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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

DOS19884.1/5 Level 9 Computing

Starcross

DOS19823.7/5 Infocom

Caverns of Kroz

DOS1989freeware3.6/5 Apogee Software

Kingdom of Kroz

DOS1988freeware3.7/5 Apogee Software

Rawcopy

DOS19924.2/5

Stationfall

DOS19873.9/5 Infocom

Doszip Commander

DOS2007freeware3.9/5

Lynx

DOS1992freeware3/5

Sorcerer

DOS19843.9/5 Infocom

Dungeon Master's Assistant Vol 2

DOS1989protected3.8/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.

Mindshadow

DOSMac OS19853.6/5 Interplay Productions

Dragon World

DOS19843.9/5 Telarium

The Patcher 6.1

DOS19933.8/5

Arachne WWW

DOS1996freeware3.8/5

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...

Deadline

DOS19823.9/5 Infocom

Rules of Engagement

DOS19913.6/5 Omnitrend Software

Treasure Island

DOS19853.5/5 Byron Preiss Video Productions

Larn

DOS1986freeware3.9/5

Mind Mirror

DOS19863.9/5

Dracula in London

DOS19883.4/5 SDJ Enterprises

Rockstar!

DOS19894/5 Wizard Games

Midway Campaign

DOS19834/5 Microcomputer Games Inc.

Bureaucracy

DOSMac OS19873.9/5 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.