Text-based games: ASCII, etc.

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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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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Hockey League Simulator

DOS19903.3/5 Bethesda Softworks

Hollywood Hijinx

DOS19863.3/5 Infocom

Holy Grail

DOS19843.7/5

IBM Assistant 2.0

DOS19864.1/5 IBM

Incursion

WindowsLinuxMac2007freeware4/5

Indenture

DOS1995remake4.1/5

Indiana Jones: Revenge of the Ancients

DOS19874/5 Angelsoft

Infidel

DOS19833.3/5 Infocom

Inside Trader

DOS19874.1/5 Cosmi Corporation

James Bond 007: A View to a Kill

DOS19853.9/5 Angelsoft

James Bond 007: Goldfinger

DOS19864.1/5 Angelsoft

James Clavell's Shogun

DOS19894.2/5 Infocom

James Clavell's Shogun, a text adventure game developed by Infocom and released in 1989. Infocom was known for its interactive fiction games, and "James Clavell's Shogun" was one of its later releases.This text adventure game is based on James Clavell's novel "Shogun" and follows the story of John Blackthorne, an English navigator who becomes invol...

Javelin

DOS19853.3/5

Jewels of Darkness

DOS19864.2/5 Level 9 Computing

Kingdom of Hamil

DOS19873/5 Topologika Software

Kingdom of Kroz

DOS1988freeware3.7/5 Apogee Software

Kingdom of Kroz 2

DOS19903.2/5 Apogee Software

Knight Exchange

DOS19883.2/5 Softdisk Publishing

Lancelot

DOS19884.1/5 Level 9 Computing

Larn

DOS1986freeware3.9/5

Lawn Mower

DOS19873.8/5

Leather Goddesses of Phobos

DOS19864.2/5 Infocom

Legend of the Red Dragon

DOS19893.5/5 Robinson Technologies

LHA

DOS19884.2/5

Lost Adventures of Kroz

DOS1990freeware3.3/5 Apogee Software

Lynx

DOS1992freeware3/5

Madball

DOS19853/5

Magnetic Scrolls Collection

DOS19914.1/5 Magnetic Scrolls

Magnetic Scrolls was one of the finest developer companies dedicated to Interactive Fiction. The Magnetic Scrolls Collection is a trilogy of Magnenic Scrolls adventures remade using the Wonderland engine: Fish!, Corruption, The Guild of Thieves. The new window-based interface made text-adventuring easy even for gamers not used to a text-only interf...