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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

Sort by:

Hockey League Simulator

DOS1990 Bethesda Softworks

Pro Manager

DOS1985 Avalon Hill

Cutthroats

DOS1984 Infocom

Incursion

Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS2007freeware

Dr. Ruth Computer Game of Good Sex

DOS1986 Avalon Hill

Lynx

DOS1992freeware

Dungeons of Kroz 2

DOS1989 Apogee Software

Amazon

DOS1984 Telarium

Beyond the Titanic

DOS1986 Apogee Software

Mickey's Space Adventure

DOS1985 Sierra On-Line

Forbidden Castle

DOS1985 Angelsoft

Volkswriter 3

DOS1982 Lifetree Software

Voodoo island

DOS1985 Angelsoft

Border Zone

DOS1987 Infocom

The Wizard's Castle

DOS1981freeware

The Wizard's Castle is a classic text-based, dungeon-crawling adventure game released in 1980, designed by Joseph R. Power. The game was originally developed for the Exidy Sorcerer computer and later ported to various platforms, such as the TRS-80 and early IBM PCs. The game is set in a mysterious wizard's castle, where the player takes on the...