Alan Alda and Atariwriter

"I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a letter..."

Atari released the AtariWriter word processor in 1982 for their line of 8-bit computers. It was created by William Robinson. When he was 15, Robinson wrote a word processor named Text Wizard. (To disguise his age, Robinson listed his name as “Dr. William Robinson” on the title screen.) After his previous publishing deal ended, Robinson took it to Atari. After some rewrites, it was published under the new name.

Robinson snuck an Easter Egg into the application, so his name would appear when a “certain combination of joystick inputs were entered”. Atari found out and sued Robinson. They settled out of court and removed the Easter Egg. However, a few copies of the original version still exist.

AtariProtos.com said the follow about AtariWriter:

Although it may not look like much today, in its prime AtariWriter was a powerful word processor. While we take word processors for granted today, it wasn't long ago when they were considered a luxury item that only the rich could afford. Atari succeeded in its goal to bring a low cost, easy to use word processor to the masses, and the 8-bit world was never the same again.

The October 1983 issue of Creative Computing had the following review:

My overall impression of Atari Writer is positive. It has good error trapping, is very easy to use and understand, and can be used with the cassette recorder. Powerful features like file merging and chain printing are supported. The Print Preview function is a unique and useful method of overcoming the limitations of a 40-column screen.

Nevertheless, this word processor needs a printer driver. Without it, AtariWriter is only teh best Atari product to be released in a long time. With a printer driver, AtariWriter will be the best Atari word processor for the majority of Atari computer owners.

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