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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

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Melody Maker 3

DOS19923.8/5

Meteors

DOS19893.6/5 Apogee Software

Mickey's Space Adventure

DOS19853/5 Sierra On-Line

Microsoft Diagnostics 3.01

DOS19943.7/5 Microsoft

Microsoft Word

Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x19833.5/5 Microsoft

Midway Campaign

DOS19834/5 Microcomputer Games Inc.

Mind Mirror

DOS19863.6/5

Mindshadow

DOSMac19853.6/5 Interplay Productions

Mindwheel

DOS19853.2/5 Synapse Software

Mission: Mainframe

DOS19873.9/5

Mo'Slo

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

DOS19853.9/5

Monopoly (Adam Stevens)

DOS19983.9/5

Moonmist

DOS19863.8/5 Infocom

Moria

DOS1992freeware3.9/5

Murder by the Dozen

DOS19832.7/5 BrainBank

Myth

DOS19894.1/5 Magnetic Scrolls

NetHack

DOSWindows XP/98/95MacLinux1987freeware3.7/5

NetHack is an open-source roguelike game that's been around since the early 1980s. It's a single-player dungeon exploration game where you navigate your character through a randomly generated dungeon filled with monsters, traps, treasures, and various items. The goal is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, located deep within the dungeon's lowest leve...

NewsMaster

DOS19863.5/5

Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It

DOS19873.4/5 Infocom

Norton Commander 1.0

DOS19863.8/5 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...

Norton Commander 5.5

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 Desktop

DOS19924/5 Peter Norton Computing

Norton Editor 2

DOS19904.2/5 Peter Norton Computing

Omega

DOSLinux1988freeware3.8/5

One-Nil Soccer Manager

DOS19923.9/5 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...