A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

MOS Technology

The image above is adapted from a Wikimedia public-domain source MOS Technology was founded in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in 1969 by three former employees of General Instrument. It was set up in...

The 200 mph micro

Whilst it feels like pretty much every modern car is more computer than motor, the idea of using electronics to manage some or all of a car's engine and performance dates back decades, with Engine Control...

The British Micro: RAIR Black Box Microcomputer

This is probably the first advert to feature RAIR's Black Box - a microcomputer that was launched this year and which managed to survive until at least 1983, becoming popular as an OEM machine, cropping...

This is the famous ELF II computer

The apparently-famous ELF II from Netronics Research and Development Limited of New Milford, Connecticut, was one of relatively few micros around which used RCA's COSMAC - COmplementary Symmetry Monolithic...

Introducing Acorn: A professional MPU card

This is probably Acorn's very first advert - it does indeed say "introducing Acorn" - and appeared just a few months after the company's founding as Cambridge Processor Unit (CPU) in November 1978. The...

The Alphatronic PC means business

The Alphatronic PC was very much the baby of the Alphatronic family, being a Z80-based 8-bit machine designed and built in Japan to TA's specification, primarily for the home market. It sold mostly...

When you were a child, you didn't like it when the light went out. Are you any different now?

Zenith's notebook micro was based on Intel's CPU of the same name - the 80386SL, which was a variant of the '386 which had been designed specifically for use in portable computers. It was reasonably...

Schneider Computers... Stand out from the crowd!

Alan Sugar sometimes claimed that Amstrad's early success was because it didn't try to crack the European or US market, a move which almost bankrupted Acorn. Eventually though the company had to expand,...

Our powerful multi-user systems come complete with some new Power Points!

From the days before "Power Point" meant something other than slideshow presentations in tedious meetings on a Friday afternoon, comes this advert from Equinox for its latest multi-user system. The company...

One good idea leads to another. And another.

Here's an advert from Apple that nicely shows the updates made to the original Macintosh, launched in 1984, up to the latest - the Macintosh II. After the original Mac had been launched by the famous...

Europe's best-kept business secret - Now revealed in Britain

It's the beginning of the end for Commodore, as the company is now fully on the IBM-compatible gravy train, leaving behind its roots as the company which launched the world's first modern PC in January...

We want to show you how much our new £505 printer can produce in 60 seconds

"300 Adverts" was once contacted by someone asking whether there was a name for the style of adverts popular in the 1970s which were almost all some sort of text, often comprising straightforward lists...

The business computer that's a real mover

Here's another celebrity advertising endorsement for a microcomputer, this time featuring World Cup-winning footballer Bobby Charlton, where it's tempting to think that the legendary player knew as much...

At long last, the end of the queue is in sight

This advert, very reminiscent of the famous Saatchi & Saatchi "Labour Isn't Working" campaign of 1978 and '79, is for Gemini's MultiNet low-cost multi-user networking system. MultiNet was based upon...

Tandy Model 4P - Power and portability at a truly unbeatable price!

It wasn't until 1986 that Tandy/Radio Shack officially dropped both the Radio Shack part of the company name, as well as the TRS designation that had been part of its naming scheme since its first - the...