A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Psion MC400

Launched in 1989, the Psion MC 400 - for Mobile Computer - was Psion's first entry into the nascent "netbook" market. Although based on a CMOS version of Intel's 8086 - the 80C86 - the MC 400 wasn't actually...

If only all personal computers were this big

The Psion Series 3 - launched in 1991 - was an update of the popular Organiser II (itself an update of the original Organiser), which by 1989 had sold a combined 300,000 and propelled the company to a...

Announcing a computer that thinks in BASIC for only $298

Ohio Scientific seemed to only ever advertise variations of its Challenger series of sometimes-fridge-sized microcomputers, however here is the exception that proves the rule - the Model 500. It appears...

PIPS: We've cracked the BASIC problem

Sord, which had been selling its M100 and M200 business-focused micros in the UK since the early part of 1979, is here advertising software rather than any of its actual hardware, but that's probably...

I think, therefore IBM won't get my PC order

Atari released its first IBM compatible - the £400 entry-level 8086 Atari PC - in June 1987, although it had been previewed at the Atari show held in London during April. Atari's chairman, Jack Tramiel...

Amstrad's new baby is even smaller than most miniature PCs

It's been five years since Amstrad purchased the name and marketing rights to Sinclair's computers, having moved into the computer business a couple of years before with its CPC range of budget home micros....

Amiga 1500 - the world at your fingertips

The Amiga 1500 appears to be considered very much the mystery. It was essentially a cut-down version of the existing Amiga 2000, but shipped with an extra - but empty - CPU slot, only 1MB memory and two...

Golf Portable: Small by design - big in business

Goupil - or more properly Societé de Micro-informatique et Telecommunications (SMT) Goupil - was a French company that had been established in 1979 and which mostly produced computers for the French government....

Kaypro: if you want inside information... freephone 100

Another week, another clone: this advert focuses on Kaypro's 286 computer, which was the first IBM AT clone launched back in 1985. Although 80386 machines were around - not least Kaypro's own 386 -...

Tulip sharpens your image

This is an advert from Tulip, formerly known as Compudata of the Netherlands, for its LT 286 laptop, based on Intel's CMOS 80C286 CPU plus the 80C287 maths co-processor. It was Tulip's first laptop. ...

If you want to upgrade your office, here's a tip

It's another advert for Amstrad's P‍CW 8256, featuring a rubbish-tip metaphor that occured in a few of the adverts run around this time. The P‍CW 8256 and 8512 were hugely successful in the UK market,...

CompuStar - it's number one

Wells American had started out as Intertec Data Systems, which had been famous in the late 1970s and early 1980s for its SuperBrain twin-Z80-based all-in-one micro, which looked a bit like one of the...

The Olivetti M290. Whatever you put it through, it'll turn in a brilliant performance

The M290 from Olivetti was another entry in the mass of IBM-compatibles, in this case aiming at the AT with an Intel 80286 CPU running at 12MHz, and 2MB RAM. Olivetti had been dominant in the early days...

A pocket PC at a pocket-sized price

Sometimes considered as the very first true IBM-compatible portable, Atari's IBM-compatible pocket PC was originally known as the PocketPC, but it was eventually christened the Portfolio specifically...

HM Systems: The new Minstrel 4EP

HM Systems - formerly known as Hotel Microsystems - is back with an update of its Minstrel 4, the Minstrel 4EP. It's quite an impressive spec, supporting up to 18 users with between three and nineteen...