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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

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Incursion

Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS2007freeware

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...

Kingdom of Kroz

DOS1988freeware Apogee Software

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 customiz...

Borland Reflex 2.0

DOS1986 Borland Software Corporation

Borland Reflex was a relational database management system (RDBMS) developed by Borland International, a software company that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. Reflex was released in the mid-1980s as a graphical database soft...

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 wh...

Xtrek

DOS1991freewareNSFW

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...

Borland Paradox 4.5

DOSWindows XP/98/951993 Borland Software Corporation

Bureaucracy

DOSMac OS1987 Infocom

Douglas Adams, the twisted genius behind Hitchhiker’s Guide, brings you the most terrifying adventure of all: paperwork. Bureaucracy turns mundane modern life into a text-based hellscape of lost forms, passive-aggressive cle...

Sorcerer

DOS1984 Infocom

Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy

DOSMac OS1986 TRANS Fiction Systems

China Sea Trader

DOS1989

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...

Microsoft Word

Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x1983 Microsoft

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...

Mo'Slo

DOS1990protected Dr.David's Super Crispy Software

The previous file hosted here was put online by mistake (it was the deluxe version, not the basic one). Copyright holders kindly allowed Abandonware DOS to link directly to their website where you can buy the deluxe version of Mo&...

Hack

DOS1984freeware

Banner Mania

DOS1989

Lost Adventures of Kroz

DOS1990freeware Apogee Software

Caverns of Kroz

DOS1989freeware Apogee Software

Wall Street Raider

DOS1986

Turbo Prolog 2.0

DOS1986protected Borland Software Corporation

Castle Adventure

DOS1984freeware

Air Traffic Controller

DOS1985 Cascoly Software

Welcome to the most stressful job in the world - rendered in glorious 1985 DOS graphics! Air Traffic Controller lets you experience the thrill of herding aircraft without the luxury of coffee breaks or radar resolution. It’s...