Text-based games: ASCII, etc. sorted by release date
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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Hollywood Hijinx
DOS19863.3/5 Infocom
IBM Assistant 2.0
DOS19864.1/5 IBM
James Bond 007: Goldfinger
DOS19864.1/5 Angelsoft
Jewels of Darkness
DOS19864.2/5 Level 9 Computing
Larn
DOS1986freeware3.9/5
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
DOS19864.2/5 Infocom
Mind Mirror
DOS19863.6/5
Moonmist
DOS19863.8/5 Infocom
NewsMaster
DOS19863.5/5
Norton Commander 1.0
DOS19863.8/5 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 any kind of file easily: it was an improvement over the command-line only MS-DOS interface. Norton Commander 1.0 was fir...
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 ...
Sherlock Holmes: The Vatican Cameos
DOS19864/5 Magicom Multimedia
Skullduggery: Adventures in Horror
DOS19863.4/5
Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy
DOSMac19864/5 TRANS Fiction Systems
TheDraw 4
DOS19863.3/5
Trinity
DOS19864.1/5 Infocom
Turbo Prolog 2.0
DOS1986protected4.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
Wall Street Raider
DOS19864.3/5
Wordstar 4
DOS19864.2/5 MicroPro International
WordStar 4 was a popular word processing software program during the early days of personal computing. WordStar 4 included features typical of word processors in that era, allowing users to create, edit, and format documents. It used a command-driven interface, where users would enter specific commands to perform various tasks. The software wa...
Acheton
DOS19873.7/5
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.
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor
DOS19874/5 Infocom
Border Zone
DOS19873.8/5 Infocom
Borland Eureka: the Solver
DOS19873.9/5 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 what-if analysis. The user writes an equation, sets options, and instructs the software to solve the problem. The pro...
Borland Turbo Basic 1.0
DOS19874.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
Borland Turbo Basic was a programming language developed by Borland, a software company that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. Turbo Basic was part of the Turbo series of programming languages and development tools that Borland created during that time.Turbo Basic was designed as a fast and efficient version of the BASIC programming language. B...
Borland Turbo C v1
DOS19874.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
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.
Business Simulator
DOS19873.9/5 Reality Development
Business Simulator is an abandoned business simulation game developed and released by Reality Development in 1987 for DOS only. Business Simulator is a text-based management simulation designed by an university professor.
Dragonriders of Pern
DOS19873.1/5 Everlasting
Empire: Wargame of the Century
DOS19874/5 Northwest Software