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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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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Guardians of Infinity: to Save Kennedy
DOS1988protected Paragon Software
Voodoo island
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Sleuth: A Murder Mystery
DOS1983freeware Norland Software
Sherlock Holmes: The Vatican Cameos
DOS1986 Magicom Multimedia
Cutthroats
DOS1984 Infocom
Zork III: The Dungeon Master
DOS1984 Infocom
The final part of the original trilogy, Zork III ditches treasure-hunting in favor of introspection, moral puzzles, and the looming presence of the Dungeon Master—basically the Gandalf of passive-aggressive mentorship. It&rs...
Hollywood Hijinx
DOS1986 Infocom
Infidel
DOS1983 Infocom
Supernova
DOS1987freeware Apogee Software
ZZT
DOS1991freeware Epic MegaGames
ZZT (1991, DOS) looks like it was drawn by an enthusiastic ASCII artist with too much time and not enough colors. And yet, it’s brilliant. Part action game, part puzzle adventure, part game creation tool, ZZT is the reason s...
Return to Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
Kingdom of Kroz
DOS1988freeware Apogee Software
Turbo Prolog 2.0
DOS1986protected Borland Software Corporation
The Final Crusade of Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
Temple of Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
Lost Adventures of Kroz
DOS1990freeware Apogee Software
Kingdom of Kroz 2
DOS1990 Apogee Software
Hacker 2: The Doomsday Papers
DOS1986 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 comput...
Starcross
DOS1982 Infocom
Farenheit 451
DOS1984 Telarium
Beyond the Titanic
DOS1986 Apogee Software
Before Titanic was a movie with a lot of weeping, there was Beyond the Titanic, a text adventure where surviving the iceberg is just the beginning. The game takes the historic disaster and then says, “What if we added a secr...
Xtrek
DOS1991freewareNSFW
Hamburger Hell
DOS1986remake
Star Fleet 2: Krellan Commander
DOS1989 Interstel Corporation
Baseball Mogul 2006
Windows 10/112005
Now with more charts than ever! Baseball Mogul 2006 lets you relive the thrilling world of late-season trades and player salary negotiations in glorious Windows XP-era style. It’s like fantasy baseball, except the fantasy is...
Indenture
DOS1995remake
LHA
DOS1988
Bible Builder
DOS1992
Ever wanted to combine your love for trivia with Old Testament knowledge and 256-color DOS graphics? Bible Builder is here to test your biblical memory one verse at a time. It's like Jeopardy but with fewer cash prizes and more di...
A Dudley Dilemma
DOS1988
A Dudley Dilemma (1988) sounds like the title of a children’s book, but it’s actually a very British text adventure for DOS where the stakes are politely quirky and mildly confusing. You play as Dudley, a man with prob...
Codebreaker
DOS1994freeware