Welcome to the RAD Software Web site! The purpose of this page is to provide you with a little history about our company. We want you to feel more at home here, and help you feel more comfortable in doing business with us.

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RAD Software started in 1987 as a self-taught programming hobby. Writing 16-bit DOS-based programs in GW-Basic, RAD Software developed a few software applications for home and personal use, focusing on basic programs that helped the average personal computer user to organize their life at home. Initial programs were PCA (Personal Checking Account, now MyCash), BombAway (simple artillery game, now OnTarget), and BioBase (Address Book program, now InTouch).

As some of you may remember, there was no such thing as “the internet” in the late 80’s. Instead, there were local BBSs (Bulletin Board Services).  BBSs were operated by computer lovers with their own money in their living room in local communities all over the country, using ‘souped up’ IBM-ATs hooked up to a 1200-baud modem to their home phone line.  These selfless BBS operators were known as Sysops (for System Operator). All day long, people in the local community would call their number hoping to catch it available (no ‘Call Waiting’ back then), log on for a few minutes, browse the file libraries, download a program if it looked interesting, and disconnect so the next caller could get through.

This grassroots network of Sysops, looking for new files to post in their libraries, developed informal contacts with each other, trading libraries and slowly spreading popular software around the country, and the world.

Given the severe ‘networking’ limitations of the era, it was rather surprising that RAD Software began getting mail orders from around the country, and eventually from around the world.  RAD Software would copy a ‘registered version’ of the ordered software on a 5 1/4” floppy disk and mail it to the recipient.

As the internet began to evolve during the 90s, BBSs slowly but inexorably became an extinct form of information sharing, and ‘shareware’ more and more became a viable, and even marketable, distribution and selling concept in an internet paradigm (a very popular word back in the early 90s).

As the speed, refinement, and complexity of the modern internet evolved, RAD Software began offering more software programs on the internet.  A series of collectors’ software, such as BookBase for book lovers (now MyBooks), SongBase for music collectors, CardBase for sports cards lovers, VCRBase, ad nauseum, were released, with MyBooks being by far the most popular (and the only collector’s series that survived the transition from DOS-based programming to Windows-based programming). RAD Software also wrote two software programs during early 90s based on popular word puzzles (Scramble and WordHide).

Around 1990, RAD Software began developing software aimed for the law enforcement/public safety arena. The focus was on smaller agencies that did not have a big IBM mainframe and big-city budgets to spend the thousands of dollars that big companies demanded for software that enhanced the law enforcement function.  The reason for this focus was that the owner had been a career law enforcement officer with a large (400+ emp.) city police department, and saw that there might be a niche market for quality software at affordable prices for smaller police departments around the country.

RAD Software’s first law enforcement offering was Evidence, released in late 1989. Soon afterward, POSITIVE (police report writing software, now CopWrite) was released.  Then, in July 1993, RAD Software released DOS-based 911Help (now e911Pro), a police call-taking & radio dispatching program.  This was by far the most ambitious and interactively complex software ever attempted by RAD Software, and the dependability and accuracy of the data was literally a life-and-death issue, given the practical application and use of the software in 911 Centers around the country.  Over the years, e911Pro has proven itself every day by thousands of users around the world-- and not a single reported incident of a performance problem or data loss in more than a decade of use!

As the century came to a close, RAD Software also released CopMan (police personnel management), and CopGun (firearms scoring/performance database).

The 90s was a decade of substantial and rapid transitions-- from 5 1/4” floppy disks (360kb) to 3 1/2” floppy disks (1.44mb) to CDs (640mb) to DVDs (4.7gb); from DOS-based programming to 16-bit Windows programming to 32-bit programming; from IBM-PCs to small inexpensive personal computers that are hundreds of times more powerful; from less than 1Mb RAM to more than 1Gb RAM; from 10Mb hard disk drives to hard drives that are thousands of times bigger and many times faster; from CPUs that ran at a few megahertz to CPUs now running at several thousand megahertz.  Every major development in the computer arena required appropriate software adjustments, and RAD Software stayed very busy just keeping up with these changes.

In 2000, RAD Software released MyLife, a very popular multi-purpose organizer that tracks appointments, birthdays, to-do lists, with a built-in reminder/alarm, and so on. Then in July, 2002, Citation (computerized traffic citation log) was released.

In 2002, the owner of RAD Software retired from police work after almost 30 years of service.  Since then, RAD Software has finally been getting more attention and time that it needed to become a more mature and polished internet-based business. Today, with its own web domain, a diverse selection of high-quality products, and a renewed dedication to developing powerful and practical software, RAD Software is poised to provide outstanding software at outstanding prices well into the new century.  Incredibly, some RAD Software programs still cost only $10 or less!

In January, 2004, RAD Software released MyRide, a program that lets you enter and maintain important information about your cars, motorcycles, ATVs, etc. In September, 2004, RAD Software released e911Pro, a major upgrade of e911Help that raised the performance bar to a much higher level!

Beginning 2005, RAD Software partnered with PayPal to provide an online ordering option using the most popular and secure financial online service in the world. Because RAD Software has a merchant account with PayPal, our customers don’t have to be a member of PayPal to use its ordering services!

From its beginnings in 1987 until the Summer of 2005, RAD Software mailed every customer a custom-compiled licensed version of the software they ordered on a personalized media blank (at first, a 5 1/4” floppy disk-- eventually, a CD). Then, in May, 2005, beginning with InTouch as a trial project, RAD Software created a review version model that could be instantly converted to licensed version by entering a unique License Key# via a built-in registration process. This way, customers can instantly convert their review version to a licensed version without having to wait for a RAD Software Installation CD to arrive in the mail.

The response to this new approach was so immediately and overwhelmingly positive that RAD Software scrambled to convert all of its software to this new registration paradigm. As of July 1, 2005, all RAD Software programs now provide on-the-spot licensing for our customers’ convenience.

In 2006, RAD Software was off to an ambitious start. In response to customer feedback of the public safety and commercially oriented software, RAD Software developed ‘Premium Version’ upgrades. These upgrades included a common feature set that dramatically raised the level of data performance, user access security, data backup/restore security, and much more.

Then RAD Software developed and released a completely new educational software package-- MathTrac-- to help you help your children (or students) master their basic math table skills.

In 2007, RAD Software is celebrated 20 years of providing top quality software at rock-bottom prices, with our deepest appreciation to our customers for being our partners in a great (and ongoing) story of success for everyone!

For 2008, RAD Software is introducing a full-featured discussion forum and a revamped web site. We plan to upgrade several software titles, with emphasis on the law enforcement software. We also have new offices now, with more space and more equipment. We’re looking forward to making RAD Software better than ever for our customers!

We hope that you feel more at home now visiting RAD Software!  Please feel free to look around, download and review fully functional software at no cost or obligation, and find out for yourself why so many people love our software so much!  Feel free to contact us anytime if you have any questions about anything we haven’t covered in this web site.

In closing, thanks again for visiting RAD Software-- we look forward to working with you!