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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

Most popular text-based games

Norton Commander 5.5
applicationDOS
DOSBox
applicationWindows XP/98/95, Linux, Mac
nortoncommander-5

Norton Commander 5.5

DOS19984.2/5 Peter Norton Computing
Norton Commander was one of the most popular file manager applications ever released for MS DOS. Its clever side-by-side windows interface and the ease of use allowed DOS users to copy, delete, move and preview any kind of file without the hassle of typing every command by hand. Norton Commander was first released in 1986, but the latest and final ...
dosbox-1

DOSBox

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac2002freeware4/5
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 early 1990s. DOSBox emulates the necessary hardware components and provides a DOS-like environment, allowing users to...
zork1-2

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire

DOS19824.2/5 Infocom
Zork is one of the most popular text-adventures and one of the first interactive fiction games ever created. The first Zork was developed in the seventies and ported on various platform by Infocom in the early 80s. Infocom was one of the most prolific developers of text-adventures for home computers and created memorable interactive fiction ga...
qbasic71-01

QBASIC

DOS19914.4/5 Microsoft
QBasic, or QuickBASIC, was an interpreted version of the BASIC programming language developed by Microsoft. It was designed to be easy to learn and use, making it accessible to beginners and hobbyist programmers. QBasic was part of Microsoft's QuickBASIC product line, which included both compiled and interpreted versions of the language. QBasi...
borland-turbo-basic-1-03

Borland Turbo Basic 1.0

DOS19874.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
Borland Turbo Basic was a programming language developed by Borland, a software company that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. Turbo Basic was part of the Turbo series of programming languages and development tools that Borland created during that time.Turbo Basic was designed as a fast and efficient version of the BASIC programming language. B...
wordstar4-01

Wordstar 4

DOS19864.2/5 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. It used a command-driven interface, where users would enter specific commands to perform various tasks. The software wa...
tasm-02

Turbo Assembler (TASM)

DOSWindows 3.xWindows XP/98/9519894/5 Borland Software Corporation
Turbo Assembler, often referred to as TASM, is an x86 assembler for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It was part of the Turbo Assembler/Turbo Debugger (TASM/TD) package that Borland released as part of their Turbo Assembler product line. Borland was a software company known for its development tools during the 1980s and 1990s.
a-night-with-troi-01

A Night with Troi

DOS1991NSFW4/5
gwbasic-03

GW-BASIC 3

DOS19884.2/5 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 versions of the MS-DOS operating system.GW-BASIC was initially released with MS-DOS 2.0 in 1983. Subsequent versions of MS...
rogue-1

Rogue

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac19844.2/5 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 and later ported to various platforms, including DOS in 1984. Rogue is simply the father of all the roguelike games that c...
dos-navigator-1-01

DOS Navigator v 1.5

DOS1991freeware4.1/5
js-shogun-02

James Clavell's Shogun

DOS19894.2/5 Infocom
dbase3-02

dBASE III

DOS19844.3/5
dBASE III is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that was popular in the late 1980s. It was developed by Ashton-Tate, a software company. dBASE III was a successor to the earlier dBASE II and was part of a series of dBASE products. dBASE III played a significant role in the history of database management systems, especially during ...
softporn-4

Softporn Adventure

DOS1981freewareNSFW4/5 Sierra On-Line
nethack-2

NetHack

DOSWindows XP/98/95MacLinux1987freeware3.7/5
NetHack is an open-source roguelike game that's been around since the early 1980s. It's a single-player dungeon exploration game where you navigate your character through a randomly generated dungeon filled with monsters, traps, treasures, and various items. The goal is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor, located deep within the dungeon's lowest leve...
borland--dbase-5-02

Borland DBase 5

DOS19944.3/5 Borland Software Corporation
borland-eureka-1-04

Borland Eureka: the Solver

DOS19873.9/5 Borland Software Corporation
Borland Eureka: the Solver is an abandoned text-based application developed by Borland Software Corporation and released in 1987 for DOS. The product is designed to solve complex problems, generate tables and plots, and perform what-if analysis. The user writes an equation, sets options, and instructs the software to solve the problem. The pro...
borland-quattro-pro-03

Quattro Pro v4

DOS19913.9/5 Borland Software Corporation
hitchhikerguide-1

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

DOSMac1984freeware4.2/5 Infocom
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a humorous free text adventure game based on the novel of the same name written by Douglas Adams (if you never read it, shame on you!). The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was designed by Douglas Adams himself and interactive fiction god Steve Eric Meretzky, it was released by Infocom in 1984 for DOS and for...
dnd_text-02

DND

DOS19844.1/5
mission-mainframe-04

Mission: Mainframe

DOS19873.9/5
zork2-2

Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz

DOS19834.3/5 Infocom
adventure-in-serenia-01

Adventure in Serenia

DOS19823.6/5 Sierra On-Line
word-perfect-5-02

Word Perfect 5

DOS19893.9/5 Corel
borland-c1-03

Borland Turbo C v1

DOS19874.2/5 Borland Software Corporation
empire1-1

Empire: Wargame of the Century

DOS19874/5 Northwest Software
borland-turbo-pascal-3-03

Borland Turbo Pascal 3.0

DOS19863.8/5 Borland Software Corporation
planetfall-1

Planetfall

DOS19834.1/5 Infocom
turbo-pascal-7-01

Turbo Pascal 7

DOSWindows 3.xMac19924/5 Borland Software Corporation
Turbo Pascal 7 (TP7) is a programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) that was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was developed by Borland as an evolution of their earlier Turbo Pascal versions. Turbo Pascal 7 was released around 1992.Turbo Pascal 7 gained popularity in educational settings and among hobbyist progra...
football-fanatic-05

Football Fanatic

DOS1998freeware4/5