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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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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2112

DOS19943/5

Borland DBase 5

DOS19944.1/5 Borland Software Corporation

Codebreaker

DOS1994freeware3/5

Microsoft Diagnostics 3.01

DOS19943/5 Microsoft

AlphaMan

DOS19953.6/5

F-Prot

DOS19953.8/5

F-PROT is an antivirus developed by FRISK Software International. The name "F-PROT" stands for "FRISK-PROActive," emphasizing its proactive approach to virus detection and prevention. F-PROT Antivirus is designed to protect computer systems from various forms of malware, including viruses, worms, Trojans, and other malicious software.

Indenture

DOS1995remake4.1/5

Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) v1.1

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1996freeware3.9/5

Arachne WWW

DOS1996freeware3.8/5

Arachne is a graphical web browser for DOS. Arachne was developed by Michal Polák and released in the early 1990s as a text-mode web browser with limited graphical capabilities. Arachne allowed DOS users to browse the World Wide Web in a graphical, though quite basic, manner. It supported features such as displaying images, handling lin...

Hamurabi remake

DOS1996freewareremake3.3/5

Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

DOS19964/5

Adventure Game Studio (AGS)

Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS1997freeware3.9/5

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is a software development tool that enables users to create point-and-click adventure games. It was originally created by Chris Jones and has been used by game developers to produce a variety of 2D adventure games. AGS provides a scripting language, a visual editor, and various other tools to simplify the game developmen...

African Adventure

DOS1997remake3.6/5

Baseball Mogul

Windows XP/98/9519973.9/5 Infinite Monkey Systems

Dungeon Crawl

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1997freeware4/5

Dungeon Crawl (also known as Linley's Dungeon Crawl from the name of the original programmer: Linley Henzell) is a classic roguelike: an RPG with permadeath, procedural generation and high replayability. Dungeon Crawl was released on 1997 but it's not maintained anymore. The spiritual successr of Crawl is DCCS (Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup).

Slash'Em

Windows XP/98/95Linux1997freeware4.1/5

Football Fanatic

DOS1998freeware4/5

Monopoly (Adam Stevens)

DOS19983.9/5

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 ...

ZAngband

Windows 10/11Mac OSDOSLinux1999freeware4.3/5

Zangband is a variant of the popular roguelike game Angband. Zangband, short for Zelazny Angband, was developed by Chris Weisiger and first released in 1994. The game features a fantasy world with diverse races, classes, and monsters. Players explore dungeons, caves, and other environments in a quest to reach the bottom level of the dungeon, d...

Ace 2.02

DOS20013.3/5

TomeNET

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2001freeware4.4/5

TomeNET (Troubles of Middle Earth, Net) is an online, multiplayer rogue-like game set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth. It’s a persistent-world game inspired by Angband, a single-player dungeon-crawler based on Tolkien lore. You can play as familiar fantasy races like Elves, Dwarves, Humans, or Hobbits, as well as more obscu...

Uplink: Hacker Elite

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2001protected4/5 Introversion Software Limited

Uplink is a computer hacking simulation game released in 2001 by Introversion Software. The game allows players to take on the role of a hacker for hire and engage in various hacking activities.In Uplink, players perform tasks such as hacking into systems, stealing data, and covering their tracks. The game features a realistic representation of hac...

DOSBox

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2002freeware4.1/5

DOSBox is an open-source emulator that allows you to run software and games designed for the MS-DOS operating system on modern computers. As you probably already know, MS-DOS was a popular operating system used in the 1980s and early 1990s. DOSBox emulates the necessary hardware components and provides a DOS-like environment, allowing users to...

FreeDOS Shell

DOS2002freeware3.6/5

Taipan for Windows

Windows XP/98/952002freeware3.5/5

1893: A World's Fair Mystery

Windows XP/98/95Mac OS20033.9/5

1893: A World's Fair Mystery is an interactive fiction game developed by the American studio Illuminated Lantern and released in 2002. Set during the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the game combines historical fiction with mystery-solving gameplay.In 1893: A World's Fair Mystery, players take on the role of a detective investigating ...