #! ${stdenv.shell} -e
+      if [ ! -d ~/.nethack ]; then
+        mkdir -p ~/.nethack/save
+        for i in logfile perm record; do
+          [ ! -e ~/.nethack/\$i ] && touch ~/.nethack/\$i
+        done
+      fi
 
-  makeFlags = [
-      "PREFIX=$out"
-    ];
+      cd ~/.nethack
 
-  name = "nethack-" + version;
-  meta = {
-    description = "rogue-like game";
+      cleanup() {
+        for i in $out/games/lib/nethackdir/*; do
+          rm -rf \$(basename \$i)
+        done
+      }
+      trap cleanup EXIT
+
+      for i in $out/games/lib/nethackdir/*; do
+        ln -s \$i \$(basename \$i)
+      done
+      $out/games/nethack
+    EOF
+    chmod +x $out/bin/nethack
+  '';
+
+  makeFlags = [ "PREFIX=$(out)" ];
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "Rogue-like game";
+    homepage = "http://nethack.org/";
+    license = "nethack";
+    platforms = platforms.unix;
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ abbradar ];
   };
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 3e15e7b65c3d..3e8b7250b591 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -7624,9 +7624,7 @@ let
     sslSupport = true;
   };
 
-  nethack = builderDefsPackage (import ../games/nethack) {
-    inherit ncurses flex bison;
-  };
+  nethack = callPackage ../games/nethack { };
 
   nettle27 = callPackage ../development/libraries/nettle/27.nix { };
   nettle = callPackage ../development/libraries/nettle { };