Richman's Word Processor with "Column 80"

[Fletch]

I was going through more of my stuff and found a word processor I used in high school called Richman's Word Processor with "Column 80" by Computer Software Services.

 

I remember using this in its full 80 column capacity on my stock 800XL, but when I try to boot it these days it tells me I do not have ram for 80 columns.

 

I know I have the manual someplace, but after ripping apart half the basement I have no idea where it is these days. DOes anyone have this program that can give me some hints to what I need to do differently?

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Fletch

[+David_P]

Boot holding down option? I seem to recall it requires BASIC disabled.

[Fletch]

I tried that Dave, but thanks for the tip.

 

I emailed Bob Puff and he conveniently still has copies of the manual lying about. He's going to send me one. What a guy!

 

Fletch

 

Boot holding down option? I seem to recall it requires BASIC disabled.

[carmel_andrews]

I've heard of this WP, i think Computerhouse used to market/import it....didn't buy it though

Edited May 29, 2009 by carmel_andrews

[deathtrappomegranate]

I have that program, and the manual, although both are currently in a crate somewhere after a recent house move.

[flashjazzcat]

Would love to have a look at that program.

[Fletch]

Would love to have a look at that program.

 

 

If and when I get the manual and figure it out, I'll be happy to share it with you.

Edited May 30, 2009 by Fletch

[Fletch]

Bob Puff sent me a copy of the manual this week! Turns out I needed to boot from Side B of disk first. Why did I never think of that?

 

Regardless, I did my best to get a couple of screen captures. Taking a picture of a CRT has its usual horrible results, but you'll get the idea.

 

 

 

Fletch

Edited June 6, 2009 by Fletch

[+David_P]

I seem to recall that the disks for Richman's were reproduced so even the BitWriter could not copy them; is there a dump at AtariMania?

Edited June 6, 2009 by David_P

[flashjazzcat]

Bob Puff sent me a copy of the manual this week! Turns out I needed to boot from Side B of disk first. Why did I never think of that?

 

Regardless, I did my best to get a couple of screen captures. Taking a picture of a CRT has its usual horrible results, but you'll get the idea.

Looks great! I'd love to have a look at this software, if it can possibly be uploaded somewhere. It would be interesting to compare its performance and features with The Last Word.

[Fletch]

You are right about being heavily protected. I wanted to use a backup copy so I could store the original, but my Happy 810 could not copy it. In fact on the 1st page of the manual it tells you as such.

 

 

I seem to recall that the disks for Richman's were reproduced so even the BitWriter could not copy them; is there a dump at AtariMania?

[Fletch]

I scanned the Rich Man's instructions for someone today so I figured I'd share it. I never managed to back up the actual disk as my Happy 810 was unable to copy it. Maybe APE could turn it into a .PRO?

 

 

richman.pdf

[bbking67]

Do yopu have an idea when this was released? Judging by the manual it looks very early 80's.. but for me CSS was more late 80's.

[Fletch]

Do yopu have an idea when this was released? Judging by the manual it looks very early 80's.. but for me CSS was more late 80's.

The copyright is 1985 on my diskette.

[Fletch]

Looks like the fellow that wrote this has done pretty well for himself over the years : http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-rogalski/12/102/a58

[+Larry]

I talked to Puff about buying this around 1990. I told him that I wanted one that could be put on my hard drive (like some of the others). He said (almost quote) -- then you wouldn't like Richman's; it is really heavily protected. I'm not surprised that you couldn't copy it with a Happy Drive, and I'd be willing to bet that a Super Archiver couldn't touch it, either. But the screen shots do look quite legible for a software 80-col.

 

-Larry

[flashjazzcat]

I remember when TextPro (i.e. much augmented Speedscript) came out, they made a big deal of the fact you could install the program on a hard disk quit to DOS. This was quite a killer feature back in the day.

[kogden]

Sadly, this actually looks like a pretty cool package. Fortunately, TheLastWord is more full-featured and FJC didn't infest his program with crippling DRM or copy protection. If I just want a nostalgia kick, I have AtariWriter Plus. It's what I grew up with anyway. Unless someone gets bored enough to crack it, Richman's will simply fade away eventually.

 

Modern DRM is the reason I don't buy new games. I don't appreciate being treated like a criminal when I shell out $50 to $100. I can get a better product from a certain bay with none of those restrictions.

 

Although speaking of stuff that could use cracking.... an XEX version of Visicalc would be cool. I have an XEX version of SynCalc but it blows up if I try to save anything.

Edited October 4, 2014 by kogden

[_The Doctor__]

The disk were created using an IBM pc at the time with special formatting software... If someone scours around enough... I think another piece of software used the same method of copy protection was cracked accordingly... Bob might remember if you jog his memory with that little tidbit of info.

[themrfreeze]

Bob didn't buy CSS from Ron until 1991, so Richman's pre-dates his ownership of the company. I do remember one copy protection technique involved carefully scraping off a small area of the magnetic coating on a floppy disk, fairly close to the hub. A special software program then read the disk, found the location of the small damaged area (which would obviously be slightly different for each disk), then wrote the program to the disk in such a way that if that small area wasn't in the right location, the software would not load. I don't remember which program(s) this was done for, but it seems to me that we didn't make a whole lot of those disks.

[+wood_jl]

CSS sold "Happy-like" devices, yet sold a word processor that couldn't be "backed-up?" Who knew?

[kogden]

Treating users like criminals is bad business. It's too bad that these days when sales go down due to DRM/copy protection, the software vendors still try to blame piracy.

 

I quit buying modern games for good reason. PC gaming is dying due to DRM, not lack of interest. Last game I bought was IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, and I still had to crack it after buying it. Pathetic.

[Kyle22]

I thought it was a small laser burned or punched hole.

[Kyle22]

The more I think about this, I vaguely remember cracking that, a Long time ago. Can someone make an ATR of it and post it here? It may be as simple as using a hex editor to remove the offending segment in the binary file.

Edited October 19, 2014 by Kyle22

[Kyle22]

The more I think about this, I vaguely remember cracking that, a Long time ago. Can someone make an ATR of it and post it here? It may be as simple as using a hex editor to remove the offending segment in the binary file.

BUMP Quoting myself again... Can someone please provide an image of a sector copy (even if it includes bad sectors)? I really want to crack this (again).

 

Thanks.