A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts
In a private room at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in January 1977, Commodore showed the world's first complete "personal computer" - the PET 2001 - an "appliance" micro that for the first time could be taken out of the box, plugged in and used by regular people without a soldering iron.
Soon, Tandy and Apple joined in and the market grew steadily, but then Commodore and Sinclair launched cheap home computers in the early 80s that changed everything.
The market exploded from tens of thousands of machines a year to millions, as famous 1970s names like Cromemco, IMSAI, Nascom and MITS were swept away. Micro companies were suddenly worth $1 billion dollars and their employees were millionaires. Hundreds of companies launched hundreds of incompatible machines. Price wars were started, old scores were settled and companies were destroyed.
Eight bits made way for 16 and 32 in the space of a few years. For a while Britain led the world in manufacture and adoption, with 80% of all computers sold in Europe being sold in the UK.
The fate of many microcomputer companies. From a Business Operating Software advert in Personal Computer World, June 1986.
Then the 8-bit market reached saturation and more companies imploded - Sinclair was sold for its name and assets only, Acorn almost didn't make it and a raft of also-rans fell by the wayside - Camputers, Dragon Data, Elan, Oric and Jupiter Cantab to name but a few. Even big names like Timex and Texas Instruments were burned.
Meanwhile, the sleeping giant that was IBM launched its 5150 at the end of 1981 and watched as it slowly but inevitably over the next few years became the standard. Other companies cloned it, copied and improved it and soon the only game in town was the IBM PC.
From the latter half of the 1980s, every micro company and its dog was building generic beige boxes, and people wanted the same beige boxes at home and work. The home computer as a concept was dead, and the "wonder years" were over.
This collection of over 300 adverts attempts to tell something of that story...
Gemini Micro
March 1983
Fifteen 80-Bus solutions
Gemini Microcomputers had been founded by John Marshall towards the end of 1980 after his previous company - Nascom/Lucas - had called in the receivers. Since its founding, Nascom had produced the Nascom...
Bromcom
March 1983
Future-proof multi-user CP/M system
Here's an early advert from Bromley Computer Consultancy - trading as Bromcom - for its Superstar CP/M-based multi-user system, which would be around until at least the summer of the following year. ...
Apple
March 1983
Evolution. Revolution.
With Apple's famous "reality distortion field" in full effect with the the oft-made but incorrect claim that Apple invented the personal computer, and that since the release of the Apple II the world...
TDI/Pinnacle
April 1985
The new TDI Pinnacle - the fastest micro in the world
TDI, based in Clifton, Bristol, was a technology distributor and a VAR - a Value Added Reseller - which had become the largest customer of Sage Computer's "speed machine" micros - the Sage II and later...
Jarogate
April 1985
How much persuasion do you need to buy a world-beating business computer?
With an amusing still from what looks like a 1930s film featuring a Vickers Machine Gun comes this advert from Jarogate, of Brixton, London, for its Sprite 286 multi-user system. Unlike Jarogate's earlier...
Alpha Micro
April 1985
Make your XT multi-user
Alpha Microsystems Inc, or more commonly Alpha Micro, was one of relatively few multi-user manufacturers that made it through the era of the IBM PC and beyond, trading as AlphaServ during the dot-com...
Morrow Designs
August 1984
Get XT performance at a Jr. price
The MD-11 from Morrow Designs - a company founded by George Morrow which traces its roots back to the Homebrew Computer Club of the mid 1970s - was the last of the Micro Decision range of machines first...
Sanyo
July 1985
It must be axactly right for my needs but no more
Caught in the oncoming headlights of IBM's 5150 juggernaut comes this advert from Sanyo for its MBC-550 and 550 microcomputers. Continuing the "See Sanyo, the decide" theme of its earlier adverts, it's...
Hotel Microsystems
April 1985
Minstrel 2: TurboDOS power for multi-user networking
This advert, from July 1985's PRAC, announces the new Minstrel 2 from HM Systems, formerly known as Hotel Microsystems. Released less than a year after HM's Minstrel 68K and the Minstrel Turbo, the advert...
IBS/Synamics
July 1985
The multiuser systems that also networks IBM PCs
Here's an apparently short-lived advert for the Ultraframe multi-user systems from Synamics Business Systems Ltd of London. Actually built by OEM manufacturer IBS Incorporated of the US, and assembled...
Acorn
July 1985
Who says you can't improve on the best?
Announced in July 1985 in this glossy gate-fold four-page magazine insert, the BBC Plus, or BBC Micro B+ to give it its full name, was the long-awaited update to the original BBC Micro - the influential...
CompuServe
May 1993
When you're left on your own, you're not alone.
1993 might have marked the tail end of the home computer era - only Commodore's Amiga and Atari's ST were still on the market - but it also marked the dawn of another: the World Wide Web. Although you...
IBM
January 1993
There is a place in this world for DOS and Windows. And you're looking at it.
OS/2 was an operating system originally intended to replace Microsoft's PC-DOS on IBM's then-latest IBM PC - the PS/2. Intended as a multi-tasking and windowing operating system, it was initially co-developed...
Dell
February 1993
No wonder our customers love us
It's another advert for Dell, and one which effectively sums up the end of the home computer era. The entry-level Dell System 333 s/L shown in the advert was available for £859 plus VAT, which is around...
ACT/Apricot
January 1993
The new Apricot Xen-LS II. Everything you could unreasonably demand from a computer.
Apricot, or ACT - Applied Computer Techniques - had started out as a mainframe accounting bureau in 1965. The company launched its first computer - the ACT Series 800, in 1980. This was actually built...