List of text-based computer games
The following list of text-based games is not to be considered an authoritative, comprehensive listing of all such games; rather, it is intended to represent a wide range of game styles and genres presented using the text mode display and their evolution across a long period.
On mainframe computers
Years listed are those in which early mainframe games and others are believed to have originally appeared. Often these games were continually modified and played as a succession of versions for years after their initial posting. (For purposes of this list, minicomputers are considered mainframes, in contrast to microcomputers, which are not.)
| Title | Year Created | Creator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBC | 1961 | John Burgeson | Baseball simulator |
| Unnamed American football game[1] | 1968 or before | Unknown | For the Dartmouth Time Sharing System. One of "many games" in library of 500 programs. |
| The Sumer Game | 1968 | Doug Dyment | AKA Hamurabi |
| Highnoon | 1970 | Christopher Gaylo | |
| Baseball | 1971 | Don Daglow | |
| Oregon Trail | 1971 | Don Rawitsch | |
| Star Trek (strategy game) | 1971 | Mike Mayfield | |
| Hunt the Wumpus | 1972 | Gregory Yob | |
| Star Trek (script game) | 1972 | Don Daglow | |
| TREK73 | 1973 | William K. Char, Perry Lee, and Dan Gee | |
| Cornell U. Hockey | 1973 | Charles Buttrey | |
| Wander | 1974 | Peter Langston | |
| dnd | 1975 | Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood | |
| Dungeon | 1975 | Don Daglow | |
| Colossal Cave Adventure | 1976 | Will Crowther | The original adventure game |
| Dukedom | 1976 | Vince Talbot | |
| Empire | 1977 | Walter Bright | |
| Mystery Mansion | 1977 | Bill Wolpert | |
| Zork | 1977 | Tim Anderson, | |
| Acheton | 1978 | Jon Thackray, David Seal and Jonathan Partington | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Decwar | 1978 | Hysick, Bob and Potter, Jeff | |
| MUD | 1978 | Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle | The first multi-user dungeon. See List of MUDs for later examples. |
| Battlestar | 1979 | David Riggle | |
| Brand X | 1979 | Peter Killworth and Jonathan Mestel | AKA Philosopher's Quest |
| HAUNT | 1979 | John Laird | |
| Martian Adventure | 1979 | Brad Templeton and Kieran Carroll | |
| New Adventure | 1979 | Mark Niemiec | |
| FisK | 1980 | John Sobotik and Richard Beigel | Text based adventure game |
| Hezarin | 1980 | Steve Tinney, Alex Shipp and Jon Thackray | |
| Kingdom of Hamil | 1980 | Jonathan Partington | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Monsters of Murdac | 1980 | Jonathan Partington | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Quondam | 1980 | Rod Underwood | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Rogue | 1980 | Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold | |
| LORD | 1981 | Olli J. Paavola | Based on Lord of the Rings |
| Avon | 1983 | Jonathan Partington | Shakespearean adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Castle | 1983 | Barry Wilks | |
| Dunnet | 1983 | Ron Schnell | |
| Fyleet | 1986 | Jonathan Partington | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Crobe | 1987 | Jonathan Partington | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Nidus | 1987 | Adam Atkinson | |
| Quest of the Sangraal | 1987 | Jonathan Partington | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe |
| Spycatcher | 1989 | Jonathan Partington and Jon Thackray | Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe; released commercially by Topologika Software as Spy Snatcher |
On personal computers
Commercial text adventure games
These are commercial interactive fiction games played offline.
| Title | Year Created | Creator | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adventureland | 1978 | Scott Adams of Adventure International | series | |
| Zork I: The Great Underground Empire | 1980 | Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels and Dave Lebling | series | |
| C.I.A Adventure | 1980 | Hugh Lampert of CLOAD | ||
| Softporn Adventure | 1981 | On-Line Systems | ||
| Madness and the Minotaur | 1981 | for Spectral Associates | ||
| The Hobbit | 1982 | Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler of Beam Software | ||
| Valhalla | 1983 | Legend | ||
| Time and Magik | 1983 | Level 9 | ||
| Forbidden Quest | 1983 | Pryority Software | ||
| Valley of the Minotaur | 1983 | Nicolas van Dyk of Softalk | ||
| The Wizard of Akyrz | 1983 | Brian Howarth of Mysterious Adventures and Cliff J. Ogden for Adventure International | ||
| The Biz | 1984 | Chris Sievey of Virgin Games | Music band simulator for the ZX Spectrum | |
| High Stakes | 1984 | Angelsoft | ||
| The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy | 1984 | Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky of Infocom | ||
| Mindwheel | 1984 | Robert Pinsky for Synapse Software | ||
| Zyll | 1984 | Marshal W. Linder and Scott B. Edwards for IBM | ||
| The Pawn | 1985 | Magnetic Scrolls | ||
| A Mind Forever Voyaging | 1985 | Steve Meretzky of Infocom | ||
| Brimstone | 1985 | James Paul for Synapse | ||
| Essex | 1985 | Bill Darrah for Synapse | ||
| Hampstead | 1985 | Peter Jones and Trevor Lever for Melbourne House | ||
| Bored of the Rings | 1985 | Delta 4 | ||
| Mind Wheel | 1985 | Brøderbund Software | ||
| Heavy on the Magick | 1986 | Gargoyle Games | ||
| Breakers | 1986 | Rodney R. Smith for Synapse | ||
| Terrormolinos | 1986 | Peter Jones and Trevor Lever for Melbourne House | ||
| Amnesia | 1987 | Thomas M. Disch | The only entirely non-graphical text adventure ever published by Electronic Arts | |
| Braminar | 1987 | |||
| Dodgy Geezers | 1987 | Peter Jones and Trevor Lever for Melbourne House | ||
| Enchanted Castle | 1987 | Michael R. Wilk[2] | ||
| Gnome Ranger | 1987 | Level 9 | ||
| Jacaranda Jim | 1987 | Graham Cluley | ||
| Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It | 1987 | Jeff O'Neill for Infocom | ||
| Sherlock: The Riddle of the Crown Jewels | 1987 | Bob Bates for Infocom | ||
| Shadows of Mordor | 1987 | Melbourne House | ||
| Knight Orc | 1987 | Level 9 | ||
| The Guild of Thieves | 1987 | Magnetic Scrolls | ||
| Fish! | 1988 | Magnetic Scrolls | ||
| Ingrid's Back | 1988 | Level 9 | ||
| Corruption | 1988 | Magnetic Scrolls | ||
| Dr. Dumont's Wild P.A.R.T.I. | 1988 | Michael and Muffy Berlyn | ||
| Avalon | 1989 | Yehuda Simmons [3] | A MUD, notable for its pioneering introduction of various innovations such as plotted quests, real estate, banking and distinct skills [4][5] | |
| The Hound of Shadow | 1989 | for Eldritch Games | ||
| Humbug | 1990 | Graham Cluley | ||
| Danger! Adventurer at Work! | 1991 | Simon Avery | ||
| Spy Snatcher | 1992 | Jonathan Partington and Jonathan Thackray for Topologika | ||
| dead rage | 2005 | Tate Productions | ||
| World War II: Heroes of Valor | 2009 | Samuel Horton | ||
| Cypher: Cyberpunk Text Adventure | 2012 | Cabrera Brothers [6] | ||
| The Yawhg | 2013 | Emily Carroll [7] | ||
| Shimlar | 2013 | SHIMLAR LTD. | Text-Based RPG | |
| Criminal Gangsters | 2014 | Inspire Gaming [8] | ||
| SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition | 2015 | Black Shell Games | Text-Based RPG [9] | |
| What Would You Do As a Nigerian Tribal Chief | 2015 | Nathaniel Ogungbuyi [10] | ||
| Commandverse | 2015 | Cyborg Reality | Text-Based God Game [11] | |
| Open Sorcery | 2017 | Open Sorcery Games | Text-Based RPG [12] | |
| City of Ages | 2017 | Darren N. Lory of formsmatter.com[13] | written in Visual Basic 6.0 sr 6 |
On Android phones
| Title | Year Created | Creator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snipes | 2017 | Charles Bergren of bdesigncorp.com[14] | rewritten in Java |
Miscellaneous games
| Title | Year Created | Creator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wizard's Castle | 1978 | Joseph R. Power | |
| Aliens | 1982 | Yahoo Software | Space Invaders clone for Kaypro. |
| CatChum | 1982 | Yahoo Software | Pac-Man clone for Kaypro. |
| Ladder | 1982 | Yahoo Software | Donkey Kong clone for Kaypro. |
| Snipes | 1983 | SuperSet | |
| Sleuth | 1983 | Eric N. Miller | |
| Beast | 1984 | Dan Baker, Alan Brown, Mark Hamilton and Derrick Shadel | |
| Kingdom of Kroz | 1987 | Scott Miller of Apogee Software | |
| Mtrek | 1987 | Chuck Peterson of UCSC | |
| ZZT | 1991 | Tim Sweeney of Epic MegaGames | |
| Curses! | 1993 | Graham Nelson | |
| MegaZeux | 1994 | Alexis Janson of Software Visions | Supports editing the character set to allow for more advanced graphical capabilities than most text mode games. |
| Jigsaw | 1995 | Graham Nelson | |
| Chibot Ultra Battle | 1999 | ||
| PAEE | 1999 | Enrique D. Bosch | |
| For a Change | 1999 | Dan Schmidt | |
| Shade | 2000 | Andrew Plotkin | |
| Shrapnel | 2000 | Adam Cadre | |
| The Gostak | 2001 | Carl Muckenhoupt | |
| Cantr II | 2001 | Jos Elkink | Text-Based Society Simulator |
| Deadline Enchanter | 2007 | Alan DeNiro | |
| combatgrounds | 2008 | war games | |
| sie fate | 2014 | fate team | |
| Tau Station | 2018 | Makes Dreams Happen | Narrative sci-fi MMORPG [15] |
| Warsim: The Realm of Aslona | 2019 | Huw Millward | Complex kingdom management simulator with procedurally generated ascii art systems [16][17] |
Online games
Play-by-email games
These are play-by-email games played online.
| Title | Year Created | Creator |
|---|---|---|
| Lords of the Earth | 1983 | |
| Quantum Space | 1989 | |
| Atlantis PbeM | 1993 | |
| Eressea PbeM | 1996 |
BBS door games
These are BBS door games played online.
| Title | Year Created | Creator |
|---|---|---|
| TradeWars 2002 | 1987 | Gary Martin for Martech Software |
| Legend of the Red Dragon | 1989 | Seth Able Robinson |
MUDs
Other
- Multi-Trek (MTrek) (1986) by Chuck L. Peterson
- Imperium (1989) by Pocketfiction
- Rise to Glory (1997) by Jason Granum
- JavaTrek (JTrek) (2003) by Joe Hopkinson and Jay Ashworth
- "Thy Dungeonman" (2004) by The Brothers Chaps
- Text Gangsters (2014) by Pan Gamers
- "Crypt Shyfter" (2017) by Kung Fu Space Barbarian
- "DNDBBS" (1990) DNDBBS
See also
References
- Kemeny, John G.; Kurtz, Thomas E. (11 October 1968). "Dartmouth Time-Sharing". Science. 162: 223–228. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- Michael R. Wilk (1 January 1987). "Enchanted Castle" – via Internet Archive.
- Lives, Avalon, The Legend. "Online RPG Game - Avalon - Text Based Games". Archived from the original on 2015-12-05.
- "Richard A. Bartle: Reviews - UK". Archived from the original on 2015-12-28.
- "Designing Virtual Worlds". Archived from the original on 2015-11-18.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-10-08. Retrieved 2017-10-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "The Yawhg". Archived from the original on 2014-06-01.
- http://www.criminalgangsters.co.uk Archived 2014-11-29 at the Wayback Machine
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-05-14. Retrieved 2018-05-14.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-07-07. Retrieved 2015-05-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- http://www.cyborgreality.com/
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-05-24. Retrieved 2017-05-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-03-04. Retrieved 2018-03-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- http://www.bdesigncorp.com Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
- "Tau Station". Retrieved 2018-10-16.
- "Warsim: the realm of Aslona on Steam". Retrieved 2019-01-16.
- "Warsim: the realm of Aslona community on Reddit". Retrieved 2019-01-16.
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