Brother 240k

Brother Industries started producing Electronic Word Processors in the mid-1980's. The first model, the WP-1, incorporated a 3.5 floppy for saving documents and was capable of storing 120k on a single sided double density disk, referred to as WP-1α. Later models could store 240k on a double sided double density disk, referred to as WP-2β. The format of the files was different between the 120k and 240k. Also the method of storing the data on the disks for both systems was incompatible with IBM PC's. Later models used a file system compatible with IBM PC's and included software to convert between formats.

File information
Files saved from 240k Brother Word Processors contain an ascii based system with quite a few control bytes for managing all the features of the word processor. Depending on the "Daisywheel" installed one could type English, International or scientific glyphs, chosen through a system of switching the keyboard setting within the word processor. When printing a mixture of glyph's, one would be prompted to switch out the "Daisywheel" for the corresponding character set.

File Identification
Files saved to a Brother 240k disk have no extension and have the hex values "" for the first 4 bytes. The text for the document begins at byte 32 (0x20).

File Extraction
In order to bring the files created on a Brother WP to a modern computer a disk image must be created.

Software

 * RetroFloppy Transformenator
 * Discussion on Decoding and Conversion tool

Services

 * Pivar
 * Retro Floppy
 * LuxSoft in the UK