February 19, 2026
Grandpa Word wants one last dance
A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts
Fans beg for free keys, commenters ask 'open source?', nostalgia goes wild
TLDR: Tempus-Word, a 1990s Atari word processor, is giving out free licenses to its final version to help people salvage giant documents. Commenters are split between cheering its still-impressive features, nitpicking the site’s English, and pushing to open-source it, all while bathing in peak retro nostalgia.
A 1990s word processor for old Atari home computers just stepped back into the spotlight — and the internet is feeling feelings. Tempus-Word is offering free licenses for version 5.4, which its caretaker says will be the last version. It’s not courting new customers; it’s aimed at rescuing giant, thousand-page documents with footnotes and exporting them to RTF (Rich Text Format). Fans swear it still eats huge files for breakfast, even through an emulator, while modern apps wheeze.
But the real show is in the comments. One nitpick went straight for the homepage grammar — “English not their first language?” — sparking eye-rolls and chuckles. Others swooned over the still-impressive feature list, calling it a time capsule that still punches above its weight. Then came the classic rallying cry: “Why not make it open source?” The crowd split: preservationists want the code freed for history; pragmatists shrug that mailing out free keys is good enough. Nostalgia washed over the thread as veterans name-dropped First Word, Papyrus, and Calamus, flexing that these ran on an 8 MHz machine with 1–2 MB of memory — cue the “old computer better than your bloatware” memes. Bottom line: it’s a retro lovefest with a side of spicy debate over whether this legend should take a graceful bow or get a second life in the open.
Key Points
- •Tempus-Word was created for Atari and GEM in the early 1990s and lost its market after Atari’s demise.
- •Active maintenance ended nearly two decades ago; the latest version dates to 2004 and is still available.
- •The software can run via emulators on Windows and Mac and is valued for handling very large documents with complex footnotes.
- •A free license for version 5.4 can be requested; the site also offers a trial that exports documents to RTF with some properties lost.
- •Version 5.40 is likely the last; new development is discouraged due to cost and the presence of modern alternatives like LibreOffice and OpenOffice.