This is a wide and variant collection of CD-ROM based software, that is, software that came on a CD-ROM for installation on computers, or played in consoles. Ranging from applications and games to gatherings of public-domain software or clip art, the heyday of the CD-ROM is roughly 1989 to 2001. In all cases, the capacity of the CD-ROM stayed steady at 640-700mb a side, although some used tricks to claim they had more (due to compression, or adding up both sides of two-sided CD-ROMs).

Most are in .ISO format, which can be read as if it were a plastic CD-ROM by most operating systems. They can also be burned onto read-write CD-ROMs.