Atlantis Word Processor, Trialpay & RealArcade GamePass

[Ohioguy]

I really like a word processor called "Atlantis" that I have used in
the past. (ok, a friend gave me a free copy, and I got used to using it,
but that copy doesn't work on Windows 7) I figured it is time for me to
buy my own full version anyway, and support the program authors. The
program is well designed, and very compact. It is also quite intuitive,
which is worth a lot to me.

So, I was about to spend $35 on the Atlantis word processor, but then
I noticed they had some offer called "trialpay", where you sign up for
an offer, and then once you have successfully done that, you get a full
download of a registered copy of Atlantis word processor.

I browsed the offers, and the only one that stood out was RealArcade
Gamepass. If you sign up for a 30 day free trial, you get a tetris
clone game, plus another game of your choice. Then, each month you pay
a $9.99 subscription fee, and in exchange you get to download a full
version game.

Now, I'm thinking, hmm. I was about to spend $35 for the full
version of Atlantis word processor. However, instead I can subscribe
for a couple of months, pay $10, and get 2 shareware games. I see that
"Plants vs Zombies" is on the list, and I was being tempted to register
that for $20 anyway.

So if I sign up for this, I end up spending $10 total for 2 months.
I get Plants vs Zombies for that $10, instead of paying $20 to register
it. Plus, I also get Atlantis, and another game.

Seems like a better deal, eh? However, I'm still on dialup, and
though many of the games seem small enough to download on dialup, I was
wanting to know if any of you have experience with RealArcade or Trialpay.

I'm afraid I'm going to start getting loads of junk mail from
trialpay or RealArcade. I'm also worried that the RealArcade download
manager, though it is a small download at about 600k, might either slow
my system down, be intrusive, or keep track of my browsing habits.
(spyware-like)

If anyone has any experience with either of these two programs, I
would appreciate it if you could post your thoughts here. Thanks!

[Al]

I have tested Atlantis several times including recently. I find that
the image processing is severely lacking compared to MSW. Also, While
documents are supposed to be converted from and to MS format, they end
up with major errors. I cannot use a word processor that will not
create completely portable documents. But if I never had MSW, I would
not know the difference. I also can convert anything to a PDF which is
then universally portable, but somewhat a bother.

Regarding browser clicks and monitoring, if you don't know how to
monitor your system, you should not be running games (or maybe not a
computer for that matter). Of course if you have your hard disk
cloned, you are safe. You do don't you?

I use dial-up too and pay $9.95/mo. Meanwhile, I also have something
called FreeISP that connects at the same 45kb and so far has sent no
nags, hijackers or spam. I just like my regular email too much to go
completely free. DSL is only $19.95 in my area and probably yours too.

Bottom line: Much like the breaking cameras, perhaps a computer for
the kids and one for you is the way to go.