The most popular text-based games
A few genres traditionally linked to the beautiful world of ascii characters still survives: roguelikes (nethack, angband, etc.) and interactive fiction, for example.
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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
Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac2002freeware4.1/5
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...
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...
QBASIC
DOS19914.3/5 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...
James Clavell's Shogun
DOS19894.2/5 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 based on James Clavell's novel "Shogun" and follows the story of John Blackthorne, an English navigator who becomes invol...
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...
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...
Turbo Assembler (TASM)
DOSWindows 3.xWindows XP/98/9519894.4/5 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.
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...
A Night with Troi
DOS1991NSFW4/5
Softporn Adventure
DOS1981freewareNSFW4/5 Sierra On-Line
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
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...
Planetfall
DOS19834.1/5 Infocom
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...
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 ...
Borland DBase 5
DOS19944/5 Borland Software Corporation
Empire: Wargame of the Century
DOS19874/5 Northwest Software
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...
Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
DOS19834.3/5 Infocom
Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man
DOS19864.1/5 Adventure International
Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man is an abandoned text-based adventure game designed by Scott Adams, developed and released by Adventure International in 1986 for DOS but was also published for Acorn Electron, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, ZX Spectrum, MSX. Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man is part of the Questprobe game series, the ...
Business Simulator
DOS19873.9/5 Reality Development
Business Simulator is an abandoned business simulation game developed and released by Reality Development in 1987 for DOS only. Business Simulator is a text-based management simulation designed by an university professor.
Borland Turbo C v1
DOS19874.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) v1.1
Windows XP/98/95DOSLinux1996freeware3.9/5
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor
DOS19874/5 Infocom
Turbo Prolog 2.0
DOS1986protected4.1/5 Borland Software Corporation
Norton Editor 2
DOS19904.2/5 Peter Norton Computing
Forbidden Quest
DOS19833.8/5 Pryority software
China Sea Trader
DOS19893.5/5
DOS Navigator v 1.5
DOS1991freeware4/5