Microsoft Works (1986) 95 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database DOS

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

dBASE (1983) 88 Database DOS Windows

Ashton-Tate dBase was an early popular database management system for CP/M and MS-DOS. It was regarded as one of the killer applications for CP/M, and achieved good success. At the time of conception Ashton-Tate was a garage based company but quickly grew.

• II v2.x
• III v1.0
• III v1.1
• III Plus v1.0
• III Plus v1.1
• IV v1.0
• IV v1.1
• IV v1.5
• IV v2.0
• 5.x

After Dark (1989) 40 Novelty DOS

After Dark, from Berkeley Systems, Inc, is a set of entertaining screen savers for Mac and Windows. After Dark for Windows started off as "Magic Screen Saver" for Windows 2.x. After Dark was most famous for its "Flying Toasters" screen saver. Afterdark was very popular on both the early Macintosh computers and Windows 3.0, as neither included any kind of screen saver or screen blanker that would help prevent screen burn-in.

• 1.0 for DOS

Framework (1984) 33 Word Processor Spreadsheet Graphics Communications Database DOS

Originally created by Forefront Corporation for Ashton-Tate and first released in 1984, Framework was an early integrated office suite for DOS. It has a built in word processor, spreadsheet, database, outliner, graphing, and telecommunications.

• 1.0
• Premier 1.x
• II
• III
• XE
• IV

The Print Shop (1984) 28 Publishing DOS

The Print Shop is a home oriented publisher capable of creating calendars, banners, greeting cards and other printable goods. It started off on the Apple II and Commodore 64 where it became popular for its simplicity and ease of use. From day one, it featured interactive editing, on-screen artwork/layout selection, print previewing, and a library of customizable clipart.

• For IBM PC (DOS)
• The NEW PS (DOS)
• Deluxe

Mathcad (1989) 24 Mathematics DOS

Mathcad is an easy to use graphical calculation program targeted at engineering professionals. It supports a wide variety of mathematical functions. There were versions for DOS, Macintosh, and Windows.

• 2.5

MatLab (1986) 24 Mathematics DOS

MatLab is a high speed, interactive programming utility for manipulating, calculating, and plotting complicated mathematical equations. It is considered easy to use for those familiar with typical algebra equations.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 3.5 (DOS)

Autodesk AutoCAD (1984) 21 Graphics Engineering DOS

AutoCAD, from Autodesk and first released in 1982, is a powerful Computer Aided Design tool. It was, and still is, often considered the standard for CAD tools. Primarily for the IBM PC platform, it was ported to x86 machines with higher video resolutions such as the Zenith Z-100 and NEC APC. Intermittently, versions for the Macintosh appeared. Later versions use a dongle copy protection.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• r10 (DOS)
• r11 (DOS)

Instant Artist / Print Artist (1992) 20 Graphics Publishing Novelty DOS

Instant Artist, later renamed to Print Artist, is a greeting card and sign creation program that uses vectorized graphics. It was created by The Pixellite Group, the original authors of The Print Shop, and published in 1992 by Autodesk. It was later sold by Sierra On-line. It features a high quality set of generic reusable clip art. The clip art uses vector based technology that was also used in BannerMania.

• 1.0 (DOS)

FoxBASE (1987) 19 Database DOS Unix MacOS

FoxBASE, a relational database from Fox Software, started off in 1984 as a clone of dBase II that boasted many speed improvements. FoxBASE+ adds feature parity and compatibility with dBase III Plus. It was later aquired by Microsoft and became FoxPro

• Plus 1.x
• Plus 2.x

Borland Reflex (1985) 15 Database DOS

Borland Reflex, first released in 1984 by Analytica and bought by Borland, is a flat file database system with a fully graphical user interface and built in graphing. The Macintosh version of Borland Reflex]was based on the Macintosh database product Interlace from Singular Software.

• 1.x
• 2.0

DR Draw (1983) 14 Graphics DOS CPM

DR Draw is a shape-based drawing program that uses Digital Research's GSX graphics library, making it portable across CP/M and DOS architectures with different video systems.

• 1.x

Clarion (1989) 12 Database DOS

Clarion is an advanced user friendly 4GL DBMS and programming environment for DOS and Windows. It boasted the ability to greatly reduce application development time, featured highly integrated visual creation tools, and a powerful set of program functions.

• 2.X (DOS)
• 3.0 (DOS)
• 3.1 (DOS)

Derive (1994) 12 Mathematics DOS

Derive was a computer algebra and graphing system, developed as a successor to muMATH by Soft Warehouse, Inc. in Honolulu, Hawaii, now owned by Texas Instruments. Derive was implemented in muLISP, also by Soft Warehouse. The first release was in 1988 for DOS. It was discontinued on June 29, 2007 in favor of the TI-Nspire CAS. The last and final version is Derive 6.1 for Windows.

• 2.x
• 3.x

Cakewalk (1993) 11 Audio DOS

Cakewalk is a MIDI music authoring and editing tool. The earlier versions are considered among the best MIDI tools that ever existed. Microsoft Windows. limited music notation and a built-in scripting language called CAL (Cakewalk Application Language). limited functionality OEM-bundled "Express" editions.

• 5.0 (DOS)

Harvard Graphics (1986) 10 Graphics DOS

Harvard Graphics, from Software Publishing Corporation and initially called Harvard Presentation Graphics, is a graphing/plotting/presentation creation application for DOS. It was extremely popular in the late 1980s. At release, it competed against many graphing products such as PFS:Graph (AKA IBM Graphing Assistant ), Microsoft Chart, ChartMaster, and Cricket Graph, just to name a small few. A Windows port was released in 1991, but it lost out to Microsoft Powerpoint.

• A.00
• A.01
• 2.x
• 3.x

3D Studio (1992) 10 Graphics DOS

3D Studio, not to be confused with the later "3d Studio Max" product, is a DOS-based tool from Autodesk for creating 3d models and animations.

• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.x

PC Paintbrush (1984) 9 Graphics DOS

ZSoft PC Paintbrush is a bitmap drawing program visually similar to MacPaint. The earlier DOS versions were often bundled with Microsoft and Microsoft compatible mice, and were notable for supporting a huge variety of video adapters. It competed against Mouse Systems PC Paint (not related despite the similar name). ZSoft PC Paintbrush eventually became Microsoft Paintbrush included in Windows 3.x. For Microsoft's rebranded version see Microsoft Mouse and Microsoft Paintbrush

• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)
• Plus 1.x (DOS)
• IV (DOS)

ChiWriter (1990) 7 Word Processor Mathematics DOS

ChiWriter is a WYSIWYG scientific text editor for DOS. Created by Cay Horstmann in 1986, it was one of the first that could write mathematical formulas on common PC computers.

• 4.00
• 4.2

FrameMaker (1990) 7 Publishing Unix MacOS Other

FrameMaker, originally from Frame Technology Corporation and later Adobe, is a professional document system for creating large, complex documents with highly structured layout. It was often accompanied by FrameReader.

• 2.x

Calendar Creator Plus (1990) 6 Novelty PIM DOS

Calendar Creator Plus from Vermont Creative Software/Power Up, and later Spinnaker Software, is a tool for creating printed calendars with different styles and custom lists of events.

• 3.x (DOS)

AutoSketch (1987) 6 Graphics DOS

AutoSketch is a 2D vector program sold by Autodesk. Unlike artistic drawing programs, AutoSketch is specifically geared towards engineering applications. Although not as powerful as AutoCAD, it can work with 2D AutoCAD files. Autodesk also produced AutoCAD LT, a higher end 2-D drawing program. But unlike AutoSketch, AutoCAD LT was based directly on AutoCAD and worked similarly.

• 1.x (DOS)
• 2.x (DOS)
• 3.x (DOS)

DeluxePaint (1988) 5 Graphics DOS

DeluxePaint, from Electronic Arts, is a bitmap pixel graphics editor that was ported to DOS from the Amiga.

• 1.x
• 2.x

DataEase (1988) 5 Database DOS OS2

DataEase, from DataEase International Inc., USA., is a fast, easy to use yet powerful, menu-driven relational database development system for the IBM PC. Not copy protected.

• 2.5
• 4.5

Eureka: The Solver (1987) 5 Mathematics DOS

Eureka is a friendly and well-polished equation solver and plotter published by Borland. The software was targeted at both business people and scientists. Not only does it include scientific function, it also includes financial functions. It was notable for having a friendly windowing and menuing interface that let users do multiple things at a time. It competed directly with Mathcard.

• 1.0