The Office Suite That Preceded Microsoft Office
PFS: First Choice is not a game – and that is worth acknowledging upfront. It is a piece of software history that deserves to be remembered, an integrated office suite that predates Microsoft Office and represents an important chapter in the evolution of personal computing productivity tools. If you stumbled upon this page on a classic gaming site, that is because the Internet Archive preserves all kinds of software history – and sometimes the most interesting discoveries are the programs people actually used to get things done.
About This Classic
PFS: First Choice, published by Software Publishing Corporation (SPC), was one of the earliest integrated software packages for IBM-compatible PCs. Released in the mid-1980s – this version 1.025 dates to around 1986 – it bundled a word processor, spreadsheet, database, and communications module into a single program that fit on a handful of floppy disks. At a time when the dominant office software (WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE) were sold as separate, expensive programs with wildly different interfaces, First Choice offered a unified experience at a fraction of the cost.
SPC was founded in 1980 by Fred Gibbons and John Page, and the company’s “PFS” line (originally standing for “Personal Filing System,” though later marketing dropped the acronym) became one of the best-selling software brands of the early PC era. PFS:File, a flat-file database program, was the company’s flagship product. First Choice was designed as a more accessible, all-in-one alternative for home users and small businesses who could not justify the cost and complexity of multiple standalone professional applications.
Features and Design Philosophy
First Choice was built around the idea that ordinary people, not just trained office workers, should be able to use a computer productively. Its interface used a menu-driven system rather than the command-line interfaces common in professional software of the era. Every function was accessible through numbered menu options and clearly labeled function keys, making it possible to learn the entire program without a manual – a radical concept in 1986.
The word processor supported basic formatting, headers and footers, and mail merge. The spreadsheet could handle tables up to 256 rows and cost analysis formulas. The database module could store and search records with a query-by-example interface that was genuinely friendlier than anything Microsoft or Lotus offered. And the communications module could connect to bulletin board systems and early online services via modem – the pre-Internet web, accessible from your PC.
Historical Context
In the mid-1980s, the business software market was fragmented and expensive. WordPerfect cost $495. Lotus 1-2-3 cost $495. dBASE III cost $695. A business that wanted all three was looking at nearly $1,700 in software costs – equivalent to over $4,500 in 2025 dollars. First Choice bundled equivalent (if less powerful) functionality for around $149, making it one of the great democratizing products of the early PC era.
SPC’s success did not last forever. The rise of Windows and Microsoft Office in the early 1990s – combined with aggressive bundling deals on new PCs – gradually squeezed out smaller office suite competitors. SPC was eventually acquired by Spinnaker Software, and the PFS brand faded from the market. But for several years in the late 1980s, PFS: First Choice was the smart money choice for anyone buying their first PC.
Why It Matters
Software preservation is about more than just games. The programs people used to write letters, balance checkbooks, manage small businesses, and connect to early online communities tell a story just as important as any video game. PFS: First Choice represents a moment when the personal computer genuinely started to become personal – when software for “regular people” began to prioritize usability and affordability over feature checklists and corporate sales cycles.
Loading this program in a browser-based DOSBox emulator gives you a window into what computing felt like before the graphical user interface became universal – when every program had its own way of doing things, and mastering a piece of software felt like learning a secret language. For those curious about the pre-Windows, pre-Internet world of personal computing, spending a few minutes with First Choice is genuinely illuminating.