The popularity of games with ASCII graphics on the IBM PC peaked around 1990, probably because they would runand look more or less the sameon all the graphics cards available for PCs at the time, even the monochrome ones, unless color was essential for gameplay. With the general adoption of VGA in the following years, ASCII graphics became a niche genre among the fans of roguelike games and ZZT.
| Pac-Gal | Pac-Man | 82 | Al J. Jiménez | |
| The Queen of Hearts Maze Game | Pac-Man | ![]() |
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| Beast | Puzzle | 84 | ![]() |
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| Othello | Othello | Details unknown | ||
| Relentless Logic | Puzzle | ![]() |
Conway, Hong, and Smith | |
| Rogue | Roguelike | ![]() |
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| 8088 Othello | Othello | 85 | ||
| Turbo-Gomoku | Gomoku | ![]() |
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| Pente | Gomoku | 86 | ![]() |
Michael A. Leach |
| Tetris | Tetris | ![]() |
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| Bones | RPG | 87 | ![]() |
Bruce N. Baker |
| Castles & Kings | strat | 88 | ![]() |
Steve Hanson |
| Nyet | Tetris | ![]() |
David Howorth | |
| Pentix | Tetris | Marta & Adrian Soncodi | ||
| Block Five | Gomoku | 89 | ![]() |
Scott Miller |
| MaxIt | MaxIt | ![]() |
Owen Gwilliams |
In 1990, there is a sudden boost in popularity for ASCII games. I have almost as many of them from 1990/91 as I have of the whole previous decade. What caused this, I do not know, but it may simply have been a rising popularity of the IBM PC as a hardware platform. 1990 was also the year that game development for Windows 3.1 started in earnest.
| Blox | Tetris | 90 | ![]() |
Graham Cluley |
| Da | Tetris | ![]() |
Michael Heyda | |
| Diamaze | Puzzle | ![]() |
Steve Herring | |
| Fusion | Columns | ![]() |
William Chin | |
| Popgames | ![]() |
Geoffrey Silverton | ||
| Kroz | Adventure | ![]() |
Scott Miller | |
| Shogatsu | Ishido | ![]() |
Alan Meiss | |
| TetraFix | Tetris | ![]() |
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| Crux | Puzzle | 91 | ![]() |
Bob Lancaster |
| Dr. Rudy | Tetris | ![]() |
Kevin Jay North | |
| Taktix | Ataxx | ![]() |
Alan Meiss | |
| ZZT | Adventure | ![]() |
Tim Sweeney | |
| Tiny Tetris | Tetris | ![]() |
Alex Lochm |
Up to and including 1991, ASCII games were mostly a US thing. Beyond this year, the majority of the games is from Europe. This is not an uncommon pattern. You will find it, though less pronounced, with 16-bit Windows games as well.
| Small Tetris | Tetris | 92 | ![]() |
Tore Bastiansen |
| Tiles | Puzzle | ![]() |
Daniel G. Rigal | |
| Wari | Mancala | ![]() |
Eric Roosendaal | |
| DOSMine | Puzzle | 93 | ![]() |
David Vancina |
| ADOM | Roguelike | 94 | ![]() |
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| MegaZeux | GCS | ![]() |
Gregory Janson | |
| Alphaman | Roguelike | 95 | ![]() |
Jeffrey R. Olson |
| Lentris | Tetris | 98 | ![]() |
Lennart Johannesson |
| WormWars 3 | Arcade | 06 | ![]() |
Christian Knudsen |
| Tetris | Tetris | 08 | ![]() |
Sergey Smolyachenko |
A special case is Edward Henigin's Minefind (1993) that uses ASCII graphics, yet runs in (hi-res) VGA mode. The graphics are used only for a border around the screen. And WormWars 3 is the only game I know that uses ASCII graphics and has a Windows version.
It is possible to create action games using ASCII graphics, but it has rarely ever been done. Apart from the roguelike games, ASCII graphics were most popular for board game implementations like Othello and the various Monopoly clones. It should be noted that the original Tetris featured ASCII graphics, as did some early clones.
These games are probably the most unproblematic ones ever released for the PC. Most will look better on some sort of color adapter, a few may even require it, very few are truly monochrome. None of the games listed here uses custom characters, which would require VGA and was common for applications. Very few run in 40-column mode, which looks awkward in a monochrome setup.
I think ADOM is the only game to have a minimum requirement as far as processor speed or type is concerned, it needs a 386. Beast on the other hand is the only one that has problems with fast computers. The others will run on any PC at all. Since they can run in a DOS window, they are usually easier to play on new computers than other DOS games. Most of my screenshots were made under Windows 98 or even Windows XP.
Few of these games have any sound at all, and if they do, it is played over the PC speaker. None of them has any sound card support.