Podcast: Download

This episode features Rich Man’s 80 Column Word Processor, originally released in 1985 by Computer Software Services (CSS).  It was written by Mark Rogalski.

Supplement Scans

Unknown packaging and no scans or pictures available.

 

RM80CWP in Action

Booting

The program requires 52K of memory, so an XL or XE is needed.   XL and XE computers should boot side B first.  This is the error if there is not enough memory present, or if you boot side A directly on an XL or XE:

 

XL and XE boot, side B complete:

 

Main Menu:

 

Functions

Edit

Create takes you to the editor.

This is the editor with the sample file loaded, captured via emulated Atari 800XL (without emulated artifacts):

 

 

Composite output video captured from physical Atari 130XE.  The artifacts appear worse on the capture device than on an actual display device:

 

S-Video output video captured from physical Atari 130XE.  The output from the capture device here are very very close to the actual display device (stay away from composite out):

 

This will work from Atari 400 and 800 computers with 48K, only if CSS “The Impossible” is installed to yield 52K free:

 

Load

Simply enter the filename.  If there is a document in memory, you are prompted to overwrite:

 

Save

Enter the filename to save as:

 

Confirm overwrite if file already exists:

 

View

View the formatted output before printing.  This is an estimate and only shows 77 columns:

 

Print

Normally the output just goes to the printer, unless there is an error:

 

Alternate Output

Enter the filename to print to:

 

The output is formatted and sent to the file in plain ASCII:

 

 

Give Memory Statistics

This gives some statistics about the text.  It shows the bytes used, bytes free, number of words in file, and number of lines in file:

 

Dir 1 to 4

Press the number of the drive you want a directory of:

 

Delete

Enter the name of the file you want to delete, and confirm:

 

Rename

Enter source file name, followed by new (destination) file name:

 

Init

Initializing a disk.  Specify which drive and confirm:

 

Help

The help screen is displayed nicely:

 

 

Files

Contents

RM80CWP appears to use Atari DOS 2.0.  The disk is heavily copy protected.  The number of free sectors is a lie.  The contents of the disk can be seen in this screenshot:

The files are:

• DOS.SYS is Atari DOS.
• DRIVECRE.ATE is the program used to create a print driver configuration (CDS file).  There are 3 sectors reserved for it on the disk.
• AUTORUN.SYS is the program file.
• EXAMPLE.TXT is the sample text file.

 

Printing

Sample file output on Epson:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/s2e19-prt-print.pdf

Instructions

Scanned Quick Reference Card:

https://inverseatascii.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/richmansquikrefcard.pdf

Show Links:

• New Life Electronics CSS History: http://www.nleaudio.com/css/products/history.htm

 

Intro music is an excerpt from a chip tune by Wizwars named 8 Bit Raceway.  It is used under Creative Common license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States.