Text-based games: ASCII, etc. sorted by release date

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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

DOS19914.3/5 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...

Quattro Pro v4

DOS19913.8/5 Borland Software Corporation

Rules of Engagement

DOS19913.6/5 Omnitrend Software

Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance

DOS1991protectedNSFW4/5 Legend Entertainment

Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance is an adventure game released in 1991, developed by Steve Meretzky and published by Legend Entertainment. It’s the second installment in the "Spellcasting" series. In Spellcasting 201, you reprise the role of Ernie Eaglebeak, an apprentice wizard who is attending the Sorcerer University. The sto...

Xtrek

DOS1991freewareNSFW4/5

ZZT

DOS1991freeware4.2/5 Epic MegaGames

Angband

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1992freeware4/5

Bible Builder

DOS19923.7/5

Castle Elsinore

DOS19923.5/5 Temple Software

Caverns of Chaos

DOS19923/5

Championship Manager

DOS19924.2/5 Domark Software

Championship Manager is the first chapter in one of the most successful football manager games series. The first Championship Manager was a text-based British football/soccer simulation and included teams from four English divisions, European cups and domestic cups as well. Championship Manager was designed by Paul and Oliver Collyer and ...

Lynx

DOS1992freeware3.4/5

Megapede

DOS19923/5

Melody Maker 3

DOS19924.3/5

Moria

DOS1992freeware4/5

Norton Desktop

DOS19924/5 Peter Norton Computing

Objection!

DOS19923.3/5

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...

Rawcopy

DOS19924.2/5

Super ZZT

DOS19923.3/5 Epic MegaGames

Turbo Pascal 7

DOSWindows 3.xMac OS19924.2/5 Borland Software Corporation

Turbo Pascal 7 (TP7) is a programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was developed by Borland as an evolution of their earlier Turbo Pascal versions. Turbo Pascal 7 was released around 1992.Turbo Pascal 7 gained popularity in educational settings and among hobbyist progra...