The best interactive fiction games

Interactive fiction games (or text adventures) are adventure games in which the player gives textual commands in order to act within the given story. The story itself is told both using text and static pictures or with no graphics of any kind, just text. The genre's stepping stones are Adventure (developed in 1975) and the Zork series. Infocom, Legend Entertainment and Magnetic scrolls were some of the most popular interactive fiction developers of the 80s.

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Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man

DOS1986 Adventure International

Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man is an abandoned text-based adventure game designed by Scott Adams, developed and released by Adventure International in 1986 for DOS but was also published for Acorn Electron, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, ZX Spectrum, MSX. Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man is part of the Questprobe game series, the ...

Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels

DOS1988 Challenge

The Lurking Horror

DOS1987 Infocom

Zork III: The Dungeon Master

DOS1984 Infocom

Sex Vixens from Space

DOS1989NSFW Free Spirit Software

Castle Adventure

DOS1984freeware

Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy

DOSMac OS1986 TRANS Fiction Systems

Transylvania

DOS1986freeware Polarware

Star Trek: the Kobayashi alternative

DOS1985 Micromosaics

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&...

The Fellowship of the Ring

DOS1986 Beam Software

Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz

DOS1989 Infocom

Corruption

DOS1988 Magnetic Scrolls

Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur

DOS1989 Infocom

Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur is a text adventure with occasional graphics, in which you, the not-yet-king, bumble your way through Camelot trying to prove you’re not just some kid with a weird haircut. The writing is witty, the puzzles devilish, and the parser only mildly homicidal. It’s part history, part fantasy, and entirely charm...

Dragon World

DOS1984 Telarium

Forbidden Castle

DOS1985 Angelsoft

Indiana Jones: Revenge of the Ancients

DOS1987 Angelsoft

Jinxter

DOS1988 Magnetic Scrolls

Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen

DOS1988 Tom Snyder Productions

Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

DOS1996

Seastalker

DOS1984 Infocom

Sherlock Holmes: The Vatican Cameos

DOS1986 Magicom Multimedia

Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance

DOS1991protectedNSFW 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...