Back in the day I used to write on a Brother WP 3400. It was a monstrosity: half word processor, half typewriter. It used 3.5" diskettes and its own god-forsaken proprietary software. Saving projects was a crap shoot. The bastard even eradicated my first full-length play, which I had spent an entire month cranking out at a writer's colony. Looking back, it was probably for the best.

My Brother Torture Machine (as I called it back then) had one thing going for it; the screen was beautifully uncluttered. The text glowed in an eye-pleasing orange, reminiscent of something out of Wargames. There were no rulers, no toolboxes or fonts. There was certainly no animated paperclip asking if you were writing a letter. It was just you and the text, simple and clean.

I loathe writing in Microsoft Word. There's too much in the way. I'm a big fan of Celtx, but crafting early drafts into screenwriting software just messes with your flow. TextEdit is nice, if you just want to get something on the page. But for anyone who truly longs for the Zen experience of writing with the WP 3400, Lifehacker has the scoop on distraction-free software like Text Monkey (PC) and JDarkroom (Mac).

Thanks to Mr. Martin's Typewriter Museum, the only place on the entire web that remembers the WP-3400. Cue the pained roar of a dinosaur.