Abandonware DOS title

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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
turbo-pascal-2-01

Borland Turbo Pascal 2.0

DOS1983 Borland Software Corporation
trinity-01

Trinity

DOS1986 Infocom
taipan-for-windows-01

Taipan for Windows

Windows XP/98/952002freeware
dream-zone-02

Dream Zone

DOS1988 Naughty Dog
dos-navigator-1-01

DOS Navigator v 1.5

DOS1991freeware
mickey-space-adventure-04

Mickey's Space Adventure

DOS1985 Sierra On-Line
ascii-sector-02

Ascii Sector

Windows 10/11LinuxDOS2007freeware
fish-01

Fish!

DOS1988 Magnetic Scrolls
meteors-05

Meteors

DOS1989 Apogee Software
romanticdome-splash

Romantic encounters at the dome

DOS1988 MicroIllusions
shadowsmordor-3

The Shadows of Mordor

DOS1988 Beam Software
galaxy-4

Galaxy

DOS1981 Microcomputer Games Inc.
thepatcher-1

The Patcher 6.1

DOS1993
leather-goddesses-of-phobos-04

Leather Goddesses of Phobos

DOS1986 Infocom
stationfall-01

Stationfall

DOS1987 Infocom
borland-eureka-1-04

Borland Eureka: the Solver

DOS1987 Borland Software Corporation
Borland Eureka: the Solver is an abandoned text-based application developed by Borland Software Corporation and released in 1987 for DOS. The product is designed to solve complex problems, generate tables and plots, and perform what-if analysis. The user writes an equation, sets options, and instructs the software to solve the problem. The pro...
myth-ms-02

Myth

DOS1989 Magnetic Scrolls
at-the-carnival-06

At the Carnival

DOS1990freeware
mindshadow-05

Mindshadow

DOSMac OS1985 Interplay Productions
jewels-of-darkness-06

Jewels of Darkness

DOS1986 Level 9 Computing
holy-grail-04

Holy Grail

DOS1984
tomenet-03

TomeNET

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2001freeware
TomeNET (Troubles of Middle Earth, Net) is an online, multiplayer rogue-like game set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth. It’s a persistent-world game inspired by Angband, a single-player dungeon-crawler based on Tolkien lore. You can play as familiar fantasy races like Elves, Dwarves, Humans, or Hobbits, as well as more obscu...
ms-diagnostics-3-01

Microsoft Diagnostics 3.01

DOS1994 Microsoft
doom-roguelike-02

Doom: The Roguelike

DOS2005freeware
ms-cobol-112-02

Microsoft COBOL 1.12

DOS1984 Microsoft
earthlydelights-splash

Earthly delights

DOS1984 Datamost
rockstar-splash

Rockstar!

DOS1989 Wizard Games