Back in the early days, before graphics and even block graphics, we had text adventure games. This sort of goes back to the dial-up bulletin board days.
They were actually a lot of fun, and one of the reasons why was, because we used our imagination instead of 4K graphics on a plate.
Even my Hewlett-Packard HP-41CV programmable calculator had a great text adventure game called Hunt the Wumpus, where you had to navigate 20 interconnected caves with pits, bats, and try to find and shoot the Wumpus.
See https://www.xda-developers.com/i-tried-text-adventure-game-1977-better-than-expected