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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
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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Football Fanatic
DOS1998freeware
Monopoly (Adam Stevens)
DOS1998
Norton Commander 5.5
DOS1998 Peter Norton Computing
Norton Commander was one of the most popular and influential file management applications ever released for MS-DOS. Introduced in 1986, it featured an innovative, dual-pane interface that allowed users to perform tasks like copyin...
ZAngband
Windows 10/11Mac OSDOSLinux1999freeware
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 ...
Ace 2.02
DOS2001
TomeNET
Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2001freeware
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 ...
Uplink: Hacker Elite
Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2001protected 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 suc...
DOSBox
Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2002freeware
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 ea...
FreeDOS Shell
DOS2002freeware
Taipan for Windows
Windows XP/98/952002freeware
1893: A World's Fair Mystery
Windows XP/98/95Mac OS2003
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 ficti...
Warp Rogue
Windows 10/11Linux2004freeware
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...
Doom: The Roguelike
DOS2005freeware
Ascii Sector
Windows 10/11LinuxDOS2007freeware
Ascii Sector is what happens when someone takes Privateer, removes the graphics, and replaces them with pure ASCII and sheer willpower. It’s open-world space sim meets roguelike: you trade, fight, explore, get stabbed in sha...
Doszip Commander
DOS2007freeware
Incursion
Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS2007freeware
WitchavenRL
Windows 10/11Linux2013