The best 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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
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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Suspended
DOS1983 Infocom
James Bond 007: A View to a Kill
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Empire: Wargame of the Century
DOS1987 Northwest Software
Arachne WWW
DOS1996freeware
Arachne is a graphical web browser for DOS. Arachne was developed by Michal Polák and released in the early 1990s as a text-mode web browser with limited graphical capabilities. Arachne allowed DOS users to browse the World Wide Web in a graphical, though quite basic, manner. It supported features such as displaying images, handling lin...
Baseball Mogul
Windows XP/98/951997 Infinite Monkey Systems
One-Nil Soccer Manager
DOS1992 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...
Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace
DOS1989 Masterplay Publishing Corporation
Adventure Game Studio (AGS)
Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS1997freeware
Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is a software development tool that enables users to create point-and-click adventure games. It was originally created by Chris Jones and has been used by game developers to produce a variety of 2D adventure games. AGS provides a scripting language, a visual editor, and various other tools to simplify the game developmen...
Executive Suite
DOS1982 Armonk Corporation
Deadline
DOS1982 Infocom
Warp Rogue
Windows 10/11Linux2004freeware
Core War Plus
DOS1984
Mission: Mainframe
DOS1987
Quattro Pro v4
DOS1991 Borland Software Corporation
Romantic encounters at the dome
DOS1988 MicroIllusions
Rules of Engagement 2
DOS1993 Omnitrend Software
Acquire
DOS1989 IBM
Larn
DOS1986freeware
Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) v1.1
Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1996freeware
Bureaucracy
DOSMac OS1987 Infocom
Bureaucracy is an abandoned text-adventure game designed by Douglas Adams (yes, the writer of The Hitchhiker Guide of the Galaxy), developed and published by Infocom in 1987. Bureaucracy is a peculiar interactive fiction; the game challenges you to solve frustrating bureaucratic problems in a world populated by strange characters.
Doszip Commander
DOS2007freeware
Corporate Raider: The Pirate of Wall Street
DOS1988protected SoftServ
Moonmist
DOS1986 Infocom
The Patcher 6.1
DOS1993
Dungeon Master's Assistant Vol 2
DOS1989protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Hack
DOS1984freeware
The Usurper
DOS1989 Sir-tech Software
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021
DOS1987freeware 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.
Beyond the Titanic
DOS1986 Apogee Software
Incursion
Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS2007freeware