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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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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Alice: The Personal Pascal
DOS1985
Amulet of Yendor
DOS1985 Keypunch Software
Before there were AAA games with 100GB installs, there was Amulet of Yendor, a rogue-like so old-school it might as well come with a floppy disk and a sandwich bag of D&D dice. Your goal? Find the legendary amulet. Your method...
Armchair Quarterback
DOS1985
Armchair Quarterback lets you live the dream of yelling at your TV — but on your DOS machine, and with even less control. It’s part simulator, part quiz show, and all weird. You make play calls, analyze stats, and pray...
Brimstone
DOS1985 Synapse Software
Ever wanted to fight fire with... even more fire? Brimstone tosses you into a magical mess of spells, dungeons, and monsters who woke up on the wrong side of the crypt. It’s a 1985 RPG that oozes charm and confusion in equal...
Einstein Writer 7
DOS1985
Essex
DOS1985 Synapse Software
Forbidden Castle
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Global Thermo War
DOS1985
Golden Oldies: Volume 1 - Computer Software Classics
DOS1985 The Software Toolworks
James Bond 007: A View to a Kill
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Javelin
DOS1985
Madball
DOS1985
Mickey's Space Adventure
DOS1985 Sierra On-Line
Mindshadow
DOSMac OS1985 Interplay Productions
Mindwheel
DOS1985 Synapse Software
Monopoly
DOS1985
Pro Manager
DOS1985 Avalon Hill
Rambo First Blood Part 2
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Spellbreaker
DOS1985 Infocom
Star Fleet 1: The War Begins
DOSMac OS1985 Interstel Corporation
Star Trek: the Kobayashi alternative
DOS1985 Micromosaics
The mist
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Treasure Island
DOS1985 Byron Preiss Video Productions
Voodoo island
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Wishbringer
DOS1985 Infocom
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 im...
Ballyhoo
DOS1986 Infocom
Come one, come all, to the saddest circus ever pixelated. In Ballyhoo, you're stuck in a depressing carnival trying to solve a kidnapping while dealing with clowns, carnies, and the worst text parser since your last therapy sessio...
Bank Streek Writer Plus
DOS1986
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...
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...