Abandonware DOS title

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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

Beyond the Titanic

DOS19863.8/5 Apogee Software
arachne-www-03

Arachne WWW

DOS1996freeware3.8/5
Arachne is a graphical web browser for DOS. Arachne was developed by Michal Polák and released in the early 1990s as a text-mode web browser with limited graphical capabilities. Arachne allowed DOS users to browse the World Wide Web in a graphical, though quite basic, manner. It supported features such as displaying images, handling lin...
kingdomkroz-1

Kingdom of Kroz

DOS1988freeware3.7/5 Apogee Software
ascii-sector-02

Ascii Sector

WindowsLinuxDOS2007freeware4/5
amnesia-3

Amnesia

DOS19864/5 Cognetics corporation
dragon-world-01

Dragon World

DOS19843.9/5 Telarium
football-fanatic-05

Football Fanatic

DOS1998freeware4/5
wall-street-raider-01

Wall Street Raider

DOS19864.4/5
skthemist-1

The mist

DOS19854/5 Angelsoft
ZAngband-02

ZAngband

WindowsMac OSDOSLinux1999freeware4.2/5
Zangband is a variant of the popular roguelike game Angband. Zangband, short for Zelazny Angband, was developed by Chris Weisiger and first released in 1994. The game features a fantasy world with diverse races, classes, and monsters. Players explore dungeons, caves, and other environments in a quest to reach the bottom level of the dungeon, d...
acquire-1

Acquire

DOS19893.9/5 IBM
rules-of-engagement-02

Rules of Engagement

DOS19913.6/5 Omnitrend Software
sleuth-1

Sleuth: A Murder Mystery

DOS1983freeware4.1/5 Norland Software
f-prot-01

F-Prot

DOS19953.8/5
F-PROT is an antivirus developed by FRISK Software International. The name "F-PROT" stands for "FRISK-PROActive," emphasizing its proactive approach to virus detection and prevention. F-PROT Antivirus is designed to protect computer systems from various forms of malware, including viruses, worms, Trojans, and other malicious software.
championship-manager-italia-02

Championship Manager Italia

DOS19934.1/5 Sports Interactive Limited
startrekpromethean-1

Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy

DOSMac OS19864/5 TRANS Fiction Systems
arthur-excalibur-02

Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur

DOS19894/5 Infocom
pkunzip-1

PKzip

DOS1989protected4.1/5 PKware
007-goldfinger-1

James Bond 007: Goldfinger

DOS19864.1/5 Angelsoft
jamesbondview2kill-1

James Bond 007: A View to a Kill

DOS19853.9/5 Angelsoft
acheton-01

Acheton

DOS19873.7/5
super-zzt-05

Super ZZT

DOS19923.3/5 Epic MegaGames
jewels-of-darkness-06

Jewels of Darkness

DOS19864.2/5 Level 9 Computing
galaxy-4

Galaxy

DOS19814.1/5 Microcomputer Games Inc.
deadline-2

Deadline

DOS19823.9/5 Infocom
amuletyendor-4

Amulet of Yendor

DOS19853.6/5 Keypunch Software
questprobe-spiderman-01

Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man

DOS19864.1/5 Adventure International
Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man is an abandoned text-based adventure game designed by Scott Adams, developed and released by Adventure International in 1986 for DOS but was also published for Acorn Electron, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, ZX Spectrum, MSX. Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man is part of the Questprobe game series, the ...
kingdom-of-kroz-2-1

Kingdom of Kroz 2

DOS19903.2/5 Apogee Software
caverns-of-kroz-2

Caverns of Kroz

DOS1989freeware3.6/5 Apogee Software