Interactive fiction: text-based adventure 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.

Most popular interactive fiction games

The Hobbit

adventureDOS

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire

adventureDOS

The Fellowship of the Ring

adventureDOS

Interactive fiction games

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20000 Leagues under the sea

DOS19883.8/5 Coktel Vision
2112

DOS19943/5
9 Princes in Amber

DOS19854.2/5 Telarium
A Dudley Dilemma

DOS19883.1/5
A Mind Forever Voyaging

DOSMac19854.1/5 Infocom
A Night with Troi

DOS1991NSFW4.2/5
Acheton

DOS19873.7/5
Adventure in Serenia

DOS19823.6/5 Sierra On-Line
African Adventure

DOS1997remake3.4/5
Alice in Wonderland

DOS19893.4/5
Amazon

DOS19843.7/5 Telarium
Amnesia

DOS19864/5 Cognetics corporation
Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur

DOS19894.1/5 Infocom
Avon

DOS19893.4/5 Topologika Software
Ballyhoo

DOS19863.5/5 Infocom
Beyond the Titanic

DOS19863.8/5 Apogee Software
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor

DOS19873.9/5 Infocom
Border Zone

DOS19873.8/5 Infocom
Borrowed Time

DOS19853.7/5 Interplay Productions
Breakers

DOS19864.1/5 Synapse Software
Brimstone

DOS19853.4/5 Synapse Software
Bureaucracy

DOSMac19873.9/5 Infocom

Bureaucracy is an abandoned text-adventure game designed by Douglas Adams (yes, the writer of The Hitchhiker Guide of the Galaxy), developed and published by Infocom in 1987. Bureaucracy is a peculiar interactive fiction; the game challenges you to solve frustrating bureaucratic problems in a world populated by strange characters.
Castle Adventure

DOS1984freeware4.2/5
Castle Elsinore

DOS19923.5/5 Temple Software
Circuit's Edge

DOS19904/5 Westwood Studios

Circuit's Edge is a single-player science fiction blend of adventure game and RPG, developed by Westwood Studios and released by Infocom in 1990. Circuit's Edge is based on George Alec Effinger's cyberpunk novel "When Gravity Fails".
Corruption

DOS19884/5 Magnetic Scrolls
Cutthroats

DOS19843.3/5 Infocom
Deadline

DOS19823.8/5 Infocom
Demon's Forge

DOS19872.9/5 Mastertronic
Demon's Tomb: The Awakening

DOS19893.5/5 Silhouette Software