The most popular 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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Castle Adventure
DOS1984freeware
Castle Adventure is what happens when a medieval fantasy RPG gets crammed into a game smaller than your average selfie. ASCII graphics? Check. Typing commands like “GET SWORD”? Oh yes. It’s part game, part digita...
A Night with Troi
DOS1991NSFW
A Night with Troi (1991) sounds like a fan fiction gone too far - and, well, that’s pretty much what it is. It’s a DOS-based “adventure” in the loosest sense, where you find yourself on the Enterprise with ...
The Crack of Doom
DOS1989 Beam Software
Romantic encounters at the dome
DOS1988 MicroIllusions
Sherlock Holmes: Another bow
DOS1985 Magicom Multimedia
Infidel
DOS1983 Infocom
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...
The Lurking Horror
DOS1987 Infocom
The Usurper
DOS1989 Sir-tech Software
Varicella
DOSWindows XP/98/95Linux1999freeware
Scapeghost
DOS1989 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 ...
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...
Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen
DOS1988 Tom Snyder Productions
Perry Mason
DOS1985 Paisano Productions
Demon's Tomb: The Awakening
DOS1989 Silhouette Software
Released in 1989, this game has you exploring a tomb filled with ancient evils. Navigate through dark corridors, solve puzzles, and confront the awakening demons. It's like playing a haunted house simulator, but with more tombs an...
Spellbreaker
DOS1985 Infocom
The last entry in Infocom’s Enchanter trilogy, Spellbreaker is where the training wheels come off. It’s unforgiving, cryptic, and expects you to understand spellcraft like you’re a dropout from Hogwarts' honors p...
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...
Eric the Unready
DOS1993protected Legend Entertainment
Rambo First Blood Part 2
DOS1985 Angelsoft
Jewels of Darkness
DOS1986 Level 9 Computing
Wishbringer
DOS1985 Infocom
Indiana Jones: Revenge of the Ancients
DOS1987 Angelsoft
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 ...
Gateway 2: Homeworld
DOS1993protected Legend Entertainment
Earthly delights
DOS1984 Datamost
Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance
DOS1991protectedNSFW Legend Entertainment
Spellcasting 201: The Sorcerer's Appliance is an adventure game released in 1991, developed by Steve Meretzky and published by Legend Entertainment. It’s the second installment in the "Spellcasting" series. In Spellcast...
Gamma Force in Pit of a Thousand Screams
DOS1988 Tom Snyder Productions
