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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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.
dosbox-1

DOSBox

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2002freeware
DOSBox is an open-source emulator that allows you to run software and games designed for the MS-DOS operating system on modern computers. As you probably already know, MS-DOS was a popular operating system used in the 1980s and ea...
star-saga-2-1

Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace

DOS1989 Masterplay Publishing Corporation
sorcerer-splash

Sorcerer

DOS1984 Infocom
wordstar4-01

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....
zork2-2

Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz

DOS1983 Infocom
You survived Zork I, and now it’s personal. In Zork II, you face off against the enigmatic Wizard of Frobozz, who exists mostly to mess with you like a magical prankster with way too much free time. The puzzles get harder, t...
pacgal-01

Pac Gal

DOS1982
startrekpromethean-splash

Star Trek: The Promethean Prophecy

DOSMac OS1986 TRANS Fiction Systems
zorkzero-1

Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz

DOS1989 Infocom
With Zork Zero, Infocom decided to throw everything into the cauldron: graphics, mouse support, and a jester who won’t shut up. A prequel to the original trilogy, it’s stuffed with puzzles, jokes, and deeply Zorkian no...
lurkinghorror-1

The Lurking Horror

DOS1987 Infocom
esuite_splash

Executive Suite

DOS1982 Armonk Corporation
_amfv_002

A Mind Forever Voyaging

DOSMac OS1985 Infocom
If you ever wanted to play a video game that doubles as a philosophical think piece, A Mind Forever Voyaging (1985) is your ride. Released for DOS and Macintosh, this is one of Infocom’s most ambitious works - a text adventu...
doszipcommander-1

Doszip Commander

DOS2007freeware
rules-of-engagement-02

Rules of Engagement

DOS1991 Omnitrend Software
dungeon-crawl-dos-03

Dungeon Crawl

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1997freeware
Dungeon Crawl (also known as Linley's Dungeon Crawl from the name of the original programmer: Linley Henzell) is a classic roguelike: an RPG with permadeath, procedural generation and high replayability. Dungeon Crawl was released...
gwbasic-03

GW-BASIC 3

DOS1988 Microsoft
GW-BASIC (short for Gee Whiz BASIC) is a dialect of the BASIC programming language that was developed by Microsoft. It's one of the early implementations of BASIC and was included as the default programming environment in early ve...
super-zzt-05

Super ZZT

DOS1992 Epic MegaGames
borland-quattro-pro-03

Quattro Pro v4

DOS1991 Borland Software Corporation
incursion-04

Incursion

Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS2007freeware
borland-turbo-pascal-3-03

Borland Turbo Pascal 3.0

DOS1986 Borland Software Corporation
borland-turbo-c-2-02

Borland Turbo C v2

DOS1988 Borland Software Corporation
ZAngband-02

ZAngband

Windows 10/11Mac OSDOSLinux1999freeware
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 ...
freedos-shell-01

FreeDOS Shell

DOS2002freeware
hamurabi-01

Hamurabi remake

DOS1996freewareremake
wizards-castle-01

The Wizard's Castle

DOS1981freeware
The Wizard's Castle is a classic text-based, dungeon-crawling adventure game released in 1980, designed by Joseph R. Power. The game was originally developed for the Exidy Sorcerer computer and later ported to various platforms, s...
foolserrand-2

The Fool's Errand

DOS1989freeware Synergistic Software
The Fool's Errand is a puzzle-adventure computer game created by Cliff Johnson and released in 1987 for Macintosh and later for MS-DOS. The game follows the journey of a nameless fool through a magical land inspired by Tarot ...
rogue-1

Rogue

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac OS1984 Artificial Intelligence Design
Rogue is one of the first RPGs in the history of video gaming. It's a text-based dungeon crawler in which you have to fight your way in the dungeon to recover the Amulet of Yendor. Rogue became popular around 1980 on mainframes an...
evets-5

Evets

DOS1988freeware SAck Enterprizes