ASCII Sector is a somehow free remake of the game Wing Commander: Privateer. Like the title implies, there is something special about this remake. Similar to this Marble Madness remake the developer of this game uses an alternative display technology. Since the Marble Madness clone went into the direction of boosting the graphics into the third dimension, ASCII Sector goes directly into the opposite direction: the graphics are rendered in the so beloved Text Mode and are displayed in ASCII. Very charming and indeed you can play this one. (More ASCII games? Look here.)

Earth in Text Mode.

The game itself really got a good oldschool flavor. Just read this lines from the manual:

“As you travel in the game universe, you will be able to engage in dogfights with
other spaceships and land on planets and bases. Here you can interact with the
populace, upgrade and repair your ship — or buy a new ship — and get missions
to complete in order to earn more money (called ‘credits’ in the game).”

Apart from the gaming-layer you also have to master a very complex control scheme with lots of keyboard shortcuts. You best open the manual.txt file and leave it open while you play the game. After a while of playing, you simply forget that you are just staring at ASCII. And the universe unveils with nice name like ‘Crimson Quadrant’ or ‘Vortex Prime’. The game is currently at version 0.2, so expect that the ASCII Sector universe will grow bigger and bigger. As far as I can see it in the forum there are already fans of the game out there. Just reserve some space at a wall in your home for the upcoming universe-map.

[via]