The Weird Processor: Olivetti’s PC Typewriter

You my friend have a problem, even when you try and downsell something you can't hide your innate interest. So cool!

About the Japanese language one, it has a couple of mysterious "image" apps, but besides that, they're pretty much what you would expect from a 90's organizer type thing: calendar, notes, contacts, etc.

Used to own one of the small Brother word processors, maybe even the model in the video. Absolutely loved that thing. I could type whole documents at any time, even when my housemates were sleeping, and just print later. I could take the ribbon out and type using carbon paper when whatever I was typing wasn't critical. And I was mailing 8-page letters to penpals. Typing unlocked and changed my whole life. True story: I won a TV somewhere and tried very hard to get the prize switched to a typewriter. Didn't work. It was years before I got a PC with a printer. And I can still type faster than anyone I know.

23:21 I see a "Strong Ba" but it's getting eaten

A few thoughts from someone inexplicably interested in these things:
– Some Brother word processors (including I think the one you have) originally came with a Tetris disk, and in general a lot of the consumer ones were intended as low-cost computer alternatives which explains why they'd include things like this. I have a Canon "desktop publisher" from the mid-90s based around an inkjet printer, and it comes with a clip art and games disk with Solitaire, Minesweeper, and a slot machine.

– They're not easy to find, but some WPs and electronic typewriters can do proportionally spaced fonts; one of those with a decent ribbon can product output that is (IMO) just as good as a laser printer. Some dedicated daisy-wheel printers even have a graphics mode that lets you move the carriage and paper in very precise increments and use the period and such to make basic graphics. Some of the Diablo printwheels I have even have a metal period solely to make it wear out more slowly when (ab)used for graphics.

– The UX on most of these consumer WPs is poor, although Panasonic ones actually seem to handle things a bit better than the ones you showed in the video. I don't recall ever having issues with input lag or dropped keystrokes on mine (although the godawful keyboard balances things out) and it's also got a key combo to invert the display at any time which is a nice bonus.

– The Olivetti-AT&T partnership is somewhat interesting, it was during a time when a lot of companies were branching out into office equipment for some reason, including Exxon (there was an Exxon-branded electronic typewriter, not kidding). I've got an AT&T-branded typewriter that's obviously a rebadged Olivetti and it's interesting since it's got a module system, I somehow managed to find the serial terminal module for it (and mine came with a spellchecker) but the typewriter quit working the day after I got it and I still can't figure out how to get it open non-destructively.

– For loading sheets of paper, did you try pulling the paper bail forwards? Quite a few electronic typewriters have a system where pulling either the lever for the paper bail or the bail itself will feed in enough paper for a comfortable top margin.

– The print mechanism in this device is kind of interesting since the design of the hammer screams late 80s/early 90s cheapo garbage 10 char/sec but it can clearly go quite a bit faster than that. I can't tell if yours can do it, but some Olivetti mechanisms also have a reader for metallic barcodes on some printwheels that encode details about pitch, character set, etc. so it can be automatically configured.

– I'd be somewhat curious what escape codes are being used for the virtual printer for things like bold, underline, etc; something Diablo-like would be my guess since they clearly had some interest in compatibility with regular PC programs but because Olivetti is Olivetti I could also see them going with something entirely custom.

– If for whatever reason you want more printwheels for this contraption, I got several duplicates with my AT&T/Olivetti typewriter that are compatible.

A video about a word processor that has the briefest mention of "distraction free writing device" is inevitably going to have at least one That Guy who espouses their love for the AlphaSmart series of devices.

I am that guy. Rather than waste everyone's time talking about it here, I'll just say you can do an internet search for why people like it if you're the few who care, and everyone else can say "well, that ticked the box of a guy talking about AlphaSmart".

It looks like this word processor has most of the features to write a full academic or research paper with the outline,table of contents, and inline tables. Suitable for writing a thesis or something. Those features are missing in the all of the other word processors.

Ah my man, you feel me with the typing speed. It was at least Windows 95-era computing before I was not typing too quickly for at least something I used on a regular basis. And I know it has not been that long since I still outtyped some weird input device. But the quote "[Quarex] types faster than 2400 baud!" still makes me laugh even though it SHOULD not have been true, and yet

Ctrl-Q was a standard..or at least semi-common, quit prompt back in the day. GW-BASIC, an extension of sorts of BASIC that runs in MS-DOS, uses Ctrl-Q to exit programs, cancel runs, and leave back to MS-DOS

Fun fact: the daisy wheel printer at school supported microspacing, the kind of thing used to do bold like on the Olivetti. Fun fact II: it also supported microspacing vertically, for stuff like subscripts. Fun fact three: a full stop / period symbol is also a (large) pixel.

Which is how I ended up writing a font editor and arbitrary-font print package for our school's daisy wheel printer.

You needed to use thick paper or you'd be punching holes out of your document. xD

I used the Z80 CP/M version of the Olivetti typewriter in 1995: they were built like a tank, so it's possible that people used them for a lot of time. On the othe hand Olivetti sold electronic typewriters but with a serial port in the late '80s: basivally they worked like teletypes, had an online/offline button. I remember I've seen in an office an Olivetti M24 with both a typewriter and a 9 pin printer connected. I suppose because a the time the print quality of a dot matrix printer was so and so.

I like your videos