WordStar 4.0, the DOS word processor famously still used by George R. R. Martin, now runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, and in the browser via a GitHub project from nampara-ai. The mechanism is straightforward: a vintage MSDOS binary wrapped in DOSBox, packaged with shell scripts that auto-build a DOSBox config from a template and launch the whole thing with a single command.
The web version uses WebAssembly. Spin it up locally with 'python3 -m http.server 5309' from the web subdirectory and point a browser at localhost:5309. There is one real bug worth knowing: the Linux wordstar.sh does not correctly resolve symlinks, which breaks path linking. The fix is a one-line swap to 'realpath' on the script itself, and the article prints the corrected bash snippet in full.
This project is not the only route. The article points to RunCPM as an alternative runtime and links to a separate 'modern' WordStar revival covered in a 2023 Hackaday piece. The reason to read the original is the symlink fix, the exact server command for the browser version, and a TigerClawTV walkthrough video that shows the actual interface in use.
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