Text-based games: ASCII, etc. sorted by release date
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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
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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Borland Turbo Pascal 3.0
DOS1986 Borland Software Corporation
Breakers
DOS1986 Synapse Software
In Breakers, you're a high-tech wrecking crew with a mission: break stuff. Computers, walls, enemy morale—whatever gets in your way. Released in 1986, it feels like a mutant crossbreed of action game and low-budget sci-fi mo...
Dr. Ruth Computer Game of Good Sex
DOS1986 Avalon Hill
Hacker 2: The Doomsday Papers
DOS1986 Activision
Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers is a video computer game developed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision. It was released in 1986 and is a sequel to the original Hacker game. The game was available for various home comput...
Hamburger Hell
DOS1986remake
Hollywood Hijinx
DOS1986 Infocom
IBM Assistant 2.0
DOS1986 IBM
James Bond 007: Goldfinger
DOS1986 Angelsoft
Jewels of Darkness
DOS1986 Level 9 Computing
Larn
DOS1986freeware
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
DOS1986 Infocom
Mind Mirror
DOS1986
Moonmist
DOS1986 Infocom
NewsMaster
DOS1986
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 ...
Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man
DOS1986 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...
Sherlock Holmes: The Vatican Cameos
DOS1986 Magicom Multimedia
Silicon Dreams
DOS1986 Level 9 Computing
Silicon Dreams by Level 9 Computing is a trilogy of interactive fiction (text adventure) games released in the mid-1980s. The trilogy includes three separate games: Snowball, Return to Eden, and The Worm in Paradise. Each game com...
Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy
DOSMac OS1986 TRANS Fiction Systems
TheDraw 4
DOS1986
Trinity
DOS1986 Infocom
Turbo Prolog 2.0
DOS1986protected Borland Software Corporation
Wall Street Raider
DOS1986
Wordstar 4
DOS1986 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....
Acheton
DOS1987
Acheton (1987, DOS) is one of those text adventures where the game cheerfully tries to kill you every five minutes — and does so with words. You're tossed into a sprawling, brain-melting maze of puzzles so obscure they might...
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021
DOS1987freeware Thinking Machine Associates
Welcome to the future, where space empires are managed entirely via text and colored dots. Anacreon puts you in charge of an interstellar civilization and lets you conquer galaxies with the graphical intensity of an Excel spreadsh...
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...
Border Zone
DOS1987 Infocom
Welcome to Border Zone (1987, DOS), where the Cold War is hot and your only weapon is your brain (and maybe a good map). This text-based espionage thriller from Infocom combines spy drama with multiple protagonists and a real-time...
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...