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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

DOS19873.8/5 Infocom

The Usurper

DOS19893.8/5 Sir-tech Software

Dungeon Master's Assistant Vol 2

DOS1989protected3.8/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.

Voodoo island

DOS19853.8/5 Angelsoft

Beast

DOS19843.8/5

Quattro Pro v4

DOS19913.8/5 Borland Software Corporation

Return to Doom

DOS19883.8/5 Topologika Software

President Elect

DOS1987protected3.8/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.

Fish!

DOS19883.8/5 Magnetic Scrolls

Melody Maker 3

DOS19923.8/5

Temple of Kroz

DOS1990freeware3.8/5 Apogee Software

Volkswriter 3

DOS19823.8/5 Lifetree Software

Acheton

DOS19873.7/5

Wishbringer

DOS19853.7/5 Infocom

Borland Reflex 2.0

DOS19863.7/5 Borland Software Corporation

Borland Reflex was a relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by Borland International, a software company that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. Reflex was released in the mid-1980s as a graphical database software primarily targeted at business and professional users.

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...

The Final Crusade of Kroz

DOS1990freeware3.7/5 Apogee Software

The Shadows of Mordor

DOS19883.7/5 Beam Software

Amazon

DOS19843.7/5 Telarium

Hacker 2: The Doomsday Papers

DOS19863.7/5 Activision

Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers is a video computer game developed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision. It was released in 1986 and is a sequel to the original Hacker game. The game was available for various home computer systems of the time, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS.In Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers, players take...