Ability (1985) 26 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database DOS

Originally released in 1984 by the Canadian company Xanaro that went bankrupt, and then by Migent, Ability is an integrated office suite for DOS that includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, telecommunications, business graphing, presentation graphics capabilities, and built in file management. It features good integration between the different components, with the ability to import, share, and dynamically update data between them. It was advertised as a very easy to use and a quick to learn system.

• 1.0
• Demo
• 1.2
• Plus 1.0
• Plus 2.0

After Dark (1989) 59 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

American Heritage Electronic Dictionary (1991) 4 Reference DOS

Houghton Mifflin American Heritage Electronic Dictionary is a resident background program that gives you instant searchable access to an entire dictionary.

• 1.x
• 3.0

Applause (1988) 2 Presentations Graphics DOS

Originally called Draw Applause, Applause is a slide making, charting, and presentation program for DOS from Ashton-Tate. It also served as a client front end to Ashton Tate's Graphics Service, through which one could purchase high-quality prints. Applause II beefs up the standalone desktop presentation and graphing abilities.

• 1.0
• II

Automenu (1987) 1 Utility DOS

Automenu is a sophisticated commercial menuing system that lets you control your computer using custom menus, rather than using DOS commands. It features small, compact memory usage and built in help.

• 4.x

Back-It (1986) 2 Utility DOS

Back-It, from Gazelle Systems, is a fast and compact hard disk backup utility. It was sometimes part of OEM system bundles. It was kind of low-end, and changed backup formats between releases but otherwise did what it was supposed to do.

• 2.x
• 3.x
• 4.x

Backup Exec (1993) 3 Utility DOS

Backup Exec is an easy to use backup program. It can back up files to floppy disks or certain tape drives. companies including Maynard Electronics, Archive Corp, Quest Development Corporation, Conner Peripherals, Arcada Software, Seagate Technology, Veritas Software, and Symantec. On top of that, Microsoft bundled a version with MS-DOS 6.

• 2.x (DOS)

Bank Street Writer (1984) 6 Word Processor DOS

Bank Street Writer is an easy to use word processor intended for beginners and educational use. It was very popular on the Apple II, but also had ports for Atari, Commodore 64, MSX, Macintosh, IBM PC, and IBM PCjr.

• IBM PC
• Plus

Banner Blue Movie Guide (1991) 1 Novelty DOS

Banner Blue Movie Guide, from Banner Blue Software, is a searchable movie database with built in trivia games.It features entries for more than 9000 popular movies.

• 1.0

BlueMAX (1991) 1 Utility DOS

BlueMAX is a version of 386Max that is specifically intended for IBM PS/2 computers rather than clones. BlueMAX offers automatic easy-to-use installation and configuration, automatically adding upper memory where possible and moving DOS device drivers to make use of this memory.

• 6.x

Body Illustrated (1992) 0 Reference DOS

Body Illustrated is a computerized multimedia Anatomical Guide targeted at educational and home use. It provides interactive exploration with graphics and speech. It features Exploration, Tutorial, Encyclopedia, Lessons, and Game modes that provide different ways of learning.

• 1992

Boeing Graph (1987) 3 Presentations Graphics DOS

Boeing Graph is a graphing program for the IBM PC that specializes in producing high quality 3D plotted graphs. It was sold as a companion product to Boeing Calc.

• 2.00

Borland Sprint (1988) 7 Word Processor DOS

Sprint is a text-based word processor for DOS that features a powerful scripting language, multiple user interfaces, exceptional speed, the ability to handle very large files, and powerful PostScript capabilities. "Mark of the Unicorn", and bought by Borland where it was renamed to "Sprint" in 1987. WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for DOS, and Multimate. preview at a time when that was clearly the way forward. However Sprint was targeted towards power users that needed advanced features WYSIWYG editors did not yet provide.

• 1.0x

Brown Bag Word Processor (1985) 2 Word Processor DOS

The Brown Bag Word Processor was an inexpensive word processor that offered features comparable to more expensive programs. It is essentially an OEM licensed version of Quicksoft's PC-Write with a different user interface. Formatting is done using "dot" commands and it includes a mail-merge module.

• 2.x

BULL Micral Prologue (1984) 0 DOS

BULL Micral Prologue system for the Olympia People Computer.

• 2.x

Cache86 (1990) 0 Utility DOS

Cache86 is a high speed disk caching program for DOS and Windows 3.x systems. It features a very small conventional memory overhead, speed, reliability, support for Extended memory on 286+ machines, and support for Expanded memory on PC/XT class machines.

• 3.x

Calendar Creator Plus (1990) 5 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)

Carbon Copy (1990) 2 Utility DOS

Carbon Copy is a remote control desktop program for DOS and later Windows, similar to PCAnywhere. protection. You can not connect to other copies of Carbon Copy if the serial numbers are the same.

• 5.x

Cellular Automata Lab (1989) 1 Novelty DOS

Cellular Automata Lab is a powerful commercial scientific mathematical program for working with and exploring Cellular Automata, a system where individual mathematical elements grow, spread, and die based on a set of rules (like the old BASIC "Life" programs). This software provides functionality to create custom sets of rules. Although it had some potential applications, this specific product is more of a novelty, similar to fractal generators. It was published by Autodesk during a period of experimental exploration in to new scientific applications.

• 1.0

Central Point Anti-Virus (1992) 3 Utility DOS

Central Point Anti-Virus was a DOS-based antivirus program developed originally by an Israel company, CARMEL Software Engineering Ltd. as "Turbo Anti-Virus", and licensed by Central Point Software Inc. It was the basis for Microsoft's Anti-Virus for DOS and Windows (MSAV and MWAV). In 1994 it was acquired by Symantec Corporation and merged into Norton Antivirus.

• 1.x

Change Directory Plus (1993) 0 Utility DOS

Change Directory Plus is a small commercial utility distributed with Softdisk publishing's Big Blue Disk magazine. It indexes all folders on your hard drive, and permits you to change in to a deep subdirectory simply by specifying the final subdirectories name.

• 1.x

Chart-Master (1985) 4 Presentations Graphics DOS

Chart-Master, originally introduced in 1981 by Decision Resources, Inc., was the first software that could produce presentation quality graphics with a plotter on a personal computer. Decision Resources also produced Sign-Master and Diagram-Master. They were acquired by Ashton-Tate in 1986. This program was also bundled in the Master Graphics Presentation Pack.

• 6.x

Colorado Backup (1996) 1 Utility DOS Windows

Colorado Backup is the software provided with HP Colorado tape drives.

• Set
• 4.x for DOS

Comic Book Creator (1991) 1 Novelty DOS

Comic Book Creator is a graphics program that enables the user to quickly create customized comic strips based on a small predefined set of clip art and backgrounds.

• 1.x

Company Ladder (1990) 2 Presentations DOS

Company Ladder is a budget oriented tool that specialized in making corporate organizational charts. It could handle large numbers of entries and print high quality graphs.

• 1.x