The best abandonware applications

Abandonware DOS is not only about games. Some of the most fondly remembered software for old PCs is an application. These applications, both for DOS and early versions of Windows, played pivotal roles in shaping the personal computing landscape. They introduced users to various productivity tools, multimedia experiences, and the potential of GUI-based interfaces.

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PKzip

DOS1989protected utility

Turbo Prolog 2.0

DOS1986protected programming

Impulse Tracker

DOS1995freeware sound software

Impulse Tracker was a popular music tracker software developed by Jeffrey Lim in the late 1990s. Impulse Tracker utilized a tracker-style user interface, which was common in the demoscene and among enthusiasts of chiptune and electronic music. The interface is characterized by a grid of rows and columns where users input note and instrument da...

Rawcopy

DOS1992 utility, gaming software

GW-BASIC 3

DOS1988 programming

GW-BASIC (short for Gee Whiz BASIC) is a dialect of the BASIC programming language that was developed by Microsoft. It's one of the early implementations of BASIC and was included as the default programming environment in early versions of the MS-DOS operating system.GW-BASIC was initially released with MS-DOS 2.0 in 1983. Subsequent versions of MS...

Word Perfect 5

DOS1989 word processor

Borland Turbo Pascal 2.0

DOS1983 programming

Borland Paradox 4.5

DOSWindows XP/98/951993 database

Borland Turbo Pascal 1.0

DOS1983 programming

Dungeon Master's Assistant Vol 1

DOS1988protected gaming software

Microsoft Cobol

DOS1982 programming

PC Paintbrush

DOS1984 graphics editor

Virtual Reality Studio

DOS1991 gaming software

Volkswriter 3

DOS1982 word processor

WinFrotz

Windows XP/98/952002freeware gaming software

Norton Desktop

DOS1992 utility

Adventure Game Studio (AGS)

Windows 10/11LinuxMac OS1997freeware gaming software

Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is a software development tool that enables users to create point-and-click adventure games. It was originally created by Chris Jones and has been used by game developers to produce a variety of 2D adventure games. AGS provides a scripting language, a visual editor, and various other tools to simplify the game developmen...

Borland Eureka: the Solver

DOS1987 programming

Borland Eureka: the Solver is an abandoned text-based application developed by Borland Software Corporation and released in 1987 for DOS. The product is designed to solve complex problems, generate tables and plots, and perform what-if analysis. The user writes an equation, sets options, and instructs the software to solve the problem. The pro...

IBM Assistant 2.0

DOS1986 word processor, spreadsheet, utility

Quattro Pro v4

DOS1991 spreadsheet

Borland Turbo Pascal 3.0

DOS1986 programming

Norton Commander 1.0

DOS1986 file management

Norton Commander was a file manager and editor application released by Peter Norton Computing for DOS. Norton Commander used a text-based user interface with side-by-side panels and featured copy, delete, editing and preview any kind of file easily: it was an improvement over the command-line only MS-DOS interface. Norton Commander 1.0 was fir...

Arachne WWW

DOS1996freeware browser

Arachne is a graphical web browser for DOS. Arachne was developed by Michal Polák and released in the early 1990s as a text-mode web browser with limited graphical capabilities. Arachne allowed DOS users to browse the World Wide Web in a graphical, though quite basic, manner. It supported features such as displaying images, handling lin...

Netscape Navigator 4

Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x1997 browser

Netscape Navigator was one of the earliest web browsers that played a crucial role in popularizing the World Wide Web. It was developed by Netscape Communications Corporation and released in 1994. Netscape Navigator was among the first graphical web browsers that allowed users to navigate the internet using a graphical user interface rather than a ...

DeskMate

DOS1984 utility, spreadsheet, word processor

Deskmate is a software suite developed by Tandy Corporation that provided a graphical user interface (GUI) and a set of applications for personal computers. It was often bundled with Tandy's TRS-80 and Tandy 1000 series of computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s.Deskmate included various applications such as a word processor, spreadsheet, calen...