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
The Sumerian Game	1964	Mabel Addis, William McKay	The first edutainment game.
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
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
	1973	Charles Buttrey
Wander	1974	Peter Langston
dnd	1975	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, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels and Dave Lebling
Acheton	1978	, 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.
	1979
Brand X	1979	Peter Killworth and Jonathan Mestel	AKA Philosopher's Quest
HAUNT	1979
	1979	Brad Templeton and
	1979
	1980	and	Text based adventure game
	1980	, and
	1980	Jonathan Partington	Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe
	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
	1981		Based on Lord of the Rings
	1983	Jonathan Partington	Shakespearean adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe
	1983
Dunnet	1983	Ron Schnell
	1986	Jonathan Partington	Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe
	1987	Jonathan Partington	Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe
	1987	Adam Atkinson
	1987	Jonathan Partington	Adventure game originally hosted on Cambridge University's Phoenix mainframe
Spycatcher	1989	Jonathan Partington and	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
	1980	of CLOAD
Softporn Adventure	1981	On-Line Systems
Madness and the Minotaur	1981	for Spectral Associates
The Hobbit	1982	and Veronika Megler of Beam Software
Valhalla	1983	Legend
Time and Magik	1983	Level 9
	1983
Valley of the Minotaur	1983	Nicolas van Dyk of Softalk
	1983	Brian Howarth of Mysterious Adventures and for Adventure International
The Biz	1984	Chris Sievey of Virgin Games	Music band simulator for the ZX Spectrum
	1984
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy	1984	Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky of Infocom
	1984	Robert Pinsky for Synapse Software
Zyll	1984	and for IBM
The Pawn	1985	Magnetic Scrolls
A Mind Forever Voyaging	1985	Steve Meretzky of Infocom
	1985	for Synapse
	1985	Bill Darrah for Synapse
Hampstead	1985	and for Melbourne House
Bored of the Rings	1985	Delta 4
	1985	Brøderbund Software
Heavy on the Magick	1986	Gargoyle Games
	1986	for Synapse
Terrormolinos	1986	and for Melbourne House
Amnesia	1987	Thomas M. Disch	The only entirely non-graphical text adventure ever published by Electronic Arts
	1987
	1987	and for Melbourne House
	1987	^[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
	1988	Michael and
Avalon	1989	^[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
Humbug	1990	Graham Cluley
Islands of Danger	1990
	1991
Spy Snatcher	1992	Jonathan Partington and for Topologika
The Yawhg	2013	Emily Carroll^[6]

Miscellaneous games[]

Title	Year Created	Creator	Notes
	1978
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.
Text Train	1982	Bert Kersey, Beagle Bros Software
Snipes	1983	SuperSet
Sleuth	1983
Beast	1984	Dan Baker, Alan Brown, Mark Hamilton and Derrick Shadel
Kingdom of Kroz	1987	Scott Miller of Apogee Software
	1987	of UCSC
ZZT	1991	Tim Sweeney of Epic MegaGames
Curses!	1993	Graham Nelson
	1994	of	Supports editing the character set to allow for more advanced graphical capabilities than most text mode games.
Jigsaw	1995	Graham Nelson
	1999
PAEE	1999
For a Change	1999	Dan Schmidt
Shade	2000	Andrew Plotkin
Shrapnel	2000	Adam Cadre

Online games[]

Play-by-email games[]

These are play-by-email games played online.

Title	Year Created	Creator
	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
Legend of the Red Dragon	1989	Seth Able Robinson

MUDs[]

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.
^ "The Yawhg". Archived from the original on 2014-06-01.

[dtss196810-1] Kemeny, John G.; Kurtz, Thomas E. (11 October 1968). "Dartmouth Time-Sharing". Science. 162: 223–228. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.

[2] Michael R. Wilk (1 January 1987). "Enchanted Castle" – via Internet Archive.

[3] Lives, Avalon, The Legend. "Online RPG Game - Avalon - Text Based Games". Archived from the original on 2015-12-05.

[4] "Richard A. Bartle: Reviews - UK". Archived from the original on 2015-12-28.

[5] "Designing Virtual Worlds". Archived from the original on 2015-11-18.

[6] "The Yawhg". Archived from the original on 2014-06-01.

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