The most popular text-based games

In the past, lots of games used ASCII characters (text) to represent the game world. These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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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Cutthroats

DOS19843.4/5 Infocom

IBM Assistant 2.0

DOS19864.1/5 IBM

Microsoft Diagnostics 3.01

DOS19943.7/5 Microsoft

Rockstar!

DOS19894/5 Wizard Games

Essex

DOS19853.6/5 Synapse Software

Beyond the Titanic

DOS19863.8/5 Apogee Software

Angband

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1992freeware4/5

Moria

DOS1992freeware3.9/5

NewsMaster

DOS19863.5/5

Moonmist

DOS19863.8/5 Infocom

Star Trek: First Contact

DOS19883.6/5 Simon & Schuster Interactive

Einstein Writer 7

DOS19853.5/5

The mist

DOS19853.9/5 Angelsoft

Trinity

DOS19864.1/5 Infocom

The Shadows of Mordor

DOS19883.7/5 Beam Software

Boggle

DOS19903.5/5 HVB Software

Rules of Engagement 2

DOS19933.9/5 Omnitrend Software

Corporate Raider: The Pirate of Wall Street

DOS1988protected3.8/5 SoftServ

Rules of Engagement

DOS19913.6/5 Omnitrend Software

PKzip

DOS1989protected4/5 PKware

Championship Manager

DOS19924.1/5 Domark Software

Championship Manager is the first chapter in one of the most successful football manager games series. The first Championship Manager was a text-based British football/soccer simulation and included teams from four English divisions, European cups and domestic cups as well. Championship Manager was designed by Paul and Oliver Collyer and ...