Word: processors
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...story is developed as if it were written by an amuck word processor that somehow got plugged into a survey of the viewing preferences of videogame freaks. The characters are flatter than Pac-Man and Frogger, the action is all hand-eye coordination. The concluding aerial chase above downtown Los Angeles is full of searing flashes, but it is actually as unaffecting as a round of Missile Command. The real estate takes a beating, but not a single innocent bystander is harmed as the aircraft careers around skyscrapers. That, is perhaps the least of the many implausibilities Badham hustles...
...involved, and if so, or not, what it did, or did not do. In "A Case of Identity," Sherlock Holmes exposed the culprit by examining the faulty letters on typewritten notes. Holmes explained: "A typewriter has really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting." The word processor's criminal potential is probably infinite...
Result: the Bank Street Writer, a $69.95 computer program ($95 for the three-disc school package) that will turn an Apple, Atari or, by summer, Commodore computer into an uncomplicated word processor. Designed by Software Consultant Franklin Smith and a team of experts from Bank Street and Intentional Educations Inc., a software development firm in Watertown, Mass., the disc is not only changing the way some children hone their writing skills, it is also proving a commercial success. It is now the fourth fastest-selling word-processing program on the market, competing against such powerful bestsellers as WordStar ($495), Screenwriter...
Just as the computer is changing the way work is done in home offices, so it is revolutionizing the office. Routine tasks like managing payrolls and checking inventories have long since been turned over to computers, but now the typewriter is giving way to the word processor, and every office thus becomes part of a network. This change has barely begun; about 10% of the typewriters in the 500 largest industrial corporations have so far been replaced. But the economic imperatives are inescapable. All told, office professionals could save about 15% of their time if they used the technology...
...With 256 colors, four separate sound generators and built-in "missile graphics," the Ataris are the machines of choice for game players and game writers. The 800 has a keyboard suitable for touch typing, but writers would do well to look elsewhere for a first-rate word processor. Nearly 200,000 Atari 800s were shipped in 1982 and some 400,000 model 400s...