Rick Melick Home


download SpeedScript 3.2 for VIC-20 - requires 8k+ RAM (includes all bug fixes described below)
documentation for SpeedScript 3.x family, and sister book (scroll down to "MISC" section)
wordcount.prg stand alone companion to SpeedScript 3.2 from May '86 Compute!'s Gazette - place in same directory as speedscript3.2.prg
cbm2asc converts PETSCII to ASCII on DOS (the “S” option converts an entire SpeedScript 3.2 file except for escape codes)


Written by program editor, Charles Brannon, the original SpeedScript (now called version 1.0) appeared in the January 1984 issue of COMPUTE!'s GAZETTE. The next major update, SpeedScript 2.0, appeared only on the premier GAZETTE DISK in May 1984.

The VIC-20 version of SpeedScript 3.0 appeared in the April 1985 issue of COMPUTE!. Corrections for several minor bugs were published in the May 1985 COMPUTE! column. With these enhancements, the title on the screen indicates version 3.1. It was this version which appeared in the book, "SpeedScript: The Word Processor for the Commodore 64 and VIC-20," and on the companion disk for that book. (If you follow this link, then scroll down to "MISC" section.)

Further corrections-most notably a fix for an underlining bug-appeared in the article, "SpeedScript 3.0 Revisited," in the December 1985 issue of COMPUTE! (shown to the right). These enhancements changed the version number on the screen to 3.2. Version 3.2 also appeared on the January 1986 COMPUTE! DISK. The corrections in the December article also included the changes from version 3.1, so it would be possible to upgrade directly from 3.0 to 3.2.

SpeedScript 3.2 was the end of the line for Commodore VIC-20. As near as I can tell it is not directly available anywhere else online today, so I gave it this web page on January 6, 2011. I've been exploring SpeedScript 3.2 for the past couple of days and have been quite impressed. Armed with a pocket dictionary and maybe the aid of a proof-reader, I think I could have survived college with this package. I'm considering torturing my family this year with a "newsletter" at Christmas time, complete with ASCII art tree from 'ye 'ol Star NX-1000C printer, in NLQ -- of course! lol