Text-based games: ASCII, etc.

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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

Most popular text-based games

Norton Commander 5.5

applicationDOS

Borland Turbo Basic 1.0

applicationDOS

QBASIC

applicationDOS

Text-based games

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A Dudley Dilemma

DOS19883.1/5
A Mind Forever Voyaging

DOSMac19854.1/5 Infocom
A Night with Troi

DOS1991NSFW4.1/5
A-Maze

DOS19894.1/5 New Era Software
Acheton

DOS19873.7/5
Acquire

DOS19893.9/5 IBM
Adventure in Serenia

DOS19823.6/5 Sierra On-Line
African Adventure

DOS1997remake3.4/5
Air Traffic Controller

DOS19854.1/5 Cascoly Software
Air Trax

DOS19833.4/5
Alice in Wonderland

DOS19893.7/5
Alice: The Personal Pascal

DOS19854.4/5
AlphaMan

DOS19953.7/5
Amazon

DOS19843.7/5 Telarium
Amnesia

DOS19864/5 Cognetics corporation
Amulet of Yendor

DOS19853.6/5 Keypunch Software
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021

DOS1987freeware3.9/5 Thinking Machine Associates

Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021 is one of the first 4x turn-based strategy games, ASCII based. Anacreon is set in space, as most 4x sci-fi games are, and was published by Thinking Machines Associates and designed by George Moromisato who later re-released the game as freeware.
Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) v1.1

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1996freeware4/5
Angband

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1992freeware4/5
Arj

DOS19904.2/5
Armchair Quarterback

DOS19854/5
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur

DOS19894.1/5 Infocom
Ascii Sector

Windows XP/98/95LinuxDOS2007freeware4/5
At the Carnival

DOS1990freeware3/5
At-slow4

DOS19893.1/5
Avon

DOS19893.4/5 Topologika Software
B-1 Nuclear Bomber

DOS19813.6/5 Avalon Hill
Ballyhoo

DOS19863.5/5 Infocom
Baseball Mogul

Windows XP/98/9519973.8/5 Infinite Monkey Systems
Baseball Mogul 2006

Windows XP/98/9520054.4/5