The best turn based games
In direct contrast with real-time games, turn-based games gameplay is based on the players taking turns to do what needs to be done: move in a dungeon, play cards, attack enemy units.
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Acquire
DOS1989 IBM
Acquire (1989, DOS) brings boardroom drama to your DOS screen, turning you into a hotel tycoon in a game where the real enemy is... math. It's a faithful adaptation of the classic board game, complete with mergers, hostile takeove...
The Ball Game
DOS1991 Esprit Software Programs
Floor 13
DOS1992 PSI Software Designers
Larn
DOS1986freeware
Black Crown
DOS1995
In Black Crown (1995), you play as a prince with a very punchable name, trying to reclaim his rightful throne by solving puzzles and dying a lot. It's one of those DOS-era games where half the difficulty is figuring out which pixe...
9 Poker
DOS1989
Ah, 9 Poker. Released in 1989 for DOS, this game is less a glamorous casino sim and more a smoky backroom full of pixelated cards and questionable programming. You get nine variants of poker to lose fake money in, which is both ge...
Full Metal Planete
DOSMac OS1990 Hitech Productions
Legions
Windows 3.xMac OS1994 Mindscape
Trivial Pursuit
DOS1989
Trivial Pursuit is a popular trivia board game that was adapted into a computer game for various platforms, including DOS. In the game, players answer trivia questions from various categories in order to collect pie pieces th...
Risk: the World Conquest Game
DOS1989 Mastertronic
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021
DOS1987freeware Thinking Machine Associates
Welcome to the future, where space empires are managed entirely via text and colored dots. Anacreon puts you in charge of an interstellar civilization and lets you conquer galaxies with the graphical intensity of an Excel spreadsh...
Dragons of Flame
DOS1989protected U.S. Gold
Phantasie 1
DOS1987protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Empire II: The Art of War
DOSWindows XP/98/951995 White Wolf Productions
Wizardry 2: The knight of diamonds
DOS1982 Sir-tech Software
Bandit Kings of Ancient China
DOS1989 KOEI
Based on a classic Chinese novel, Bandit Kings of Ancient China combines strategy, RPG elements, and about 800 names you’ll never remember. You play one of 108 outlaws trying to overthrow a corrupt regime — think Roman...
Fidelity Chessmaster 2100
DOS1989 The Software Toolworks
Hack
DOS1984freeware
Queen of Tenshindo 95
Windows XP/98/951995NSFW
Balance of the Planet
DOSMac OS1990 Incredible technologies
Environmental doom simulator? Check. Grim statistics? Double check. Balance of the Planet lets you tinker with carbon emissions, wildlife extinction, and deforestation until you either save the world or make it slightly more inhab...
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...
Chess
DOS1981 International PC Owners
Decision at Gettysburg
DOS1990 TigLon Software
Incursion
Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS2007freeware
Lords of Midnight
DOS1984remake Beyond Software
Omega
DOSLinux1988freeware
Stratego
DOS1990 Accolade
Nobunaga's Ambition 2
DOS1989 KOEI
Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) v1.1
Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1996freeware
ADOM is what happens when a rogue, a wizard, and a hungry troll walk into a dungeon and never come out. Released in 1996, this roguelike classic is brutal, brilliant, and unapologetically text-heavy. Permadeath is the norm, the st...
Rampart
DOS1992 Atari
Rampart is an abandoned mix of strategy and shooter game designed by Dave Ralston and John Salwitz, developed by Atari and released by Electronic Arts in 1992 for DOS. Rampart was converted from the original arcade version to a nu...