Batteries Included (company)

Batteries Included

Founded	Toronto, Ontario (1978)
Defunct	1987
Headquarters	Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Alan Kofchick, Robbie Krofchik, Marcie Swartz, L. Brian Swartz

Batteries Included (BI) was a computer software and hardware company based in the Toronto area. It was best known in the 1980s for its popular PaperClip word processor, which was available for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore. BI began as a small, family run retail shop, started by brothers Alan and Robbie Krofchick and their sister Marcie Swartz. Eventually, BI turned into an international, multimillion-dollar company. BI was sold to Electronic Arts in 1987.

History

BI was founded by siblings Alan Krofchick, Robbie Krofchick and Marcie Swartz in 1978 as a calculator and personal computer retail store.^[1] The hand-held electronic devices they sold were always advertised as "batteries not included," so they included the batteries for free and named themselves Batteries Included.^[2] The company began to develop its own computer software and hardware and became a multimillion-dollar multi-faceted company, charging its way into the international computer software and accessory market.^[2]

Michael Reichmann joined the company in its early years and eventually became its president in the mid-1980s.^[3] In this capacity he was frequently interviewed in consumer and industry publications such as InfoWorld.^[4]

BI's head offices were located at 30 Mural Street in Richmond Hill, Ontario.^[1] The company also had a satellite office in California. At its peak, BI employed over 60 people.^[2]

BI was purchased by Electronic Arts^[3] in 1987, which cancelled most of its upcoming projects but continued to market products under the Batteries Included name.

PaperClip

PaperClip, the company's flagship product, was first released for the Commodore PET in 1982, and later for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit systems.^[1] The word processor was developed by Steve Douglas who formed a relationship with BI owners Robbie and Alan Krofchick through the retail store.^[2] PaperClip became one of the highest selling home management programs, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Top Computer Software charts and spending over 70 weeks on the charts.^[5]

In 1986, BI released PaperClip II, the followup to its best-selling word processor, for the Commodore 128.^[6]

PaperClip III was released by Electronic Arts in 1987, subsequent to its acquisition of BI.^[7]

In 1984, BI released Homepak an integrated software suite, combining word-processor, database and communications modules into one application.

Products

BI developed products for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, Commodore and MS-DOS.^[8]

• PaperClip – word processor
• PaperClip II – word processor
• Delphi's Oracle (later The Consultant) – database^[9]
• Bus Card – IEEE interface card
• Bus Card II – IEEE interface card^[10]
• Homepak – office suite
• C64 80-column card
• I*S Talk - a full-featured GEM-based telecommunications program^[11]
• Isgur Portfolio System - an investment management program^[12]
• BTS The Spreadsheet - spreadsheet program^[13]
• TimeLink - an electronic diary program for planning and record-keeping
• I*S Time and Billing - a professional office administration program
• B/GRAPH Elite - a graphics/charting and statistical analysis package

For the Atari ST:

• DEGAS – bitmap painting application
• DEGAS Elite^[14]
• Thunder! The writer's Assistant ^[8] - spellchecker^[13]

References