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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
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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Borland Turbo Pascal 2.0
DOS1983 Borland Software Corporation
Trinity
DOS1986 Infocom
Taipan for Windows
Windows XP/98/952002freeware
Global Thermo War
DOS1985
Dream Zone
DOS1988 Naughty Dog
DOS Navigator v 1.5
DOS1991freeware
Mickey's Space Adventure
DOS1985 Sierra On-Line
Ascii Sector
Windows 10/11LinuxDOS2007freeware
Fish!
DOS1988 Magnetic Scrolls
Meteors
DOS1989 Apogee Software
Romantic encounters at the dome
DOS1988 MicroIllusions
The Shadows of Mordor
DOS1988 Beam Software
Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz
DOS1989 Infocom
Galaxy
DOS1981 Microcomputer Games Inc.
The Patcher 6.1
DOS1993
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
DOS1986 Infocom
Stationfall
DOS1987 Infocom
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
DOS1989 Magnetic Scrolls
At the Carnival
DOS1990freeware
Mindshadow
DOSMac OS1985 Interplay Productions
Jewels of Darkness
DOS1986 Level 9 Computing
Holy Grail
DOS1984
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...
Microsoft Diagnostics 3.01
DOS1994 Microsoft
Einstein Writer 7
DOS1985
Doom: The Roguelike
DOS2005freeware
Microsoft COBOL 1.12
DOS1984 Microsoft
Earthly delights
DOS1984 Datamost
Rockstar!
DOS1989 Wizard Games