George Martin Writes Books in WordStar 4.0 for MS-DOS

George R.R. Martin, the author of the fantasy song series “A Song of Ice and Fire”, writes his books on a very old computer - so old that it still runs on the MS-DOS operating system. As a word processor, it uses WordStar 4.0. About this, J. Martin said , while visiting a TV presenter and showman Conan O'Brien.

Martin said that he uses two computers - one for modern needs, such as the Internet, email and other matters, and the other - exclusively for work. At the same time, the writer likes that the old computer and the old text editing program are limited in capabilities. In particular, WordStar lacks spell checking.

“The program does everything that is required of the word processor, and does nothing else,” he said. “I don't need any help.” I hate these modern systems when you enter a lowercase letter, and they correct it to a capital letter. I don’t need a homepage! If I wanted to enter a capital letter, I would enter it. I can use Shift! ”


Screenshot of WordStar for DOS

WordStar was one of the most popular word processors in the 80s of the last century. It was originally written for the CP / M operating system, and then ported to DOS. Thanks to the desire of the author of the program, Rob Barnaby, to use as little as possible assumptions about which OS is running WordStar, the program was easily ported to other OSes. In the mid-90s, the program gave way to other word processors.


WordStar for Windows

It is known that in addition to J. Martin, several other authors love the WordStar program, in particular, the Canadian science-fiction writer Robert James Sawyer (“Deadly Experiment” - “Nebula” prize, “Hominids” - “Hugo” award).

George Raymond Richard Martin is a science fiction writer, screenwriter, producer and editor, winner of many literary awards. In the 1970s and 1980s he gained fame thanks to stories and short stories in the genre of science fiction, horror literature and fantasy. The greatest fame was brought to him by the fantasy song series “Song of Ice and Fire”, released in 1996, also filmed by HBO in the form of the popular television series “Game of Thrones”.

The series "Game of Thrones" has become the most popular in terms of watching TV shows, and also constantly sets records for the number of illegal downloads on the Internet. At the beginning of 2015, 4 episodes of the 5th season of the series were leaked to the network before their premiere on TV.

In April of this year, the show will begin showing the 6th season of the series. At the same time, events developing in the new season will display storylines from the book “Winds of Winter”, which the author has not yet had time to finish writing, and, by his own admission, will not have time to finish before the release of the new season.