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 These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.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

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Norton Commander 5.5

DOS1998 Peter Norton Computing

Norton Commander was one of the most popular and influential file management applications ever released for MS-DOS. Introduced in 1986, it featured an innovative, dual-pane interface that allowed users to perform tasks like copying, deleting, moving, and previewing files with ease, eliminating the need to type every command manually. This side-by-s...

Turbo Assembler (TASM)

DOSWindows 3.xWindows XP/98/951989 Borland Software Corporation

Turbo Assembler, often referred to as TASM, is an x86 assembler for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. As a key component of Borland's suite of development tools, TASM was packaged alongside Turbo Debugger (TD), forming the Turbo Assembler/Turbo Debugger (TASM/TD) bundle. Turbo Assembler was favored for its speed and compatibility with the popular ...

QBASIC

DOS1991 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...

DOSBox

Windows XP/98/95LinuxMac OS2002freeware

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...

Wordstar 4

DOS1986 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...

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire

DOS1982 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...

dBASE III

DOS1984 Ashton-Tate

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 Turbo Basic 1.0

DOS1987 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...

Softporn Adventure

DOS1981freewareNSFW Sierra On-Line

The Fool's Errand

DOS1989freeware Synergistic Software

The Fool's Errand is a puzzle-adventure computer game created by Cliff Johnson and released in 1987 for Macintosh and later for MS-DOS. The game follows the journey of a nameless fool through a magical land inspired by Tarot cards. The story is whimsical and surreal, presented as a series of interconnected chapters that blend fairytale-like st...

Microsoft COBOL 1.12

DOS1984 Microsoft

DOS Navigator v 1.5

DOS1991freeware

A Night with Troi

DOS1991NSFW

Business Simulator

DOS1987 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.

GW-BASIC 3

DOS1988 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...

Microsoft Word

Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x1983 Microsoft

IBM Fixed Disk Organizer

DOS1983 IBM

Rogue

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac OS1984 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...

Arj

DOS1990

ARJ is a file compression utility and file format created by Robert K. Jung. The name "ARJ" stands for "Archived by Robert Jung." It was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a compression tool for MS-DOS and other systems. ARJ offered high compression ratios and various features, such as archive encryption and error recovery.

Borland Turbo C v1

DOS1987 Borland Software Corporation

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

DOSMac OS1984freeware 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...

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 Spellcasting 201, you reprise the role of Ernie Eaglebeak, an apprentice wizard who is attending the Sorcerer University. The sto...