Have you guys seen X@Com, the ASCII-based X-Com game? It's actually quite impressive, as far as visual flare (ironically enough).
The interface animations alone are pretty impressive, and they do a surprising job of creating atmospheric/pyro effects with their limited graphic engine (ASCII!).
I guess that the Xenonaut engine pretty much has static text display, but if not, I'd love to see some sort of animation treatment like seen in X@Com.