POWER-CHOICE
A menu system for MS-DOS by Olaf Gottschalk, 1989–1994. Running here in DOSBox, in your browser. The full story is in the repository.
Version 1.0e (1990)
Softwhere Associates, Evanston, Wyoming. English, Turbo Pascal 5.5, rebuilt from the original source in 2026.
- ↑↓ choose, Enter open or run, Tab back
- Desktop Publishing Group holds the programs of the 1990 flyer; Ventura asks for its password, VENT
- F1 Program Info, F2 Edit Mode
- Esc to DOS, then type PCH to come back
- The original installer is on drive A: (PCHINST)
- The 1990 User's Guide explains the rest
Version 3.1 (1993)
Bartels Computer Systeme. German, Turbo Pascal 6.0 with Turbo Vision, the original 1993 program.
- Menus with Alt+the red letter, or the mouse
- F1 Hilfe, F2 Editmodus, F4 DOS-Shell
- Tools → Tetris: ←→ move, ↑ rotate, ↓ drop
- Alt+X ends, PCH restarts
- Leave it alone for a minute: the screen saver switches the screen off, any key wakes it
Choose a version above, then click into the screen. On a Mac, the function keys may need fn. The word processors and spreadsheets of the time are not included: the menu entries start small stand-in programs instead, so you can see Power-Choice step aside, its resident clock run on top of another program, and the menu come back. In 3.1 the screen saver starts after one minute instead of the original five. 1.0e starts with the DOS clock set to 18 May 1990, the day of the screenshot on the original flyer.
AS SEEN ON TV… ALMOST
Softwhere Associates never ran a TV commercial, so in 2026 Power-Choice got one anyway: a homage in the style of 1990, with the slogans of the original flyer. The phone number is fictional.