Hi! Great list, thanks! 😎
Btw, I created short clips of some of them..

* GeoClock
* Newtonian Motion
* STS ORBIT Plus (STSPlus)

That being said, I also covered a few for the Amiga platform.. 😀

Sorry, my GSM-snail-internet is far too slow for watching videos...

Re: STSORBIT - it's great, there would have been further updates, but the author (David H. Ransom, Jr.) died some years ago. There are lots of details to mention for different apps/authors (like "The World" by Robert L. Lloyd, sad story, too), but as usual: So many things (at present i'm in Win 3.1) - so little time...

Jo22 wrote:

...for the Amiga platform.. 😀

What is Amiga? A spanish girlfriend? A toaster? Ah yes, you probably mean "Amilo" (My Laptop is an Amilo) The only correct computer-historama is: -Zuse Z100 -The 1940s US-Machine Mark??? -Sharp MZ 700/800 -Sinclair Spectrum -Commodore 64 -PCs -Androids...

OK, joking aside: The list is long, but if you delete the trash & take only one version per app, it's suprisingly poco. I mean, apart from office-computers, they were used by NASA, at universities etc. long before the PC-era. I assumed to find much more, but i think the list is more or less complete. Maybe it has to do with poor hardware, especially complex maps = vector-graphics need power ...

The best at last: There is "Sky Travel" from Commodore, a *superb* planetarium for C64, could'nt find the date, but must be 1982-85. You need 10 min. for the settings and the app needs 5 min for computing 10 or 20 stars...

General P. Error wrote:

Re: STSORBIT - it's great, there would have been further updates, but the author (David H. Ransom, Jr.) died some years ago.
There are lots of details to mention for different apps/authors (like "The World" by Robert L. Lloyd, sad story, too), but as usual:
So many things (at present i'm in Win 3.1) - so little time...

Yes, I heard of this. In fact, a friend of our family was in contact with Dr. Ransom. His son told our friend about his passing. Very sad.
The program was written VB DOS, if I'm not mistaken. Too bad there never was an update for SVGA also (libraries for the compiler were available).
The program was very professional, despite its aforementioned "origin type". At one point, it was used on a laptop at MIR space station.

General P. Error wrote:

What is Amiga? A spanish girlfriend? A toaster? Ah yes, you probably mean "Amilo" (My Laptop is an Amilo) The only correct compu […]
Show full quote

Jo22 wrote:

...for the Amiga platform.. 😀

What is Amiga? A spanish girlfriend? A toaster? Ah yes, you probably mean "Amilo" (My Laptop is an Amilo) The only correct computer-historama is: -Zuse Z100 -The 1940s US-Machine Mark??? -Sharp MZ 700/800 -Sinclair Spectrum -Commodore 64 -PCs -Androids...

OK, joking aside: The list is long, but if you delete the trash & take only one version per app, it's suprisingly poco.
I mean, apart from office-computers, they were used by NASA, at universities etc. long before the PC-era. I assumed to find much more,
but i think the list is more or less complete. Maybe it has to do with poor hardware, especially complex maps = vector-graphics need power ...

Have a look down the list, my very first entry was for the MZ-700, which was about my first computer.
Before I got my 286, I used to play games for S-BASIC and BASIC 5510. And machine language, of course (check Defender).
Alas, today's retro community has little interest in anything non-Commodore,-Sinclair,-Atari. *sigh*
Reading all these retro articles about the 80s and 90s, I sometimes feel like I'm from an alternate reality or so, hah. 😊
That being said, the A1000 (and A2000 to some extend) was a good Personal Computer. It was functiona, expandablel and well-designed.
IMHO, the A500, A600 and other toy computer model were really hurting the platforms reputation, but also caused a lot of money to flow.
Personally, I'm rather interested in the OS (Kick 1.x, WB 1.x) of the system and the GUI applications it could run.

General P. Error wrote:

The best at last: There is "Sky Travel" from Commodore, a *suberb* planetarium for C64, could'nt find the date, but must be 1982-85.
You need 10 min. for the settings and the app needs 5 min for computing 10 or 20 stars...

Cool. Among my first astronomy programs was "Visible Solar System".

Hello, i would have edited the original list, but (dumbo!) General P. Error has lost his password. So this is the same as above more convenient as spreadsheet, plus 2 or 3 more apps and extra-column "Author", separator is ; (semicolon) ...

"Name";"Genre";"Author";"Publisher";"Year";"Notes"
"ACE - AstroSoft Computerized Ephemeris";"Astronomy";"Astrosoft";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1985;"opens DOSBox-folder"
"AST - Practical astronomy with your PC";"Astronomy";"Miley Levy";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1985;
"ASTRO - Athabasca University Micro Planetarium 2.02";"Astronomy";"Malcom Reeves";"Athabasca University";1992;
"ASTRONOMICAL DATA C2.0";"Astronomy";"Don Thayer";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"ASTRONOMY PROGRAM - PLAN_TARY DATA";"Astronomy";"Don Thayer";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1987;
"ASTROVIEW";"Astronomy";"Bill Collins";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1985;
"ASTROVU";"Astronomy";"unknown";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;
"Bird Dog Satellite Tracking Program";"Satellite";"Thomas C. Leadholm";"Environmental Research Inst. Michigan";1989;
"CELSPHER";"Astronomy";"unknown";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;
"COELI - An elecric planisphere 3.86";"Astronomy";"Roger Hughes";"Swimming Elk Software";1996;
"Dance of the Planets 2.0";"Astronomy";"Thomas R. Ligon";"A R C Software";1990;
"DEEP SPACE 1.3";"Astronomy";"David Chandler";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1987;
"Deep Space 3D 3.03";"Astronomy";"David Chandler";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1991;
"Deep Space 3D 4.01";"Astronomy";"David Chandler";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1994;
"Deep Space 5.56";"Astronomy";"David Chandler";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1998;
"Discover Space";"Astronomy";"unknown";"Broderbund";1993;
"Earth Watch 1.1";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1990;
"Earth Watch 1.2";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1990;
"Earth Watch 2.0 CGA";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1991;
"Earth Watch 2.0 VGA";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1991;
"Earth Watch 3.0 CGA";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1993;
"Earth Watch 3.0 VGA";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1993;
"Earth Watch 3.5 CGA";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1997;
"Earth Watch 3.5 VGA";"Sundial";"Lawrence A. Nagy Jr.";"ElanWare, Inc.";1997;
"EGASTARS";"Astronomy";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"ESAO Sky-Atlas 258997 V. 1.4";"Astronomy";"Tomi Heinonen";"Tomi Soft";1990;
"Expert Astronomer";"Astronomy";"Brian McMillin";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1992;
"Expert Travel Planner";"Geography";"unknown";"M & R Technologies";1992;
"Fastmap 1.1ec";"Geography";"Glen Okita";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1992;
"GeoChron 1.0";"Sundial";"GeoGraphics Software";"GeoGraphics Software";1986;"t max. = 1999"
"GeoClock 2.1";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"GeoClock 3.0";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"GeoClock 4.0";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"GeoClock 4.5";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1992;
"GeoClock 5.1";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1993;
"GeoClock 5.3";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1994;
"GeoClock 7.0";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1995;
"GeoClock 8.2";"Sundial";"Joseph R. Ahlgren";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1999;
"GEOVIEW";"Geography";"Dave Peckham";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;"uses MWDB-II"
"GPS CGA 2.7";"Geography";"Comacs Enterprises, Inc.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1997;
"Grand Tour 4.1";"Astronomy";"John D. Callahan";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";2003;
"GRAVITY 2.0 Gravitational Simulator";"Astronomy";"Steve Safarik";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;
"Makeplan V1.3";"Astronomy";"Bernard Czenkusz";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1993;"Part of STARPLOT"
"MapIt 1.0";"Geography";"John B. Allison";"Allison Software";1992;
"MapIt 1.2";"Astronomy";"John B. Allison";"Allison Software";1993;
"MapIt 1.4";"Geography";"John B. Allison";"Allison Software";1994;
"MapIt 2.0";"Geography";"John B. Allison";"Allison Software";1998;
"MapMaker 2.1";"Geography";"Paul R. Stayert";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1985;
"MAPPER - DX Mapping and HF Propagation Prediction";"Geography";"Dennis P. Murray";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1987;
"MAPVIEW 2.0";"Geography";"Gisbert W. Selke";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;"part of S.W.I.V.E.L."
"MIRAPLA - The Sky in a PC";"Astronomy";"Di Fausto Balardini e Fabio Cavicchio";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1997;
"MWDB II - Micro World Database";"Geography";"Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)";"Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)";1986;"opens DOSBox-folder"
"Ortographic Earth View";"Geography";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1992;
"PC Globe 3.5";"Geography";"PC Globe Inc.";"PC Globe Inc.";1990;"Full-version = $ 89.-"
"Planetarium";"Astronomy";"Bruce G. Warr";"Plain Vanilla Software (?)";1991;
"Planetarium V 6.1";"Astronomy";"Christian Nüsch";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1994;
"PLANETS 1.0";"Astronomy";"Larry Puhl";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1985;
"Planets 1.10";"Astronomy";"Terry Swanets";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"PLANETS 3.2";"Astronomy";"Larry Puhl";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1986;
"PLANETS 3.4";"Astronomy";"Larry Puhl";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1987;
"SEESTARS";"Astronomy";"William N. Tavolga";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;"CSTARDEM"
"Silicon Sky 1.0";"Astronomy";"Larry Adkins";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"Silicon Sky 2.0";"Astronomy";"Larry Adkins";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"SKY Planetarium 1.21p";"Astronomy";"Howard J. Dutton";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"SKY Planetarium 2.1";"Astronomy";"Howard J. Dutton";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;"Starts as: SKY VIEW"
"SKY Planetarium 2.2r";"Astronomy";"Howard J. Dutton";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1992;
"Sky View 1.15d";"Astronomy";"Jeffrey Sax";"Digital Technology Art";1994;
"SKYASCII";"Astronomy";"unknown";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1986;"Fragment, anon, downloaded as: Skyplot"
"SkyBase 2000.0 SkyChart V4.1";"Astronomy";"Logan R. Zintsmaster";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"SkyGlobe 1.1";"Astronomy";"Mark A. Haney";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"SkyGlobe 2.0";"Astronomy";"Mark A. Haney";"KlassM Software";1990;
"SkyGlobe 2.5";"Astronomy";"Mark A. Haney";"KlassM Software";1991;
"SkyGlobe 3.1";"Astronomy";"Mark A. Haney";"KlassM Software";1992;
"SkyGlobe 3.52";"Astronomy";"Mark A. Haney";"KlassM Software";1992;
"SkyGlobe 3.6";"Astronomy";"Mark A. Haney";"KlassM Software";1994;"Thank you for registering"
"Skymap 2.36";"Astronomy";"Stephen C. Bryant";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1998;
"SKYPLOT - the Planetarium Simulator";"Astronomy";"Gerald M. Santoro";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1985;
"SKYPLOT - the Planetarium Simulator Version 2.0";"Astronomy";"Gerald M. Santoro";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1987;
"SOLARPIX";"Astronomy";"unknown";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;
"Star Atlas 2000.0";"Astronomy";"P. Pääkkönen";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1993;
"Star View 2.0.08";"Astronomy";"Brian McMillin";"Digi-Tech Consultants (?)";1988;
"STARPLOT 2.0";"Astronomy";"Bernard Czenkusz";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1993;"Belongs to: Makeplan"
"Starry Nights v. 5.0";"Astronomy";"Rob Crockett";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"Starry Nights v. 6.2";"Astronomy";"Rob Crockett";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1991;
"STARS 1.5 - Star Almanac, Star Finder and Plotter";"Astronomy";"John Lovell";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"StarSide 2.3";"Astronomy";"unknown";"Virtual Srket Technology (?)";1990;
"STARWAYS - Galaxy Simulator";"Astronomy";"Alessandro Ghignola";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";2003;
"STSORBIT 8919";"Satellite";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"STSORBIT 9122A";"Satellite";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1991;
"STSORBIT PLUS 0223";"Satellite";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";2002;
"STSORBIT PLUS 9517";"Satellite";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1995;
"STSORBIT PLUS 9748";"Satellite";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1997;
"SWIFT PC ATLAS 4.0";"Geography";"Raymond C. and Zinda R. Hogue";"COSMI";1992;
"SWIVEL";"Geography";"Gisbert W. Selke";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;"simpleworldinteractiveviewingenhancedlibrary"
"Telescope 1.0";"Astronomy";"Gregg G. Seipp";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;
"Tellstar 1.03";"Astronomy";"Scharf Software Systems, Inc.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1984;
"TerraTime 2.1";"Sundial";"GeoGraphics Software";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1988;"t max. = 1999, old name = GeoChron"
"The Big Blue Skies Planetarium 1.2";"Astronomy";"Ichiroh Sasaki";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;
"The Electric Astrolabe";"Astronomy";"Janus";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";2000;
"THE NIGHT SKY 2.07";"Astronomy";"A. C. Stevely";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1990;
"The World 1.0";"Geography";"Robert L. Lloyd";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1985;
"The World 2.0";"Geography";"Robert L. Lloyd";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1986;
"The World 2.6";"Geography";"Robert L. Lloyd";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1987;
"The World 2.71";"Geography";"Robert L. Lloyd";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1987;
"The World 2.9";"Geography";"Robert L. Lloyd";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"The World 2.97H";"Geography";"Robert L. Lloyd";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1993;
"VersaMap 1.1";"Geography";"Charles H. Culberson";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1991;"uses MWDB-II"
"VersaMap 1.4";"Geography";"Charles H. Culberson";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1994;"uses MWDB-II"
"VersaMap 1.5";"Geography";"Charles H. Culberson";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1995;"uses MWDB-II"
"VGASTARS";"Astronomy";"David H. Ransom, Jr.";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1989;
"Visible Universe";"Astronomy";"Parsec Software";"Parsec Software";1995;
"Voyage to the Planet Earth";"Geography";"WWW Software";"BBS, CD, Free- or Shareware";1993;
"WCD - World City Distance Computer V3.0";"Geography";"GeoGraphics Software";"GeoGraphics Software";1988;
"WORLDVU 1.2";"Geography";"Technical Solutions";"Technical Solutions";1992;

To run the older ones at realistic '80s speed, you have to set cycles=100 or 200. In some cases standard calculation times (with/without 8087) are stated in the manual. The excellent "ASTRONOMY PROGRAM - PLAN_TARY DATA" is really called "PLANTARY DATA", but i can assure that is has nothing to do with plants. Possibly the author was in a rush. MWDB-II is the PD-version of MWDB - the first public world-geo-database ever published and used until today in apps like "Marble Desktop Globe".

All above is what i found for DOS.
---
There's a brand-new OS that was recently introduced by a company called "Microsoft". It is called "Windows". Win 3.1 mapping-fans may want to search for "NextBase" on winworld and "DeLorme" and "Rand McNally" on archive (this is no links = no need to delete them!). One can google some more for Win 3.1, in particular astronomy.

The (sincerely!) very best (for DOS and Win 3.1) is SkyGlobe. There are div. extra-datafiles in www with +140.000 stars. If you get a 3.1 copy (now freeware), make sure it is the last = only stable version = 2.02 (the Wikipedia entry is incorrect):

The (imho) most exotic is this:

(a random google booty from 2 or 3 years ago, can't find it no more) ...
---
edit: I've deleted all my DOS-crap

I've got a Polish astronomy program - Urania, from 1996, sold commercially.
Back then Pluto was still considered a planet, and - as you can see - the available photos were very low-res, that was long before the New Horizons mission...

Thanks for Urania, maybe i can dig a copy from some archive (and polish up my polish).

More history: Starting in the late 1980s until today (now online only) CIA (the real US agency) publishes "The World Factbook", a kind of atlas / almanach. There are DOS-versions (e.g. on simtel) which are a little boring = plain text. On archive i've just found a number of CDs (search "factbook" restricted to "software") etc. The 1992 release is 100% crap, but it's got maps (wow!) and works in DOS and Win3.1 (separate apps). First fact i came across is that "Germany is slightly smaller than Montana". This gives a completely new perspective...

edit: I've deleted all this trash.