Abandonware DOS title

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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
shadowsmordor-3

The Shadows of Mordor

DOS1988 Beam Software
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ZZT

DOS1991freeware Epic MegaGames
ZZT (1991, DOS) looks like it was drawn by an enthusiastic ASCII artist with too much time and not enough colors. And yet, it’s brilliant. Part action game, part puzzle adventure, part game creation tool, ZZT is the reason some people grew up to become game developers instead of astronauts. Built by a teenage Tim Sweeney (yes, the Unreal Engi...
business-simulator-03

Business Simulator

DOS1987 Reality Development
Do you find spreadsheets thrilling? Does the idea of profit margins make your heart race? Then Business Simulator is your kind of party. It’s all about running a faceless company in the most unglamorous way possible—budgets, forecasting, market shares. There’s no action, no characters, just cold, hard capitalism in monochrome. It&...
foolserrand-2

The Fool's Errand

DOS1989freeware Synergistic Software
The Fool's Errand is a puzzle-adventure computer game created by Cliff Johnson and released in 1987 for Macintosh and later for MS-DOS. The game follows the journey of a nameless fool through a magical land inspired by Tarot cards. The story is whimsical and surreal, presented as a series of interconnected chapters that blend fairytale-like st...
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Norton Editor 2

DOS1990 Peter Norton Computing
adom1.1-05

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 story is deep enough to drown in, and don’t even get me started on the corruption system. You’ll die often, po...
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DeskMate

DOS1984
Deskmate is a software suite developed by Tandy Corporation that provided a graphical user interface (GUI) and a set of applications for personal computers. It was often bundled with Tandy's TRS-80 and Tandy 1000 series of computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Deskmate included various applications such as a word processor, spreadsheet, calen...
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CheckIt 3

DOS1990
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Word Perfect 5

DOS1989 Corel
onenil-3

One-Nil Soccer Manager

DOS1992 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...
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Warp Rogue

Windows 10/11Linux2004freeware
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Incursion

Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS2007freeware
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Borland Turbo C v2

DOS1988 Borland Software Corporation
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Amnesia

DOS1986 Cognetics corporation
In Amnesia, you wake up in a hotel room with no idea who you are, where you are, or why someone wants you dead. And no, this isn’t a gritty FPS—it’s a text adventure. That’s right, no graphics, just your imagination and 40,000 lines of written paranoia. Written by Thomas M. Disch (yes, the actual science fiction author), it&...
baseball-mogul-01

Baseball Mogul

Windows XP/98/951997 Infinite Monkey Systems
Baseball Mogul (1997) was the original release that kicked off the whole franchise. Developed by Clay Dreslough and published by Infinite Monkey Systems, this was a pioneer in the world of sports management sims. It was released for Windows 95. ou played as the General Manager of a Major League Baseball team, starting in a recent season (the d...
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Rockstar!

DOS1989 Wizard Games
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Caverns of Kroz

DOS1989freeware Apogee Software
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Angband

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1992freeware
If you’ve ever thought The Lord of the Rings needed more ASCII and fewer hobbit feelings, Angband is your jam. Since 1992, this dungeon-crawling roguelike has been throwing players into a 100-level deathtrap where the ultimate goal is to defeat Morgoth, because why not aim big? With perma-death looming over every decision, this game turns "op...
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Kingdom of Kroz

DOS1988freeware Apogee Software
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Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor

DOS1987 Infocom
If you ever wanted to roleplay in a text adventure where a coconut is of utmost importance, Beyond Zork has your back. This is Infocom at its most delightfully weird: part RPG, part parser game, all nonsense. You’ll customize stats, fight monsters, and read walls of text that somehow make you laugh, think, and shout “WHY?!” in equ...
borland-eureka-1-04

Borland Eureka: the Solver

DOS1987 Borland Software Corporation
Borland Eureka: the Solver is an abandoned text-based application developed by Borland Software Corporation and released in 1987 for DOS. The product is designed to solve complex problems, generate tables and plots, and perform what-if analysis. The user writes an equation, sets options, and instructs the software to solve the problem. The pro...
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Turbo Pascal 7

DOSWindows 3.xMac OS1992 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...
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Leather Goddesses of Phobos

DOS1986 Infocom
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Executive Suite

DOS1982 Armonk Corporation
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Dungeon Crawl

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1997freeware
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).