this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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Original question by @capuccino@lemmy.world

I've played A dark room, and Zork. I'm looking something more like the first one, text-based but able to push some buttons to do things rater than do everything with commands. I've thinking in Dwarf Fortress, but it's too colorish, like Brogue, which I do like a lot.

Do anyone have some recommendations? Thank you.

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[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] thelsim@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

That used to be my slacking off game at my first real job. I'd ssh into my computer at home and sneakily play Nethack whenever I got bored. Either that or browse websites with Links.
This was around 2007 and way outside my comfort zone as far as computers were concerned. I felt like such a hacker at the time :)

[–] uuseernaamee@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I would recommend Universal Paperclips to anyone who enjoyed A Dark Room.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

ugh...

man. I spent way way too much time on that cow clicker

[–] ClusterBomb@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 11 months ago

I second this. The background and philosophy behind it, the questions you ask yourself, the thinking it makes are really worth.

[–] lime@feddit.nu 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

~~corruption of champions~~

[–] kayzeekayzee@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Woah hey now

Not even gonna mention the sequel?

[–] bhamlin@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Honestly, I prefer the original to the sequels.

[–] theherk@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

MUD’s are poised to make a comeback.

As an aside, how is your thumbnail animated? First I’ve seen that.

[–] capuccino@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

It's a GIF. You can try it.

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] audaxdreik@pawb.social 2 points 11 months ago

This got me through so many shifts working in a call center. Could download PuTTY and run it from my user folder without admin permissions and then connect to one of the servers.

Been awhile since I played, but I remember my first ascension was Draconian Skald. I think the rules have changed quite a bit, but I used to love Troll Monk of Cheibriados, too. Stoneskin + Stoneform and a shield of reflection absolutely WRECKED the Elven Halls. For every step I'd take the elves would get like 4-5 turns and fire off a volley of arrows. I'd take practically no damage and a large portion of them would get reflected back and kill the elves themselves. Literally just waltzing through the place. Slow is life.

Transmuter used to be a lot of fun, too, but they changed it significantly over the years. I remember playing as a Felid one time and I died while in spider form. Because Felids get several lives, I reincarnated on the same level, ran back to my corpse and condensed it into a poison potion to chuck back at enemies.

I find it to be one of the simpler roguelikes to learn, but it takes awhile to master and there are some very cool interactions once you get the vibe.

[–] puppycat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

bitburner!

(a programming-based incremental RPG where you write JavaScript scripts to automate gameplay, hack servers, learn skills, and progress in a cyberpunk world. free on steam or in your browser)

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago
[–] luce@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

you could explore yourworldoftext its basically an infinite multiplayer word processor, where anyone can put down text anywhere and edit it.

im not gonna spoil too much as that would ruin the fun, but i will say the rabbit hole goes deep.

useful tip: click menu > show coordinates.

[–] Ludrol@szmer.info 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's cool place but doesn't have moderation so there is a lot NSFW stuff there.

[–] luce@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 10 months ago

true. though i will say its much less extreme/chaotic the farther you go out. still probably probably not great for work given the fact that anyone can edit.

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago

Nethack is a command line classic

[–] thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

Dunnet is a good hour-long game. Comes with emacs.

[–] General_Effort@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago
[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 6 points 11 months ago

Colossal Cave Adventure

Hunt the Wumpus

any MUD

[–] lime@feddit.nu 6 points 11 months ago

ifdb.org is good for this! i'd recommend Counterfeit Monkey or Lost Pig.

[–] kinther@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Aardwolf MUD. Hundreds of people online at peak. Lots of replayability. Some color in your terminal.

https://www.aardwolf.com/

[–] confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 11 months ago

Frogcomposband is my favourite Angband varient. There's a huge amount of classes to pick from, towns with quests and once you get a hang of it, most of the interactions can be done by the number pad.

[–] waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] Khuda@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

keep hearing about this game, what makes it so special?

[–] waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

It's depth is absolutely outrageous, I would recommend the recent 4 part documentary about the making of.

[–] radiouser@crazypeople.online 1 points 10 months ago

Or Caves of Qud for a more adventure based game (I know DF has an adventure mode but goddamn is Caves of Qud good).

[–] AxiomPraxis@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you're up for a browser based game, Kingdom of Loathing can be really fun.

[–] Asswardbackaddict@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Fuck yeah. Glad to see them gaining popularity

[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 11 months ago

Some similar-ish to A Dark Room:

Civ Clicker

Candy Box

Candy Box 2

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Alter Ego! Underrated text-based DOS classic, now easily playable in your browser:

https://www.playalterego.com/index.html

[–] weegee90@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Pokete is a text based Pokemon-like

Star Trek is a text based strategy game

[–] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

not what you're asking for, but it's worth a little fun goofing around with 'Perchance' dungeons and dragons AI.

I got married to a rock.

(it's not that good otherwise, doesn't compare to actual people :/)

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago

i almost ascended NetHack at work playing over Telnet on nethack.alt.org

[–] witty_username@feddit.nl 3 points 11 months ago
[–] Knossos@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead

[–] PlexSheep@infosec.pub 2 points 11 months ago

atc from bsdgames. Also vitetris if that counts.

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Legend of the green dragon

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

trimps, it's mostly text ish and crazy good ! Just make sure you type it with an i