A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Introducing performance to the microcomputer-based small business system

On the face of it, the PBM-1000 is yet another standard business micro, what with its Z80A processor, 80K RAM, 5¼" floppy disk drives and CP/M. Possibly designed by IMSAI 8080 co-designer Joe Killian,...

A powerful multi-user system for under £6,600

As more adverts are added to the collection, the challenge is on to discover more and more obscure microcomputers that time forgot. And this is defintely one such computer: the Clenlo Ace Multi-User...

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...

New Adler Alphatronic: Now £1550 can buy you a lot of computer

Here's an advert for the new Alphatronic from Triumph-Adler of West Germany - one of several traditional office equipment manufacturers, like Olivetti and Olympia, to enter the new-ish microcomputer market....

The systems: Rader 1000 and Rader 2000

Even though Rade Systems of Ballards Lane in north London ran this advert for at least a year - despite being full of grocer's apostrophes - the company itself is another of those that has managed to...

Ohio is now in Berkshire

Acknowledging that the opening line would "upset geographers but delight OEM systems designers", this advert from Ohio Scientific of Aurora in Ohio announced the opening of the company's UK office near...

Transdata's Cx 500 microcomputer family: the problem solvers

Here's another Z80-based system, albeit with a slight twist in that it's aimed not just at business but at the scientific community. The entry-level Cx 502 had a Z80A CPU, 64K RAM and twin 8" IBM-format...

Wouldn't you like an Oscar for a superb performance

Here's an advert for yet another Z80A-based, S-100 CP/M system, from Interactive Data Systems (IDS) of Milton Keynes. At least this time the advert admits as such, suggesting somewhat understatedly that...

The NeXTStation has landed at Sign Express

After Apple had released its Macintosh in 1984, it was almost immediately found to be slow, thanks to its limited memory and disk space, and by 1985 there were already plans for a "fast Macintosh". ...

MicroCentre introduces... System Zero

Cromemco's System Zero was a small Z80A-based machine primarily intended in process control situations, which was first released in 1980. It was designed primarily to take ROM-based software, although...

EuroMicro's answer to high-performance and flexibility

EuroMicro Ltd of north London, apparently a UK offshoot of EuroMicro Inc, is another one of those value-added reseller companies that seems to have left no trace. It first appeared in 1982, when it was...

95% off the cost of financial modelling

Although this advert is for software and not a microcomputer, it does come from Applied Computer Techniques (ACT) of Birmingham - a company that had been importing Computhink's MiniMax and selling it...

If you think you've seen it all before, then take a closer look at the Sig/Net

This is the first known advert for Chris Shelton's Sig/Net, the range of hardware which is considered as perhaps the first ever modular multi-user personal computer system. With its budget monochrome...

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...

Future-proof multi-user CP/M system

Here's an early advert for 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. Essentially...