Abandonware DOS title

The best 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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
seastalker-01

Seastalker

DOS1984 Infocom
sherlockvatican-1

Sherlock Holmes: The Vatican Cameos

DOS1986 Magicom Multimedia
softporn-splash

Softporn Adventure

DOS1981freewareNSFW Sierra On-Line
spellcasting201-splash

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 Spellcast...
nextgen-trivia-01

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Trivia

DOS1990 Micro F/X Software
stationfall-01

Stationfall

DOS1987 Infocom
the-witness-01

The Witness

DOS1983 Infocom
volkswriter3-02

Volkswriter 3

DOS1982 Lifetree Software
word-perfect-5-02

Word Perfect 5

DOS1989 Corel
angband-03

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 ultima...
dungeon-crawl-dos-03

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...
norton-desktop1-02

Norton Desktop

DOS1992 Peter Norton Computing
ags-01

Adventure Game Studio (AGS)

Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS1997freeware
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 adve...
xtrek91-02

Xtrek

DOS1991freewareNSFW
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 wh...
ibm-filing-assistant-02

IBM Assistant 2.0

DOS1986 IBM
battleformidway-1

Midway Campaign

DOS1983 Microcomputer Games Inc.
uplink-v1.3-5

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...
norton-commander-1-04

Norton Commander 1.0

DOS1986 Peter Norton Computing
Norton Commander was a file manager and editor application released by Peter Norton Computing for DOS. Norton Commander used a text-based user interface with side-by-side panels and featured copy, delete, editing and preview ...
skthemist-splash

The mist

DOS1985 Angelsoft
beyond-zork-02

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...
plunderedhearts-splash

Plundered Hearts

DOSMac OS1987 Infocom
sorcerer-splash

Sorcerer

DOS1984 Infocom
spellbreaker-02

Spellbreaker

DOS1985 Infocom
video-trek-88-02

Video Trek 88

DOS1982 Windmill Software
redskyatmorning-3

Red sky at morning

DOS1993 Simulations Canada
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-Ni...