3 ms·

I’m also suspicious of this. IIRC, our primary reason to get a Z80 card was to run WordStar. We had a very active piracy club in the early 80s with easily a th

I’m also suspicious of this. IIRC, our primary reason to get a Z80 card was to run WordStar. We had a very active piracy club in the early 80s with easily a thousand floppies and I don’t recall ever hearing about a native 6502 WordStar. (We met every Sunday at the local school cafeteria.)

js2 3y ago
Ditto. I'm fairly confident it's a mistake in the article.
- BirAdam 3y ago
  Author here. That was added after a comment by de Jong. Edit: specifically he stated “the genius Rob Barnaby had written WordStar entirely in Z80 assembler which was then cross assembled into 6502 Assembler for the early Apple computers.”
  - js2 3y ago
    I was only maybe 9 when my dad brought home an Apple II, but I grew up on that machine. It was a completely maxed out Apple II. Upgraded to a II+, Z/80 softcard, 16k language card, 80 column card, enhanced keyboard, modem, dual disk II drives, etc. I had a ton of software, both purchased and acquired through other means. If there was a native WordStar for the Apple II, I find it hard to believe it would have escaped my notice. I certainly would have remembered it. None of the other commenters here recollect it either. No trace of it can be found on any Apple II archives on the net. WordStar was semi-famous for being the reason people bought the Z/80 softcard (that and dBase). I know it's the only reason my Apple II had a Z/80 card in it. If there were a native Apple II WordStar, they'd have been little reason to buy that card for many people. No mention of it here which also cites de Jong and Barnaby: https://www.wordstar.org/index.php/wordstar-history https://www.wordstar.org/index.php/wordstar-history Here's a 1983 article about running WordStar on an Apple II: "WordStar requires a Z80 SoftCard" https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n3/81_Word_processing_on_the_Ap.php https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n3/81_Word_process... So maybe it existed but if so, I don't believe it ever saw the light of day. I'd love to be proven wrong.
    - BirAdam 3y ago
      I asked him. Hopefully he will respond.
      - js2 3y ago
        He replied but I honestly think he's misremembering and/or forgot about the Z/80 card that was needed to run WordStar on an Apple II. He doesn't really answer the question that you asked: > The 6502 CPU is the one that was used inside the early Apple computers. You added an 80 column card, and for a big discount and no service contract you had something that would replace the popular Wang word processing machine. The spreadsheet and word processor drove the computer revolution. https://open.substack.com/pub/abortretryfail/p/arrogant-difficult-powerful?r=2wyr7t&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=42087935 https://open.substack.com/pub/abortretryfail/p/arrogant-diff... I'm as confident as it's possible to be about 40 year old software that there was no WordStar for the Apple II that didn't require a Z/80 card (i.e., there was no native 6502 version.)
        BirAdam 3y ago
        I was able to find some reference to an Irish dev team that made the ports, but the 6502 port was scrapped in favor of CP/M-86. Brain dead move imo. I updated the article. Thank you for your corrections to the record :-) Edit: Actually just found more info, and it would appear that it was actually just the dual effort of 8086 dos and cpm that killed all efforts at 6502, and the team in Ireland were never tasked with it. So, it would seem that that port never get any further than Barnaby having run it through a cross assembler.

js2 3y ago

Ditto. I'm fairly confident it's a mistake in the article.

BirAdam 3y ago
Author here. That was added after a comment by de Jong. Edit: specifically he stated “the genius Rob Barnaby had written WordStar entirely in Z80 assembler which was then cross assembled into 6502 Assembler for the early Apple computers.”
- js2 3y ago
  I was only maybe 9 when my dad brought home an Apple II, but I grew up on that machine. It was a completely maxed out Apple II. Upgraded to a II+, Z/80 softcard, 16k language card, 80 column card, enhanced keyboard, modem, dual disk II drives, etc. I had a ton of software, both purchased and acquired through other means. If there was a native WordStar for the Apple II, I find it hard to believe it would have escaped my notice. I certainly would have remembered it. None of the other commenters here recollect it either. No trace of it can be found on any Apple II archives on the net. WordStar was semi-famous for being the reason people bought the Z/80 softcard (that and dBase). I know it's the only reason my Apple II had a Z/80 card in it. If there were a native Apple II WordStar, they'd have been little reason to buy that card for many people. No mention of it here which also cites de Jong and Barnaby: https://www.wordstar.org/index.php/wordstar-history https://www.wordstar.org/index.php/wordstar-history Here's a 1983 article about running WordStar on an Apple II: "WordStar requires a Z80 SoftCard" https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n3/81_Word_processing_on_the_Ap.php https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n3/81_Word_process... So maybe it existed but if so, I don't believe it ever saw the light of day. I'd love to be proven wrong.
  - BirAdam 3y ago
    I asked him. Hopefully he will respond.
    - js2 3y ago
      He replied but I honestly think he's misremembering and/or forgot about the Z/80 card that was needed to run WordStar on an Apple II. He doesn't really answer the question that you asked: > The 6502 CPU is the one that was used inside the early Apple computers. You added an 80 column card, and for a big discount and no service contract you had something that would replace the popular Wang word processing machine. The spreadsheet and word processor drove the computer revolution. https://open.substack.com/pub/abortretryfail/p/arrogant-difficult-powerful?r=2wyr7t&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=42087935 https://open.substack.com/pub/abortretryfail/p/arrogant-diff... I'm as confident as it's possible to be about 40 year old software that there was no WordStar for the Apple II that didn't require a Z/80 card (i.e., there was no native 6502 version.)
      - BirAdam 3y ago
        I was able to find some reference to an Irish dev team that made the ports, but the 6502 port was scrapped in favor of CP/M-86. Brain dead move imo. I updated the article. Thank you for your corrections to the record :-) Edit: Actually just found more info, and it would appear that it was actually just the dual effort of 8086 dos and cpm that killed all efforts at 6502, and the team in Ireland were never tasked with it. So, it would seem that that port never get any further than Barnaby having run it through a cross assembler.