Interactive fiction: text-based adventure games sorted by release date
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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Gamma Force in Pit of a Thousand Screams
DOS1988 Tom Snyder Productions
Gnome Ranger 2: Ingrid's Back
DOS1988 Level 9 Computing
Guardians of Infinity: to Save Kennedy
DOS1988protected Paragon Software
Jinxter
DOS1988 Magnetic Scrolls
Lancelot
DOS1988 Level 9 Computing
Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen
DOS1988 Tom Snyder Productions
Legend of the Sword
DOS1988 Silicon Software
Return to Doom
DOS1988 Topologika Software
Before Doom became the 3D gore-fest we all know, there was Return to Doom—and no, it has nothing to do with space marines. This 1988 title is more Choose Your Own Adventure than chainsaws and demons. You’ll type in com...
Romantic encounters at the dome
DOS1988 MicroIllusions
Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels
DOS1988 Challenge
Star Trek: First Contact
DOS1988 Simon & Schuster Interactive
The Shadows of Mordor
DOS1988 Beam Software
Time and Magik: The Trilogy
DOS1988 Level 9 Computing
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 ...
Alice in Wonderland
DOS1989
Step into the rabbit hole - no, really, step carefully, or you’ll glitch right through the floor. Alice in Wonderland (1989, DOS) is a surreal, side-scrolling adventure that loosely follows the Lewis Carroll classic, if Lewi...
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur
DOS1989 Infocom
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur is a text adventure with occasional graphics, in which you, the not-yet-king, bumble your way through Camelot trying to prove you’re not just some kid with a weird haircut. The writing is witt...
Avon
DOS1989 Topologika Software
If Shakespeare wrote video games and then decided, “You know what this needs? A parser and some pixelated drama,” you'd get Avon. In this interactive fiction gem from 1989, you step into the slippers of a humble page t...
Demon's Tomb: The Awakening
DOS1989 Silhouette Software
GrailQuest
DOS1989 Artworx Software
James Clavell's Shogun
DOS1989 Infocom
James Clavell's Shogun, a text adventure game developed by Infocom and released in 1989. Infocom was known for its interactive fiction games, and "James Clavell's Shogun" was one of its later releases.This text adventure game is b...
Journey: The Quest Begins
DOS1989 Infocom
Myth
DOS1989 Magnetic Scrolls
Ooze: Creepy Nites
DOS1989 Dragonware Games
Scapeghost
DOS1989 Level 9 Computing
Sex Vixens from Space
DOS1989NSFW Free Spirit Software
The Crack of Doom
DOS1989 Beam Software
The Golden Fleece
DOS1989
The Hound of Shadow
DOS1989 Eldritch Games
The Usurper
DOS1989 Sir-tech Software
Zork Quest: The Crystal of Doom
DOS1989 Tom Snyder Productions
More illustrations, more intrigue, more doom. The Crystal of Doom continues the hybrid of comic-style storytelling and light role-playing with just enough choices to make you feel clever (or guilty). This time, you’re chasin...