The most popular text-based games
A few genres traditionally linked to the beautiful world of ascii characters still survives: roguelikes (nethack, angband, etc.) and interactive fiction, for example.
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Angband
Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1992freeware4/5
Turbo Prolog 2.0
DOS1986protected4.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
Galaxy
DOS19814.1/5 Microcomputer Games Inc.
Norton Commander 1.0
DOS19863.8/5 Peter Norton Computing
Norton Commander was a file manager and editor application released by Peter Norton Computing for DOS. Norton Commander used a text-based user interface with side-by-side panels and featured copy, delete, editing and preview any kind of file easily: it was an improvement over the command-line only MS-DOS interface. Norton Commander 1.0 was fir...
NetHack
DOSWindows XP/98/95Mac OSLinux1987freeware3.7/5
NetHack is an open-source roguelike game that's been around since the early 1980s. It's a single-player dungeon exploration game where you navigate your character through a randomly generated dungeon filled with monsters, traps, treasures, and various items. The goal is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, located deep within the dungeon's lowest leve...
Borland Turbo C v2
DOS19883.6/5 Borland Software Corporation
Arj
DOS19904.3/5
ARJ is a file compression utility and file format created by Robert K. Jung. The name "ARJ" stands for "Archived by Robert Jung." It was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a compression tool for MS-DOS and other systems. ARJ offered high compression ratios and various features, such as archive encryption and error recovery.
Alice: The Personal Pascal
DOS19854.3/5
Word Perfect 5
DOS19893.9/5 Corel
Microsoft Word
Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x19833.5/5 Microsoft
A Mind Forever Voyaging
DOSMac OS19854.1/5 Infocom
Borland Turbo Pascal 3.0
DOS19864/5 Borland Software Corporation
Planetfall
DOS19834.1/5 Infocom
The Shadows of Mordor
DOS19883.7/5 Beam Software
Xtrek
DOS1991freewareNSFW4/5
Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
DOS19834.3/5 Infocom
CheckIt 3
DOS19902.8/5
Deadline
DOS19823.8/5 Infocom
Hack
DOS1984freeware3.8/5
AlphaMan
DOS19953.6/5
Castle Adventure
DOS1984freeware4.2/5
Norton Editor 2
DOS19904.2/5 Peter Norton Computing
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021
DOS1987freeware3.9/5 Thinking Machine Associates
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021 is one of the first 4x turn-based strategy games, ASCII based. Anacreon is set in space, as most 4x sci-fi games are, and was published by Thinking Machines Associates and designed by George Moromisato who later re-released the game as freeware.
DeskMate
DOS19842.8/5
Deskmate is a software suite developed by Tandy Corporation that provided a graphical user interface (GUI) and a set of applications for personal computers. It was often bundled with Tandy's TRS-80 and Tandy 1000 series of computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Deskmate included various applications such as a word processor, spreadsheet, calen...
Melody Maker 3
DOS19923.8/5
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor
DOS19874/5 Infocom
Quattro Pro v4
DOS19913.8/5 Borland Software Corporation
Dungeon Master's Assistant Vol 1
DOS1988protected4/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Turbo Pascal 7
DOSWindows 3.xMac OS19924/5 Borland Software Corporation
Turbo Pascal 7 (TP7) is a programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was developed by Borland as an evolution of their earlier Turbo Pascal versions. Turbo Pascal 7 was released around 1992.Turbo Pascal 7 gained popularity in educational settings and among hobbyist progra...
Lawn Mower
DOS19873.8/5