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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

Sort by:

Breakers

DOS19864.1/5 Synapse Software

Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz

DOS19894/5 Infocom

PKzip

DOS1989protected4/5 PKware

Enchanter

DOS19833.3/5 Infocom

Football Fanatic

DOS1998freeware4/5

TomeNET

Windows XP/98/95Linux2003freeware4.4/5

Wishbringer

DOS19853.7/5 Infocom

Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels

DOS19884.1/5 Challenge

Moria

DOS1992freeware3.9/5

Executive Suite

DOS19823.9/5 Armonk Corporation

Rambo First Blood Part 2

DOS19854.1/5 Angelsoft

Pro Manager

DOS19853.5/5 Avalon Hill

Super ZZT

DOS19923.3/5 Epic MegaGames

Monopoly (Adam Stevens)

DOS19983.9/5

A Mind Forever Voyaging

DOSMac19854.1/5 Infocom

Arj

DOS19904.3/5

ARJ is a file compression utility and file format created by Robert K. Jung. The name "ARJ" stands for "Archived by Robert Jung." It was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a compression tool for MS-DOS and other systems. ARJ offered high compression ratios and various features, such as archive encryption and error recovery.

Sleuth: A Murder Mystery

DOS1983freeware4.2/5 Norland Software

Time and Magik: The Trilogy

DOS19884.1/5 Level 9 Computing

Microsoft Word

Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x19833.5/5 Microsoft

The Shadows of Mordor

DOS19883.7/5 Beam Software

Lynx

DOS1992freeware3/5

Mind Mirror

DOS19863.6/5

IBM Assistant 2.0

DOS19864.1/5 IBM

The Lurking Horror

DOS19874.1/5 Infocom

The mist

DOS19853.9/5 Angelsoft

Adventure Game Studio (AGS)

WindowsLinuxMac1997freeware3.9/5

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is a software development tool that enables users to create point-and-click adventure games. It was originally created by Chris Jones and has been used by game developers to produce a variety of 2D adventure games. AGS provides a scripting language, a visual editor, and various other tools to simplify the game developmen...