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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

Most popular text-based games

Norton Commander 5.5

applicationDOS

Borland Turbo Basic 1.0

applicationDOS

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire

adventureDOS

Text-based games

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Angband

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1992freeware4/5
Midway Campaign

DOS19834/5 Microcomputer Games Inc.
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor

DOS19873.9/5 Infocom
Plundered Hearts

DOSMac19873.9/5 Infocom
Global Thermo War

DOS19853.9/5
Spellbreaker

DOS19853.9/5 Infocom
X Trek

DOS1991NSFW3.9/5
Stationfall

DOS19873.9/5 Infocom
Red sky at morning

DOS19933.9/5 Simulations Canada
The mist

DOS19853.9/5 Angelsoft
Video Trek 88

DOS19823.9/5 Windmill Software
Business simulator

DOS19873.9/5 Reality Technologies
Acquire

DOS19893.9/5 IBM
Borland Reflex v2

DOS19863.9/5 Borland Software Corporation
Zyll

DOS19843.9/5 IBM
Word Perfect 5

DOS19893.9/5 Corel
Moria

DOS1992freeware3.9/5
James Bond 007: A View to a Kill

DOS19853.9/5 Angelsoft
Ascii Sector

WindowsLinuxDOS2007freeware3.9/5
Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace

DOS19893.9/5 Masterplay Publishing Corporation
Borland Eureka 1.0

DOS19873.9/5 Borland Software Corporation
Executive Suite

DOS19823.9/5 Armonk Corporation
Romantic encounters at the dome

DOS19883.9/5 MicroIllusions
Rules of Engagement 2

DOS19933.9/5 Omnitrend Software
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021

DOS1987freeware3.9/5 Thinking Machine Associates

Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021 is one of the first 4x turn-based strategy games, ASCII based. Anacreon is set in space, as most 4x sci-fi games are, and was published by Thinking Machines Associates and designed by George Moromisato who later re-released the game as freeware.
Bureaucracy

DOSMac19873.9/5 Infocom

Bureaucracy is an abandoned text-adventure game designed by Douglas Adams (yes, the writer of The Hitchhiker Guide of the Galaxy), developed and published by Infocom in 1987. Bureaucracy is a peculiar interactive fiction; the game challenges you to solve frustrating bureaucratic problems in a world populated by strange characters.
Monopoly (Adam Stevens)

DOS19983.9/5
Norton Desktop

DOS19923.9/5 Peter Norton Computing
Warp Rogue

WindowsLinux2004freeware3.9/5
Forbidden Quest

DOS19833.8/5 Pryority software