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.)
These are commercial interactive fiction games played offline.
Torn City (2003) is played in a web browser and involves multiplayer components: it is based mainly around text and has very limited graphical elements.