1985 adverts

Minstrel 2: TurboDOS power for multi-user networking

This advert, from July 1985's PRAC, announces the new Minstrel 2 from HM Systems, formerly known as Hotel Microsystems. Released less than a year after HM's Minstrel 68K and the Minstrel Turbo, the advert...

Make your XT multi-user

Alpha Microsystems Inc, or more commonly Alpha Micro, was one of relatively few multi-user manufacturers that made it through the era of the IBM PC and beyond, trading as AlphaServ during the dot-com...

How much persuasion do you need to buy a world-beating business computer?

With an amusing still from what looks like a 1930s film featuring a Vickers Machine Gun comes this advert from Jarogate, of Brixton, London, for its Sprite 286 multi-user system. Unlike Jarogate's earlier...

The new TDI Pinnacle - the fastest micro in the world

TDI, based in Clifton, Bristol, was a technology distributor and a VAR - a Value Added Reseller - which had become the largest customer of Sage Computer's "speed machine" micros - the Sage II and later...

The new Data General/One. The only industry-standard PC you can use on a camel

Here's another one of those adverts where it's tempting to question whether the claims made had ever actually been tested in the real world. It's for Data General's One - the 4.5kg portable launched...

The home computer that means business - Amstrad CPC 664

When interviewed about the upcoming Atari ST, former Commodore founder and all-round legend Jack Tramiel said "Home computer? I never heard of it - I make personal computers". It was a theme common...

Micronet 800: Nice password, shame about the identity

With an advert containing a theme still relevant to a modern audience - "your special identity number and personal password [are] the valuable key to a huge database" - Micronet 800 was a subsection of...

All you need to do this, is this: The Commodore 128 and 64

Officially launched at the 1985 January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and built with the same case used for the late-model C64s, the Commodore 128 was the company's last 8-bit computer. Even...

Who says you can't improve on the best?

Announced in July 1985 in this glossy gate-fold four-page magazine insert, the BBC Plus, or BBC Micro B+ to give it its full name, was the long-awaited update to the original BBC Micro - the influential...

The multiuser systems that also networks IBM PCs

Here's an apparently short-lived advert for the Ultraframe multi-user systems from Synamics Business Systems Ltd of London. Actually built by OEM manufacturer Independent Business Systems (IBS) Incorporated...

It must be axactly right for my needs but no more

Caught in the oncoming headlights of IBM's 5150 juggernaut comes this advert from Sanyo for its MBC-550 and 550 microcomputers. Continuing the "See Sanyo, the decide" theme of its earlier adverts, it's...

Miracle Technology WS2000 Modem: Ace Down The Line

The last time a modem was advertised as a thing in its own right was probably towards the end of the 1990s, when the pinacle of dial-up - the 56K modem - came out. Before then, there was still a bit...

It does accounts, projections, wordprocessing and 180mph

Only months after Amstrad had released the CPC 664, it was back with an entry in the battle-du-jour which by late summer of 1985 was all about 128K micros. Whilst not really offering much extra over...

Get even more attached to your Amstrad

Many computer companies of the time seemed to be happy to rely on third parties to produce peripherals for their machines, particularly Acorn which was famous for its long timescales in developing anything...

The greatest breakthrough in wrist technology since Seiko introduced quartz

Not actually an advert for a computer, per se, but an interesting reflection of what was all the rage at the time: multi-function "James Bond"-style watches. The Seiko RC1000 is shown connecting to...