List of text-based computer games
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.

List of text-based computer games

Section Title: On mainframe computers
Table Section Text: 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.

Title	Year Created	Creator	Notes

BBC	1961	John Burgeson	Baseball simulator

Unnamed American football game	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

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

Zork	1977	Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels and Dave Lebling

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

Sentence(s)

Peter Killworth's Brand X was released as Philosopher's Quest.

final_sentence: Peter Killworth's Brand X was released as Philosopher's Quest.