WordStar, originally from MicroPro, was a popular word processor during the early 80s. It was ported to a number of CP/M architectures as well as Unix and PC/MS-DOS. It competed directly against many word processors, including WordPerfect, Microsoft Word for DOS, and Multimate. By the late 80s most business word processing had moved to WordPerfect. In the early 90s, Microsoft Word for Windows took over.
Also see a history of WordStar: A Potted History of WordStar and some earlier 0.x versions at The WordStar Collection
Wanted: Pre-1.0 versions were sold publicly. WordStar 0.87 redump, WordStar 0.89, WordStar 0.91, WordStar 0.92, (Google results indicate these existed) WordStar 1.0. Early WordStar 2.0 releases were reported to be copy protected.
WordStar 3.3x was probably the most popular version. It was available for a large number of different architectures and operating systems.
Below are images for the IBM PC and Zenith Z-100. The Z-100 version is intended only for use on a Zenith Z-100/110/120 using Z-DOS or MS-DOS.
Note: On the MS-DOS version, WINSTALL will fail with a "Too little memory" error if more than 512K of ram is available. You can work around this with various programs to "hog" memory.
The manual appears to be machine-neutral. The source of the manual is Bitsavers.
Download name | Version | Language | Architecture | File size | Downloads |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
WordStar 3.30 (5.25) | 3.30 | English | 187.38KB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 Manuals | 3.30 | English | 12.68MB | 3 | |
WordStar 3.30 [Z-100] (5.25) | 3.30 | English | 76.74KB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 and CBASIC for NEC APC CPM (8-inch) | 3.30 and CBASIC for NEC APC CPM | English | 600.04KB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 for CPM-80 (files) | 3.30 for CPM-80 | English | 214.04KB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 for CPM-86 (5.25-320k) (alt) | 3.30 for CPM-86 | English | 86.46KB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 for CPM-86 (files) | 3.30 for CPM-86 | English | 211.96KB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 for CPM-86 [DEC Rainbow] (5.25-SSQD) | 3.30 for CPM-86 [DEC Rainbow] | English | 12.18MB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 for DOS [Sanyo MBC 550 OEM] (5.25-160k) | 3.30 for DOS [Sanyo MBC 550 OEM] | English | 135.35KB | 0 | |
WordStar 3.30 for NEC APC (8-inch) | 3.30 for NEC APC DOS | English | 376.5KB | 0 | |
WordStar Professional 3.31 for DOS (1985) (5.25-360k) | Professional 3.31 | English | 4.59MB | 1 |