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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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...
Turbo Prolog 2.0
DOS1986protected4.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
Galaxy
DOS19814.1/5 Microcomputer Games Inc.
Borland Turbo Pascal 3.0
DOS19864/5 Borland Software Corporation
CheckIt 3
DOS19902.8/5
Angband
Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1992freeware4/5
Alice: The Personal Pascal
DOS19854.3/5
Word Perfect 5
DOS19893.9/5 Corel
A Mind Forever Voyaging
DOSMac OS19854.1/5 Infocom
Hack
DOS1984freeware3.8/5
Borland Turbo C v2
DOS19883.6/5 Borland Software Corporation
The Shadows of Mordor
DOS19883.7/5 Beam Software
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor
DOS19874/5 Infocom
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.
Xtrek
DOS1991freewareNSFW4/5
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...
AlphaMan
DOS19953.6/5
Deadline
DOS19823.8/5 Infocom
Planetfall
DOS19834.1/5 Infocom
Microsoft Word
Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x19833.5/5 Microsoft
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...
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.
Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
DOS19834.3/5 Infocom
Castle Adventure
DOS1984freeware4.2/5
One-Nil Soccer Manager
DOS19923.9/5 New Era Software
One-Nil Soccer Manager is a text-based soccer management simulation game that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was developed for various home computer systems, including DOS, Commodore 64 and Amiga. In One-Nil Soccer Manager, players take on the role of a soccer team manager, making strategic decisions to guide their team to s...
DeskMate
DOS19843.2/5
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...
Enchanter
DOS19833.3/5 Infocom
Quattro Pro v4
DOS19913.8/5 Borland Software Corporation
Adventure in Serenia
DOS19823.6/5 Sierra On-Line