Hengband started life as a Japanese variant of Zangband 2.2.8, and the authors started translating the game to English around version 1.0.7. 'Hen' is apparently 'A Sino-Japanese word meaning change; eccentric, odd, strange; weird or even crazy.' - thanks to Pelpel for the definition. The game sports a wide and varied number of additions to the Zangband code base, and is allegedly much more difficult than standard Zangband. [2]