Why would you use a 3D api or a game api to create a black borderless window with some text on it?
It can be done with pretty much every language that can talk to Win32.. C++/Win32 for sure (as I've said, just create a borderless maximized window and put text on it).. C++/MFC (yuk).
In C# this is done with zero code in 3 minutes.
You can bazinga the planet and do it in a Windows Store App in C++ using DX11.. but what's the point?
Maybe I am missing the point.
Actual console APIs (curses?) tend to be very restrictive and not very portable depending on your requirements (color...). As a result a lot of "ascii games" like roguelikes or Dwarf Fortress actually run their own console emulation in OpenGL. Also its most likely faster. I can run a full screen "console" in OpenGL on my crappy netbook (GMA3150) at a cost of less than a millisecond per frame while doing the same in a console API is significantly slower.
btw. modern style dx/ogl are really just general purpose graphics APIs and using them for non 3D isn't overkill at all.
I have must missed the requirement that it needs to have a big black window with characters and run at 50000fps my bad :-S
So ya sure.. roll on your DX11/OpenGL font rendering system to do the same thing you can do in 3 minutes with C#.. it's your time mate.
Actual console APIs (curses?) tend to be very restrictive and not very portable depending on your requirements (color...). As a result a lot of "ascii games" like roguelikes or Dwarf Fortress actually run their own console emulation in OpenGL. Also its most likely faster.
