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[Magnumcannon]

I found dwarf fortress simply awesome because it variety of stuff to do, it has a charm that a lot of sandbox games don't. So, the question is: Does anybody here knows another game like this, ya know, graphicless, awesome with a tons of options to do and of course, with a lot of FUN?

[Robsoie]

There's Cataclysm that is sandbox with a very lot to do and is ascii-like visual based (and same as DF there are graphic tileset available if needed)

[Virtz]

Liberal Crime Squad, another of Toady's games, is pretty great. Look to the Curses subforum for the latest, enhanced version.

HellMOO is great for an MMO if you don't mind looking past a whole lot of offensive stuff.

DoomRL is pretty good with the build variety and challenges. Got a graphics pack later, but you can still play the ASCII version.

[Neonivek]

Dwarf Fortress, LCS, and DoomRL all have graphics by my definition. ASCII graphics mind you.

So long as they have a "stand in".

Let me see... the original Zork games (in text)

[itisnotlogical]

I'd say A Mind Forever Voyaging is very technically a sandbox, albeit a very small sandbox with one overarching mission and a definite goal in sight. But it has no graphics, not even ASCII, since it's a text adventure. It takes about as much pre-game reading as a roguelike though, between copy protection and commands for the "cyberspace" sections.

[Bouchart]

Aurora 4x.  There's a thread on it here somewhere.  It's like MS Access in space.

[Girlinhat]

Aurora for sure.  More spreadsheet-y and complicated, tons of numbers, but once you understand how the systems and math works, the specific numbers aren't so important and you can just play with ideas and abstract to a degree.

It's not 'no graphics' bit it is 'lite graphics' but Rimworld and Gnomoria are extremely similar to Dwarf Fortress in a lot of ways.  Both use fairly static images and simple displays, and are sandbox fortress building types.

[gigaraptor487]

ZZT and SuperZZT are good if you have DOSBox or A DOS computer.

[Girlinhat]

Other "lite graphics" are XCOM and OpenTTD.  XCOM is pretty well known, but OpenTTD is the open-source remake of Transportation Tycoon Deluxe, which puts you in the position of transporting things - mail, people, and freight, through buses, trains, ships, and planes, to make the longest route with the quickest speed.  It's older themed, so the graphics are very lightweight.

[sambojin]

Pyro22 is a great game. Not much to do, what you do in it is evil, but it's a pretty addictive game. Graphical ascii, but awesome. Turn off screen fading, you may want to DosBox it as well. Incidently made by one of the Blizzard big-wigs, so yeah, it explains a lot

BRE or SRE (Battle Reams Elite and Solar Realms Elite) are great. I doubt the player base is as big as it was in the early-mid '90s, but this is what multiplayer was before the internet.

Battlemaster. The extent of the graphics is the map and different army's flags in battle reports. Very multiplayer, very "choose your own character", player created realms/religions/alliances/wars, but get ready for the long haul. Two turns a day, but can be played on your phone in under 5mins a turn. Unless you're roleplaying a lot.

M.U.L.E.  Trading for the sole reason of generally pissing off your opponents. A C64 game, but there's an NES version as well. The AI isn't that great on the NES version, but it's awesome as multiplayer. Has an online remake at planetmule.com

[sambojin]

A couple more:

Prospector: Open ended roguelike in space. There's a thread on here for it, it can be graphicsy, but it's great. One of my favourite sandboxxy RLs. Play it.

Triangle Wizard: Very low end graphics, real-time roguelike. So many class/race/god combos to try out it's ridiculous. You might have the same mission, but you'll do it very differently each time. Actually, you'll die each time, but you'll get up to that point differently each time.

X@com: One to watch out for down the track. Sporting what was the most sophisticated ASCII engine ever, until it's creator focused on Cogmind instead (which is now the top spot for ASCII engines). Look up either game and Kyzrati's dev posts for Cogmind. This man is a genius.

Stars!  If you could mix a space based four-X game with a spreadsheet, this is what you get. Good SP, great multiplayer, even has a tutorial. Was essentially THE definition of a non-cheating AI for years, and probably still is. Made by one of the original creators of Excel's graphing and logarithmic functions AFAIK, so honestly, if you want to min/max, expect to learn some things about compound interest. Still one of the best 4X space games today for mutliplayer turn-based strategy, sadly lacking a player base. It'll give you a good SP game as well.