The best interactive fiction games
Interactive fiction games (or text adventures) are adventure games in which the player gives textual commands in order to act within the given story. The story itself is told both using text and static pictures or with no graphics of any kind, just text. The genre's stepping stones are Adventure (developed in 1975) and the Zork series. Infocom, Legend Entertainment and Magnetic scrolls were some of the most popular interactive fiction developers of the 80s.
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Jack the Ripper
DOS1995 Intergalactic Development
Questprobe featuring The Hulk
DOS1984 Adventure International
Voodoo island
DOS1985 Angelsoft
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...
Amazon
DOS1984 Telarium
From the mind of Michael Crichton comes Amazon, a game that lets you live out your jungle explorer fantasies—without the bugs or dysentery. You’re off to the Amazon to recover a missing expedition and probably get into...
The Usurper
DOS1989 Sir-tech Software
Wishbringer
DOS1985 Infocom
Gnome Ranger
DOS1987 Level 9 Computing
Gnome Ranger is an abandoned fantasy adventure game, developed and published by Level 9 Computing in 1987 for DOS. Gnome Ranger was designed by Peter Austin who also designed the sequel Gnome Ranger 2: Ingrid's Back.
Holy Grail
DOS1984
Rendezvous with Rama
DOS1985 Telarium
Rendezvous with Rama is an interactive fiction (text adventure) game released in 1984. Telarium, a subsidiary of Spinnaker Software, was known for producing narrative-driven games based on popular literary works. This adaptation o...
Scapeghost
DOS1989 Level 9 Computing
Starcross
DOS1982 Infocom
Essex
DOS1985 Synapse Software
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...
Golden Oldies: Volume 1 - Computer Software Classics
DOS1985 The Software Toolworks
Star Trek: First Contact
DOS1988 Simon & Schuster Interactive
African Adventure
DOS1997remake
African Adventure is one of those games that feels like it was made during a two-hour layover at the airport - but somehow, it works. Set in the savannah, it combines survival, exploration, and a splash of educational trivia (prob...
Mindshadow
DOSMac OS1985 Interplay Productions
Borrowed Time
DOS1985 Interplay Productions
Borrowed Time is a graphic adventure video game developed and published by Interplay Productions. It was released in 1985 for various platforms, including the Apple Macintosh, Apple II, DOS, and Atari ST. The game is notable ...
Earthly delights
DOS1984 Datamost
Ballyhoo
DOS1986 Infocom
Come one, come all, to the saddest circus ever pixelated. In Ballyhoo, you're stuck in a depressing carnival trying to solve a kidnapping while dealing with clowns, carnies, and the worst text parser since your last therapy sessio...
Castle Elsinore
DOS1992 Temple Software
Adventure in Serenia
DOS1982 Sierra On-Line
Before heroes had inventory screens and voice acting, there was Adventure in Serenia, the lovechild of a text parser and a fever dream. Released in 1982, this proto-graphic adventure gave players a taste of magic, mystery, and con...
Guardians of Infinity: to Save Kennedy
DOS1988protected Paragon Software
Sherlock Holmes: Another bow
DOS1985 Magicom Multimedia
Supernova
DOS1987freeware Apogee Software
Treasure Island
DOS1985 Byron Preiss Video Productions
Brimstone
DOS1985 Synapse Software
Ever wanted to fight fire with... even more fire? Brimstone tosses you into a magical mess of spells, dungeons, and monsters who woke up on the wrong side of the crypt. It’s a 1985 RPG that oozes charm and confusion in equal...
Infidel
DOS1983 Infocom
Zork Quest: Assault on Egreth Castle
DOS1988 Tom Snyder Productions
Interactive fiction meets comic book in this spin-off, where you follow a fantasy story through illustrated panels and scripted choices. Zork Quest: Assault on Egreth Castle feels like your dungeon master turned into a storyboard ...