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I’d love to try one of these out. I have a modern computer so I’m guessing it’ll have to be emulated somehow, but what do you recommend as a great text based game to try? Like ones that really make you think and get creative
If you don't want to install a parser on your computer, you can play it online by putting the link to the .gblorb file into https://iplayif.com/ I.e. https://iplayif.com/?story=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fi7%2Fc...
Modern games are generally going to be more approachable than old ones. Tastes have changed considerably. In the days when you couldn't pull up a walkthrough in a few seconds, taking days to think of the next step was part of the fun, and just getting permanently stuck at some point was fairly common. Also, letting the player keep going even after they have done something to make the game unwinnable is now considered very uncool. Navigation is much less tedious these days as well, fast travel for example, although the exact mechanics depend on the game.
And that's not mentioning the amount of CPU and RAM available, not only for the game's runtime, but also for tools like I7 (which was used to write Counterfeit Monkey).
For an quicker introduction to modern "interactive fiction", as it's called these days, check out competition entries. https://intfiction.org/c/competitions/7 These are generally written in a shorter amount of time and the results are quicker to play through.
Edit, autocorrect
I've liked and played in the past a lot of these text based role playing games, especially when I was on a shittier dial up connection or remote satellite connections. I liked Aardwolf and Realms of Despair the most. I've played the IRE games like Achaea and Aetolia way too much. While those two definitely have a great lore and many active players, I have always loathed IREs pay to win "credits" style.
Text based gaming is still alive and evolving. Just don't expect a AAA game and definitely not single player.
https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=gkqdo58j2zvjtxnk
https://archive.org/details/McMurphysMansionV1.5SW1989martin...
Apart from that, from short to long, some usual IF recommendations are:
Interstate 0: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=a3ym4ipix7sjsfrf
Glowgrass: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=b1xy3s75cjlty973
Anchorhead: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=op0uw1gn1tjqmjt7
A Mind Forever Voyaging: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=4h62dvooeg9ajtfa
You can also look for other beginner lists: https://ifdb.org/search?searchfor=beginner&searchgo=Search+L...
You need an "interpreter" to play most of these, look up Gargoyle: http://ccxvii.net/gargoyle/
And the granddaddy of them all, Adventure: https://rickadams.org/adventure/advent/