Angband

Text-based adventure games are a thing of the past nowadays, because everyone has access to all sorts of powerful graphics engines. It doesn’t take a lot of work anymore to add some graphics to your game, so there’s not really any reason to ignore them. A few decades ago, on the other hand ASCII and text-based adventure games were insanely popular with the crowds.

Explore a multi-leveled dungeon and slay everything you come across

Angband is a roguelike RPG in which you have a very simple task: explore as many levels as you can, while killing every creature that crosses your path. The game uses text commands and simple ASCII graphics, although you can also opt for simple textures instead of text symbols. Still, you really need to keep the manual close for the first few hours, because the list of possible commands is pretty long.
To begin with, it is worth mentioning that the game is based on Tolkien’s world, at least somewhat. It has many of the same races, including Elf, Hobbit and Dwarf, but the story itself is not really related to the books. There’s not much of a story to begin with anyway, since you only need to keep going deeper and deeper into the dungeon. Loot is an important part of the gameplay as well, otherwise you are slain if your armor is not thick enough.

A huge number of items to pick up and equip

Speaking of which, there are many items, scrolls, rings and armor pieces to hoard from fallen enemies or chests. Some of them can even be found lying around the dungeon, although they are usually guarded by some kind of creature. The combat system is not complicated at all, since all you have to do is walk in the direction of the enemy in order to attack him.
As mentioned before, the graphics are nothing to look at in most cases, but they do not have to excel anyway. The entire purpose of the game is to let you imagine whatever you want, so you are not forced to look at the same dungeon over and over again. In addition, you are also pretty much free to do whatever you want, including digging tunnels and destroying the items you find, just for fun.

The best way to learn about the origins of roguelikes

All in all, it is worth mentioning that Angband has been around for over three decades at this point, so it definitely has a long history. In addition, the developers are still actively adding bits and pieces to it, so the experience is about as complete as it can get.