Abandonware DOS title

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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

Most popular text-based games

Borland Turbo Pascal 1.0
applicationDOS
Norton Commander 5.5
applicationDOS
Turbo Pascal 7
applicationDOS, Windows 3.x, Mac
  • mind-mirror-04
    DOS19863.6/5
  • mindshadow-05
    DOSMac19853.6/5 Interplay Productions
  • mindwheel-02
    DOS19853.2/5 Synapse Software
  • mission-mainframe-04
    DOS19873.8/5
  • moslodeluxe-1
    DOS1990protected4.1/5 Dr.David's Super Crispy Software

    The previous file hosted here was put online by mistake (it was the deluxe version, not the basic one). Copyright holders kindly allowed Abandonware DOS to link directly to their website where you can buy the deluxe version of Mo'Slo.

  • monopoly-04
    DOS19854/5
  • monopoly-stevens-01
  • moonmist-1
    DOS19863.8/5 Infocom
  • moria-5
    DOS1992freeware3.9/5
  • murder-by-the-dozen-01
    DOS19832.7/5 BrainBank
  • myth-ms-02
    DOS19894.1/5 Magnetic Scrolls
  • nethack-2
    DOS1987freeware3.7/5
  • newsmaster-01
    DOS19863/5
  • nord-and-bert-01
  • norton-commander-1-04
    DOS19863.6/5 Peter Norton Computing

    Norton Commander was a file manager and editor application released by Peter Norton Computing for DOS. Norton Commander used a text-based user interface with side-by-side panels and featured copy, delete, editing and preview any kind of file easily: it was an improvement over the command-line only MS-DOS interface. Norton Commander 1.0 was fir...

  • nortoncommander-5
    DOS19984.2/5 Peter Norton Computing

    Norton Commander was one of the most popular file manager applications ever released for MS DOS. Its clever side-by-side windows interface and the ease of use allowed DOS users to copy, delete, move and preview any kind of file without the hassle of typing every command by hand. Norton Commander was first released in 1986, but the latest and final ...

  • norton-desktop1-02
    DOS19924/5 Peter Norton Computing
  • norton-editor2-01
    DOS19904.3/5 Peter Norton Computing
  • omega-rpg-01
    DOSLinux1988freeware3.8/5
  • onenil-3
    DOS19923.8/5 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...

  • ooze-01
    DOS19893/5 Dragonware Games
  • pacgal-02
    DOS19822.9/5
  • pac-girl-1
    DOS19823.6/5 Magicom Multimedia
  • pkunzip-1
    DOS1989protected4/5 PKware
  • planetfall-1
    DOS19834.1/5 Infocom
  • plunderedhearts-1
    DOSMac19873.9/5 Infocom
  • president-elect-02
    DOS1987protected3.7/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
  • promanager-1
    DOS19853.5/5 Avalon Hill
  • psycho-02
    DOS19883.3/5 Starsoft Development
  • qbasic71-01
    DOS19914.5/5 Microsoft

    QBasic, or QuickBASIC, was an interpreted version of the BASIC programming language developed by Microsoft. It was designed to be easy to learn and use, making it accessible to beginners and hobbyist programmers. QBasic was part of Microsoft's QuickBASIC product line, which included both compiled and interpreted versions of the language. QBasi...