PCW Software Library Catalogue

This is a transcription and HTMLization of the catalogue of the long-defunct PCW Software Library, manually keyed from the original printed catalogue.

Note that I only have the catalogue — I don't have the software to which it refers, so don't bother to ask me for copies!

The PCW Software Library offers a range of services for users of CP/M 2.0 and CP/M Plus machines. These include:

Disc Recovery Service

If your disc of valuable data gets corrupted, don't panic! It is usually possible to recover all or part of it. If you are in this unfortunate position, please send your corrupted disc, a blank formatted one, and £10.00 per disc, stating the machine involved. If no data at all can be recovered, your cheque will be returned, otherwise we will recover as much as is possible. N.B. We can currently handle 5.25 inch and 3 inch discs only so far as this service is concerned. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to PCW Software Library, and orders sent to the above address. { Address redacted - JCE }

Format Translation

We can transfer files from discs of one CP/M format to another, or from IBM-PC and BBC Master to CP/M or vice versa. [E.g. if you have software from a Gemini, and want to use it on your Amstrad PCW, we can help]. Simply send details of each machine, the source disc, a disc formatted for the destination machine, with ideally a text file of some 20K on it, and £3.50 per disc to be copied. N.B. We can currently handle 5.25 inch, 3 inch, and 3.5 inch discs only for this service. NOTE: For transfers to IBM-PC and to BBC formats you should send a destination disc for every 350K of data to be transferred regardless of the capacity of the discs. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to PCW Software Library, and orders sent to the above address.

Formats Available

We can handle over 200 CP/M formats at present although there are still a few that we cannot deal with. We cannot do Sirius or Commodore CP/M, and there will probably be others. The following formats are regularly handled by us without difficulty.

1. - Amstrad CPC System      2. - Amstrad CF2DD        3. - Amstrad CF2      4. - Amstrad CPC Data
5. - Gemini QD/SS            6. - Moon DS80C           7. - Moon DS80S       8. - Moon SS80
9. - Transam TS100           10.- Transtec SS/DD       11.- TeleVideo96tpi   12.- Orion DS/DD
13.- Orion SS/DD CP/M86      14.- DEC Rainbow SS/DD    15.- Almarc DS/DD     16.- FTS SS/DD
17.- Superbrain SS/DD        18.- Einstein SS/DD       19.- NewBrain SS/DD   20.- ICL DS/DD CP/M86
21.- Epson QX10              22.- DEC VT180 SS/DD      23.- Wren SS/DD       24.- Gemini QD/DS
25.- Mimi 802 96tpi DS/DD    26.- Extended CF2DD       27.- Merlin M4000     28.- Extended CF2
29.- Kaypro II SS/DD         30.- PCW 40-trk           31.- Kaypro 10 DS/DD  32.- Superbrain DS/DD
33.- RM-480Z SS/DD           34.- HZ-89 (H-37) DS/DD   35.- Acorn DS/SD CP/M 36.- Acorn DS/DD
37.- Sig/Net SS/DD           38.- ScreenTyper 48tpi    39.- ICL/Altos DS/DD  40.- Spectrum +3 CP/M
41.- NEC 8801B               42.- Osborne 1

To order on the above formats please specify format number and - to be on the safe side - your machine model.

If your machine is not in this list we can probably do it. Please send a formatted disc containing a text file of about 20K and full details of machine model where possible.

Installing CP/M Software

CP/M programs are usually portable between machines, but sometimes they need to be 'installed' on a particular machine before they will run properly. This 'daunting' task is, in reality, usually quite easy, and is within the scope of anyone who can boil an egg. The ability to install programs will enable you to buy secondhand, programs written for other machines, and to take full advantage of public domain software. It will also tell you a lot about your machine. This comprehensive guide [which is copyright PCW Software Library] comes complete with a range of excellent PD software, and will make you an expert in a very short time. Price: £8.00 supplied on a branded disc suitable for Amstrad PCW, CPC, Spectrum+3 or Tatung Einstein.

£5.00 supplied of your own disc. Please send a formatted disc with your order, stating machine. Please see above section for format details. Cheques payable to PCW Software Library please.

The Best of the Public Domain

The PCW Software Library specialises in supplying public domain software and shareware for only a small copying fee. All software has been tested on the Amstrad PCW 8256/8512, and will work on these machines without further ado. Only a few programs requiring a dot-matrix printer are unsuitable for the 9512. The Amstrad 6128 and Spectrum+3 will also run just about every one of these programs. Indeed most will work on any CP/M machine, but installation - usually straightforward - may occasionally be needed in this case. We are always happy to give advice on installation.

Ii is our policy to try to comply with the wishes of the authors of software, by distributing the full package for each programme wherever possible. Thus many programs include full source code, and often installation programs.

Each programme has its own documentation - in many cases written or amended especially for the PCW - contained in special .DOC files on the disc. In addition each volume contains a HELP file which explains how to 'unpack' it if necessary.

The list is steadily growing as additional programmes are acquired and tested. Volumes contain, on average 250 kilobytes of material, though many have almost 350K while others have less than the average.

PRICE: In order to provide a service for all, we distribute volumes in two main ways. ALL PRICES INCLUDE RETURN POSTAGE AND PACKING.

Amstrad PCW, Spectrum +3, CPC and Tatung Einstein users only. We will supply volumes on a 3-inch branded disc at £4.25 per volume. Two volumes can be supplied on a 9512 or 8512 B: drive 3-inch or 5.25-inch disc for only £6.50. You can of course also use method (ii) below.
All other users. Please send a formatted disc for each volume required [One megabyte discs - i.e. 8512 B: drive or 9512 discs - will hold at least two volumes]. Note: A few older machines such as the Osborne have a small capacity. In these case send sufficient discs to hold 350k. per volume. In addition, a copying fee of £2.50 per volume [inc. postage and packing] should be enclosed. Software can be supplied on either the standard Amstrad 3 inch disc, or on 5.25 or 3.5 inch floppies. Volumes can of course be supplied on other CP/M formats if wanted, at no extra charge.

SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR METHOD II CUSTOMERS ONLY: Order five volumes at one time, and get a sixth one of your choice FREE; order 10 or more at a time, and get three extra volumes of your choice FREE. Order 20 or more volumes at any one time, and get TEN EXTRA VOLUMES OF YOUR CHOICE - FREE!! Simply send an additional disc for each free volume. In the latter case, your volumes will work out at about £1.65 each. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to PCW Software Library, and orders sent to the above address.

VOLUME 1: FATCAT. Keep track of your files with this super disc catalogue programme. Needs at least two drives - one of which can be a RAM disc [most machines].
VOLUME 2: SCRIVENER. A must for the small business or home user who has lots of repetitive tasks to do. Great as a mailmerge, spreadsheet, text processor, calculator, etc. etc. Lots of sample practice files. One of the 'classic applications' [Your Amstrad PCW] [most machines].
VOLUME 3: PLOT 33. An excellent programme for producing graphics on your printer. Graphs, pie charts and so on, are no problem. No good with a daisy- wheel printer [most machines].
VOLUME 4: DBQ. A query language database programme along the lines of DBase II. Ideal for smallish databases and great for getting the hang of query language, before splashing out on the real [and expensive] McCoy. Includes practice files and source code [most machines].
VOLUME 5: DIMS. A nice card index database working from BASIC. Does mailmerge and so on. Only your disc capacity limits the size of your database [most machines].
VOLUME 6: FORTH-83. A definitive version of the FORTH programming language. A must for all programmers eager to explore the various languages [most machines].
VOLUME 7: SMALL C. A nice implementation of the C language. Certainly worth trying before buying the fuller and more expensive versions [most machines].
VOLUMES 8 and 9: JRT PASCAL. An excellent version for PASCAL programmers. Comes with huge on-disc manual. N.B. This comprises TWO volumes. The volumes also contain many JRT routines not normally available in this package [most machines].
VOLUME 10: VDO25B. A great little text editor producing ASCII test. Ideal for programmers and other users of CP/M software who are fed up with having to make ASCII files from LOCOSCRIPT [most machines].
VOLUME 11: FUN AND GAMES I. A variety of games software. Some silly, some great for the kids, some good for the adults. Includes CHESS and OTHELLO and detective adventure game MYSTERY. Also MEGAN,BIORHYTHM,MAZE,CHASE, and ALIENS. Disc includes MBASIC [most machines].
VOLUME 12: SECRETARY. A text editor that generates its own line numbers. A valuable addition to the BASIC programmer's armoury. Much better for editing than the built-in editor of most BASIC implementations [most machines].
VOLUME 13: UTILITIES I. Sixteen marvellous CP/M utilities. Includes the classic NEWSWEEP, LU and NULU. Other library utilities LDIR, LRUN, DELBR. Plus CLEANUP, DIRCHK, DISPLAY, LOOKAT, NUMBASE, PASSWORD, REMCOM, SWAP, TYPEL, and WSCLEAN [most machines].
VOLUME 14: UTILITIES II. A mere 13 utilities on this one, but including MAXISWEEP [reviewed in Amstrad PCW, March 1990]. Also SUPERZAP a great sector editor, plus PRINT, CALENDAR, CERTIFY, MENU, CPM2 emulator, INDEX, SCRAMBLE, SORT, SQUEEZE and UNSQUEEZE, XTYPE, and WCOUNT [most machines].
VOLUME 15: UTILITIES III. Sixteen more great utilities. PATCH will edit discs AND memory, as well as BISHOW, COMPARE, D, DISK76, FILECHOP, FIND+, FMAP, LIST, lOOK, QLIST, QuickSet, RENAME, Super Directory, TYPE1.
VOLUME 16: ALADDIN'S CAVE FOR ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMERS. An essential toolkit for the Z80 programmer. Assemblers and disassemblers, as well as debuggers and such like. 14 programs in all.
VOLUME 17: PRINTIT. From the SCRIVENER stable - fancy fonts, and great text formatting. Improves the performance of any dot-matrix printer.
VOLUME 18: EXPRESS. Another ASCII text editor and word processor. Not as comprehensive as LOCOSCRIPT, but a very powerful programme that works directly from CP/M [most machines].
VOLUME 19: EXPERT 86. An expert system shell for the PCW. Have a go at artificial intelligence. Nicely documented [PCW only].
VOLUME 20: UTILITIES IV. Another fine batch of utilities. Includes a marvellous program to cut your continuous stationery needs by well over 50% [dot-matrix printers only]. A great sector editor FU12, STANDBY, read MS-DOS discs under CP/M, RESQ text lost in RAM, PREPARE for reformatting text, DIR- DUMP, and FAST unsqueeze. [most machines].
VOLUME 21: BASIC-E. CP/M's 'own' BASIC. A semi-compiler for increased speed. Fully documented and comes with one of the classic BASIC-E games [most machines].
VOLUME 22: FUN AND GAMES II. More adventure games like STARTREK(2 versions), QUEST and WARRIOR Plus BLACK FRIDAY, DECISION, BRIKBAT, POKER, PONTOON and INSULTS [most machines].
VOLUME 23: SCREEN GRAPHICS. A nice selection of programs to generate graphics on the PCW screen, including user-defined graphics. Includes the famous PCWDRAW [Amstrad CPC and PCW only].
VOLUME 24: WRITERS TOOLBOX. A selection of valuable programs for the writer. Includes a lovely book indexer to replace the old 5x3 cards; a word counter; bibliographical sort program; an analyser of word useage, a program to use both sides of continuous stationery, and more [most machines].
VOLUME 25: ROFF4. A very good text formatter for CP/M generated text. Probably good for MINI OFFICE, TASWORD, PROTEXT and other non-LOCOSCRIPT users [most machines].
VOLUME 26: LANGUAGE COMPENDIUM. A pot-pourri of languages. COBOL, VALGOL, PROLOG, and ZBASIC [most machines].
VOLUME 27: VDE version 2.65. The greatest text editors of them all? Automatic word wrap, macros, and much, much more. A must for programmers and others who need ASCII text [most Z80 machines].
VOLUME 28: PRINTMASTER. A mini-desktop publisher. Good for stationery, posters, greeting cards, etc. A wide range of graphics. Needs a dot-matrix printer [Amstrad PCW and Kaypro only].
VOLUME 29: UTILITIES V. A further splendid 15 utilities. Includes SHELL so you need never see the dreaded A> prompt again; a disc cataloguer; CRUNCH and UNCRUNCH to save storage space; increase the number of directory entries on A: drive disc; catalogue video and cassette collections, keep an address book, and many more [most machines].
VOLUME 30: UTILITIES VI. Fifteen excessively friendly utilities designed to run under ZCPR3, but fine on the PCW. Examples are a mass file-copier (MCOPY), a much better version of TYPE (PAGE); produce annotated catalogues of your discs CRC-ZCPR, fancy directory programs (XD and XDIR), as well as COMMENT, DIFF, ECHO, ERASE, NOTE, PRINT, PROTECT, QUIET, RENAME, and SAK. [most machines].
VOLUME 31: QUALITY CONTROL. A specialist volume for inspectors and quality controllers, but possibly of use to others working with statistics. Includes gauge reliability and reproducibility studies; a statistical test program that produces histograms; failure mode and effects analysis program [Amstrad PCW only, but could be modified for others].
VOLUME 32: COMMS. A variety of comms software for the communications buff - KERMIT, MEX and UKMODEM7 [Amstrad PCW only].
VOLUME 33: DBASE II users only. Libraries of DBASE II programs that generate DBASE code; a bibliographic search program; genealogical programs, and a church management program. These can be readily adjusted for other uses or preferences [most machines].
VOLUME 34: FONTS,FONTS,FONTS. Eighteen fancy fonts for your screen and for your printer. Very easy to use. Add variety to your printouts [Amstrad PCW only].
VOLUME 35: Z8E. More for assembly programmers. The greatest debugger of them all with v-e-r-y b-i-g manual on disc. Also translate 8080 code to Z80, and vice versa with these great utilities [most machines].
VOLUME 36: PRINTER UTILITIES. Twelve programs to help you get the best from your printer. SPOOL so that you can print whilst doing something else on the computer; menu driven printer set-up utilities; label printers; and various others [most machines].
VOLUME 37 and 38: UNIX TOOLS. The famous Van Nuys Bridge kit of 35 text manipulation tools that simulate UNIX. Extremely valuable for those who regularly deal with many text files. Includes redirection; piping of input/output. Tools permit sorting on any field; printing in several columns; page formatting; indexing; and much much more. N.B. These comprise TWO volumes [most machines].
VOLUME 39: MAILSHOT. A very nice program for those wanting to do general or selective mailings to clients or memberships etc [most machines].
VOLUME 40: FORMATS PLUS. A collection of programs linked to disc formats. Read and produce a number of different CP/M formats; increase your directory entries; analyse the status of your discs. [Amstrad PCW and 6128/Spectrum only].
VOLUME 41: WORDSTAR TOOLS. A great selection for users of WORDSTAR. Includes indexers, footnote generators, table of contents makers, etc [most machines].
VOLUME 42: DESKMASTER. A desk top management system. Includes appointments calendar, card index, calculator, scratchpad, etc. Very handy. [most machines having MALLARD BASIC or Microsoft BASIC-80/MBASIC].
VOLUME 43: MATHS FOR SCIENTISTS I. Over a score of programs for mathematicians. Solve equations by Cramer's Rule or by Gaussian elimination; find out about Simpson's Rule and the Bessel function. The TURBO PASCAL source is provided so you can see how it's done [most machines].
VOLUME 44: MATHS FOR SCIENTISTS II. Another large selection of TURBO PASCAL maths programs compiled for immediate use. Includes integration by the trapezoidal rule; perform linear least-squares fit to the ratio of two polynomials. If you don't understand this, then you don't need it. If you do, then you can't do without it. Source code provided [most machines].
VOLUME 45: TURBO UTILITIES I. A collection of 13 utilities and other programs written in TURBO PASCAL, compiled so anyone can use them. All PASCAL programmers will love the source code, to see how it's done. Everyone else will get a lot from the COM versions. Games, library utilities, number-base converter, and so on [most machines].
VOLUME 46: TURBO UTILITIES II. A further selection of utilities and other programs, to simulate UNIX, all with TURBO PASCAL source code in addition to the compiled versions. Based on the classic Software Tools in Pascal by Kernighan and Plauger [most machines].
VOLUME 47: TURBO TOOLCHEST. Eight super tools for programmers using TURBO PASCAL. Generate TURBO output screens; recover text lost in RAM after a crash, and many more. Users of other PASCAL dialects will doubtless find these a fount of ideas. [most machines].
VOLUME 48: DISC HOUSEKEEPER. A compilation volume that includes twelve super programs to help keep your discs in order, and to use them as economically as possible. Compress your files with CRUNCH24 to minimise storage space; library them to keep related files together and further reduce storage needs; run COM files from within libraries; extract crunched files from libraries; catalogue your discs properly, the brilliant NEWSWEEP, and so on [most machines].
VOLUME 49: DAZZLESTAR. The greatest Z80 disassembler of them all. A dazzling screen display and equally brilliant interactive operation. You'll never want another one. This is NOT public domain, so thanks to author John Washington, for permission to include it in this list [most machines].
VOLUME 50: PCWFILE. An excellent database program written by Jim Button with ease of use in mind. Import/export data to other systems and programs, mailmerge and so on. Great program [Amstrad PCW and Osborne only, though should be worth a try on the Spectrum and 6128].
VOLUME 51: HOME ACCOUNTS. A handy home accounting package, easy to use and well documented. Never wonder where the readies went again [most machines].
VOLUME 52: BCPL. A C type language that was used to write PROTEXT. Ideal for programmers wanting to gain experience in a range of languages [most machines].
VOLUME 53: POST CODES. A handy and complete listing of the post codes of the British Isles. Very useful.
VOLUME 54: STD CODES. A numerical and alphabetical listing of STD codes. No longer any need to pay a tenner for this.
VOLUME 55: DBASE II TOOLS. Superb tools for programmers of the ultimate CP/M database program. DTUNE to make your DBase programs much faster and more compact. Various tools and functions [most machines].
VOLUME 56: UTILITIES 7. Another 15 super programs to make working in CP/M easier. FPRINT prints multiple files easily; CHN lets you create batch files as COM programs. WTXT makes text files into COM files; IF adds a conditional batch facility to CP/M's SUBMIT; and many more like EDIT, CREF, FCOM, FILCAT, LETB, HEXPAT, LOOK, MOVE, PASSWORD, SORT, RELHEX most machines].
VOLUME 57: UTILITIES 8. Another super collection of utilities. NEWCCP and SCREEN give you a whole range of resident commands. Also a whole range of archive and similar utilities. Sixteen programs in all.
VOLUME 58: SPREADSHEET. A nice, easy, but popwerful spreadsheet that is a must for everyone [most machines].
VOLUME 59: COLOSSAL CAVES. The B=I=G=G=E=S=T adventure game of all. Get lost in here and you'll never get out. [most machines].
VOLUME 60: SPOOLER. A valuable program that really lets you do two things at once. Print a file while running a completely different program. [most machines running CP/M Plus. Fine for PCW]
VOLUMES 61/62: 'C' TUTORIAL. Two volumes of tutorial and sample files for aspirant 'C' programmers [most machines].
VOLUMES 63/64: PASCAL TUTORIAL. Two volumes similar to above but for PASCAL users. Designed for TURBO PASCAL, but 99% applicable to any dialect [most machines].
VOLUME 65: WADUZIDU. What does it do? It's a wierd and wonderful language. A must for those who have everything. Comes with source code, so you can develop it [most machines].
VOLUME 66: WP-100. Yet another text editor. This one's written in PASCAL and has source code so you can improve it. It's actually rather good and quite fast [most machines].
VOLUME 67: ECCE. The Edinburgh Compatible Content Editor. A vast improvement on ED. Can handle any size file [most machines].
VOLUME 68: STAGE2. A macro programming language that is a fine general purpose text manipulation utility, not limited to programming. Well worth exploring [most machines].
VOLUME 69: TBASIC. Tarbell BASIC that is. An excellent version of the language. A bit slow but having many interesting features. If you get fed up with line numbers, you can use labels instead [most machines].
VOLUME 70: FUN & GAMES III. More interesting games, adventures like ADVENT, chase games like MAZECHASE, and many others [most machines].
VOLUME 71: FRONT50. If you prefer menus to the A> prompt, then this is for you [most machines].
VOLUME 72: STOIC. An excellent implementation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Some programmers stick to one language, others prefer to be multi-lingual. If you are one of these then you need STOIC [most machines].

{ Transcribed by John Elliott, 2025-03-04 }