1982 adverts

There's a Commodore Computer for every person, purpose and pocketbook

This advert, from Practical Computing, shows Commodore's range of computers and printers in the hands of archetypal business suits and the nuclear family. It includes the recently-launched VIC-20 - the...

Ronnie Barker and the Commodore PET Adverts

At the same time as William "Captain Kirk" Shatner was advertising for Commodore in the US, the UK saw TV's Ronnie Barker pressed in to service, with various nods towards Barker's knack of word-play and...

The First Honest-to-Goodness Full Color Computer - William Shatner

The US counterpart to Ronnie Barker, who had been pressed in to service advertising Commodore PETs in the UK with his trademark punnery and word-play, was none other than William "Captain Kirk" Shatner,...

VIC-20 Color Computer - What VIC-20 Can Do For You

This nice gate-fold sales material was made for the VIC-20 a few months after its UK launch. It's full of archetypal 80s people looking at screens, and the blurb contains information on how the VIC-20...

Shelton Sig/Net: 211 Power!

With a design that would not have looked out of place on Gerry Anderson's "Space: 1999", the Shelton sig/net 211 - designed by Chris Shelton, who had once worked for Nascom - was one of a range of modular...

Astronaut quality. Everyday simplicity. The HP-41C. £184

Hewlett-Packard, like Commodore in the 1970s, was also a calculator manufacturer - although Commodore had bailed out of that market the year before, in 1981. This particular model from Hewlett-Packard...

Nascom 3 - from Lucas Logic

Perhaps implausibly from the company better known for car parts - belts, bulbs and oil filters and so on - comes the Nascom 3, courtesy of Lucas Logic. Lucas had bought Nascom in 1982, after a previous...

The model of good business: Tuscan - the all-British microcomputer

Perhaps the chosen name - Tuscan - in the context of "all British" was meant to be ironic, but anyway this machine, an update of the regular Tuscan which had been launched the year before, maintains its...

Sinclair Owners - We'll give you £50 trade-in when you trade-up!

This is a curious attempt from Commodore to woo users of the ZX80 and ZX81 - small, low-memory and purely home computers that plugged into the television and could by held in one hand - to switch to a...

First time on Earth - Sharp MZ-80B

Perhaps unique in laying claim to some sort of extra-terrestrial origin, comes this advert for the Sharp MZ-80B. The "large" integrated screen had 320x300 pixel resolution and its processor was a Zilog...

The new Apple III - More computer power on your desk-top

This would seem to be the "missing link" Apple computer, as the world and popular culture seems not to register anything about it, and Apple's own history seems to skip from the Apple II to the Lisa or...

The DAI personal computer is here - High performance - High value

When Texas Instruments was developing its TI-99/2 and TI-99/4 computers, it knew that producing a PAL/SECAM version would be a hassle. Indeed, when the TI-99/4 finally launched in the UK it still couldn't...

Sinclair ZX81 Personal Computer - the heart of a system that grows with you

This advert was quite an impressive 4-page spread which featured in several computer magazines and was used to advertise the ZX81, which launched in the UK in March 1981. The ZX81 was a successful computer...

The new micro from LSI - Putting Britain back in front

It's another random entry in the "who?" category, from paid-up flag-flying British company LSI - not to be confused with Lear Siegler Incorporated, a US terminal manufacturer - which claims in the advert...

The if800 - Colour in your computing

The awkwardly-named if800 from OKI - first launched in 1980 - was on the face of it yet another conventional Z80A-based micro, however it differed from many by coming with an integrated printer - thanks...