HomePak, published in 1984 by Batteries Included, is an integrated application written for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

and ported to the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

Commodore 128 The Commodore 128, also known as the C128, C-128, C= 128,The "C=" represents the graphical part of the logo. is the last 8-bit home computer that was commercially released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM). Introduced in January 1985 at the ...

IBM PCjr The IBM PCjr (pronounced "PC junior") was a home computer produced and marketed by IBM from March 1984 to May 1985, intended as a lower-cost variant of the IBM PC with hardware capabilities better suited for video games, in order to compete mor ...

, and

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

. It includes a word processor (HomeText), database (HomeFind), and terminal communications program (HomeTerm). HomePak was designed by

Russ Wetmore Russ Wetmore is an American computer programmer and video game designer best known for writing commercial games and applications for the Atari 8-bit family in the early to mid 1980s. His ''Frogger''-inspired '' Preppie!'' was published by Adventu ...

(who previously wrote the game '' Preppie!'') for Star Systems Software, Inc. The Commodore 128 version was ported by Sean M. Puckett and Scott S. Smith. The Atari 8-bit version of HomePak is implemented in the Action! programming language from

Optimized Systems Software Optimized Systems Software (OSS) was a company that produced disk operating systems, programming languages with integrated development environments, and applications primarily for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. OSS was best known fo ...

Reception

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 198 ...

'' warned "don't expect more than you pay for", stating that while HomeText was "quite nice" and HomeTerm was "wonderful," HomeFile was "very disappointing. Anyone who needs to use the

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

for even a mildly sophisticated operation will be frustrated and confused ... a total mess". In a review of the HomeTerm portion of the package, Ron Luks wrote in a 1984 review for ''

ANALOG Computing ''ANALOG Computing'' (an acronym for Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games) was an American computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was published from 1981 until 1989. In addition to reviews and tutorials, ''ANAL ...

'', "A superb terminal program is rare indeed, but in my collection of over two dozen Atari terminal programs, I have two or three that meet the "superb" criteria. Only one, however, can be the best. Hometerm is, quite simply, the best." In a 1986 ''

Page 6 ''Page 6'' (subtitled ''Atari Users Magazine'' and later known as ''Page 6 Atari User'', then ''New Atari User'') was an independent British publication aimed at users of Atari home computers. It was published between 1982 and 1998. The magazi ...

'' review, the author had technical problems using HomeTerm in the UK. He called HomeFind, "elegant, friendly and very easy to use," and wrote that HomeText, "might even tempt me away from my trusty old

Atariwriter AtariWriter is a word processor program for the Atari 8-bit family released by Atari as a 16 kB ROM cartridge in 1983. The program was fast and easy to use, while still allowing the creation of fairly complex documents. It was a huge success ...

Legacy

With Sparky Starks, Wetmore co-authored a similarly-styled Atari 8-bit application called HomeCard. It was advertised as an "electronic filing box" and "intelligent

Rolodex A Rolodex is a rotating card file device used to store business contact information. Its name, a portmanteau of the words ''rolling'' and ''index'', has become somewhat genericized (usually as ''rolodex'') for any personal organizer performing thi ...

." HomeCard was published by

Antic Software Antic Software was a software company associated with ''Antic'', a magazine for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Bound into issues of the magazine, the Antic Software catalog initially sold Atari 8-bit games, applications, and utilities from t ...

in 1985, not Batteries Included.

References

Word processors Apple II software Atari 8-bit family software Commodore 64 software 1984 software {{WordProcessor-stub