PlusWorks - AppleWorks on the Apple ][+

[Hugh Hood]

I've notice some interest elsewhere on the internet from guys wanting to
run AppleWorks on their Apple ][+ machines.

If one has an Applied Engineering 80-column card or Slinky RAM card, AE
supplied a patch program that would allow ][+ owners to run AppleWorks
versions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.0 and 2.1 on their ][+. I believe Legend and
Checkmate did the same with their cards.

Norwich Data Systems, however, sold a family of AppleWorks patch
programs under the PlusWorks moniker, and those programs not only
supported multiple brands and types of 80-column and memory cards
(particularly Saturn-style bank switched cards), they also supported
running AppleWorks versions 3 and 4 (in addition to just versions 1 and
2) on the Apple ][+.

Having run AppleWorks 3.0 on a ][+ for a *very* brief time myself, I dug
out my old copy of PlusWorks III and imaged it. I also gathered
PlusWorks XM and PlusWorks II images and then scanned and OCRed all my
old PlusWorks documentation, including the Norwich product catalog, and
the manuals for PlusWorks, PlusWorks XM, PlusWorks II and PlusWorks III.

These have all been uploaded to the asimov archive (probably still in
'incoming'), and I've also put copies on my website in the following
directory: <http://www.apple2works.com/plusworks>

PlusWorks III was originally sold as having support for AppleWorks 3
only. But, Chuck Newby reported on the old GEnie bulletin board that
Fred from Memory Plus Distributors (which sold PlusWorks) had in fact
used it successfully with AppleWorks 4. Whether it would work with
AppleWorks 5.x is anyone's guess, but remember AppleWorks 5 requires a
65C02, which most ][+ did not have.


For the curious (or those who love tedium) here are the various versions
of PlusWorks:

For AppleWorks 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3
--------------------------------
PlusWorks (][+; Franklin Ace - NOTE: does NOT expand desktop)
PlusWorks-L (Laser 3000)
PlusWorks-DT (IIe; Laser 640K; Franklin 500; Franklin 2000)
PlusWorks-XM (][+; IIe; Franklin Ace])
PlusWorks-XML (Laser 3000)
PlusWorks-XMB (BASIS 108)

For AppleWorks 2.0 and 2.1
---------------------------
PlusWorks II (][+; IIe; Franklin)

For AppleWorks 3.0 and 4.x
---------------------------
PlusWorks III (][+; IIe; Franklin)


As a long-time heavy AppleWorks user, I must say that running AppleWorks
on a ][+ instead of on a IIgs leaves a LOT to be desired. But, others
may find it adequate, and most (including myself) would agree that it's
kind of neat to be able to do it at all.

One final thing -- apparently PlusWorks XM was also sold by Davka
Corporation under the name 'ItWorks'. You may remember the name Davka
from the September 2020 Juiced.GS article featuring one of their former
programmers. Their specialty was Hebrew/Jewish educational software, and
I believe they still publish a famous word processing program called
DavkaWriter, but that is not an Apple II product.





Hugh Hood

[Hugh Hood]

On 5/8/2021 9:56 PM, Hugh Hood wrote:
>
> Norwich Data Systems, however, sold a family of AppleWorks patch
> programs under the PlusWorks moniker, and those programs not only
> supported multiple brands and types of 80-column and memory cards
> (particularly Saturn-style bank switched cards), they also supported
> running AppleWorks versions 3 and 4 (in addition to just versions 1 and
> 2) on the Apple ][+.
>

For the sake of completeness, I found a copy of the PlusWorks DT patch
program for AppleWorks 1.x - 2.x and uploaded it to asimov as well as to
my own site. I added the docs as a text file to the disk image
(plusworksdt.po).

Note that this version of PlusWorks is *NOT* for the ][+, but rather is
for the Apple IIe and some 'clones'.

It provides several things, among them:

1. to use a Saturn-style bank switched RAM card in addition to using an
aux slot card (AppleWorks 1.x - 2.x.)

2. to use an aux slot card that does NOT follow the AE standard of
having the bank select register at $C073. (e.g. - Super Expander E from
Memory Plus Distributors, which uses $C071 instead (AppleWorks 1.x - 2.x.)

3. to use memory on the expanded memory Franklin and Laser models
(AppleWorks 1.x - 2.x.)

4. to use almost all the memory in a 64K aux bank for the AppleWorks
desktop rather than leaving the top 16K for use by other programs (e.g.
UltraMacros).


One other 'feature', which may not be from Norwich - This version of
PlusWorks was supplied as the utility diskette with the Super Expander E
card.

A program on this utility diskette claims to patch AppleWorks 3.x and
4.x to use the Super Expander E rather than the RamWorks. I seem to
recall someone posting many years ago that this program did NOT work for
THAT function.

I never had the need to test it myself.





Hugh Hood

[waynej...@gmail.com]

Thanks Hugh. I've wanted to run Appleworks 3 on a II+ for a while