1983 adverts

Acorn Electron

This sales brochure, featuring a very Salvador Dali-esque painting including a Rubik's Cube - one of the defining icon of the 1980s - was for the Acorn Electron, sometimes known as the Elk - a machine...

After you ask what it can do for you now, ask what it can do for you later: HP-86

More proof that it took at least a few years for the IBM PC format to bulldoze everything in its path, comes this advert for the Hewlett-Packard HP-86. Looking a bit like a very slimmed-down Commodore...

Dragon 32: There's only one thing harder than bulding a great computer. Building software to match.

The Dragon 32 was another entry in the burgeoning early-80s British computer scene and was originally developed by Mettoy, the company that also made Corgi toys. Mettoy suffered ongoing financial problems...

It's the same old Apple II, except for the front, back and inside

The Apple III, which had been released three years before in 1980, had been a relative failure, shifting only 65,000 units before it was canned, so the venerable Apple II line was continued with this...

Oric-1 - created by Tangerine

Tangerine had been around since 1978, and had previously been selling a 6502-based one-board computer called the Microtan 65. This was abandoned after around 10,000 systems had been sold, but was ressurected...

Every week, more and more people like you are going to work with an Osborne personal business computer

The Osborne One was designed by Lee Felsenstein, who had designed Processor Technology's Sol computer back in 1976, and was heavily influenced by Alan Kay's NoteTaker concept at Xerox PARC. It was launched...

A Graphic Display of Intelligence

Cifer was established in Melksham, Wiltshire in 1972, as a manufacturer of terminals and - later on - microcomputers. According to its advert it became a major supplier in the European OEM market, meaning...

The new GEC 1450 makes building a system child's play.

GEC - or General Electric Company plc - was a large British conglomerate with interests in defence, electronics, communications and engineering. It was founded in 1886, making it one of the oldest companies...

HP 9000: Today, HP can give you full 32-bit power

At around the same time as HP was dabbling in the mainstream microcomputer market with machines like its HP-86, released in 1982 and which retailed for $2,820, which is about [[2000|1983]] in [[now]],...

You'll never forget your first TMK 300 micro

Unlike the rest of the world then, as this advert didn't appear that often, with this placing in specialist systems magazine Systems International and the occasional appearance in PRAC. It's for a range...

What Cromemco computer card capability can do for you

According to the advert - which like Clenlo's advert of 1982 gives a nice insight into what a microcomputer "bus" actually does - Cromemco offered one of the most complete lines of computer cards in the...

Epson HX-20: It could mean the end of the rubber duck as we know it

From the time when the only colours allowed in anyone's decorative colour scheme were black, red and grey comes this advert from Epson. It's perhaps one of the more irresponsible ever, given the potent...

CP/M Graphics - your ticket to success

Intergalactic Digital Research was founded by Gary Kildall, along with his wife Dorothy Kildall, in 1976, three years after Kildall first wrote CP/M - the first-ever disk operating system for a microcomputer....

Triumph Adler makes it all refreshingly simple with the Alphatronic micro

Triumph-Adler, originally of Germany, was first bought out by the US Royal Typewriter Co. in 1969 and then, more implausibly, by German car-giant Volkswagen, which acquired a majority stake in 1979. ...

Solve the "Which microcomputer to buy" puzzle in six easy moves

There's nothing quite like an advert without a photo of the thing you're selling to really promote it, although this one does at least feature a custom Rubik's cube. That's maybe because this appears...