Blog: Pete Loshin

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Universal Database of Software Titles

Remember way back when you first started to use a computer? Maybe you were just a kid, fooling around with a TRS-80 or Apple ][ or Commodore or whatever. Did you have a favorite program? If you've ever had a yen to show your kids what it was like back in the day, or just felt a little nostalgic about the old times, you just might be able to track it down--if you're lucky.

The good news is that many of these old programs and platforms can be replicated on modern computers, so the original installation disks may still useable. Of course, you won't get any support from the publishers, but worse news is that many of these old programs are in a legal limbo: originally published under proprietary licenses by companies that have been acquired, sold, or liquidated after going bankrupt.

The Software Internet Database (SoftwareIDB) is a very cool idea. Their mission is:

"...to compile the largest database of software titles and credits on the Internet. This includes all types of software such as operating systems, security, financial, mapping, browsers, video editing, games, word processing, and more."

Unfortunately, it's still very early days here: they've got fewer than 400 entries so far, and many of them are little more than placeholders.

For now, you're still better off googling for your old faves. Fortunately, just about every obsolete platform seems to have fans, and many of those fans happily build software emulators and simulators for those platforms. If you're looking for a particular platform/program combination, just google for it; or else search on "[platform] emulation" or "[platform] simulation".

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