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    Acorn,  Acornsoft,  ACT/Apricot,  ACT/Computhink,  Aculab,  Advance,  Advance Memory Systems,  Ai Electronics,  Alpha Micro,  Altos,  Amstrad,  Apple,  Asda,  Atari,  BASF,  BCL,  Bendix,  Bondwell,  British Micro,  Bromcom,  Bywood,  C/WP-Cortex,  CAL,  Cambridge Computer,  Camputers,  Canon,  Casio,  Casu Electronics,  Cifer,  Climax International,  Coleco,  Columbia,  Comart,  Commodore,  Compaq,  Compucolor Corporation,  Compukit,  CompuServe,  Computer Facilities,  COMX,  Corvus,  Cromemco,  Cyber Electronics,  DAI,  Data General,  Dataindustrier/Luxor,  Dell,  Digital,  Digital Group,  Digital Research,  Dragon Data,  Durango,  Dynabyte,  EACA/Genie,  ECD,  Elliott,  Enterprise/Elan,  Epson,  Equinox/Parasitic,  Euro-Calc/Plessey,  Exidy,  Ferranti,  Fortronic,  Fortune,  Franklin,  Fujitsu,  Future,  GEC,  Gemini Micro,  Globe Business Machines,  Goldstar,  Goupil,  Gulfstream/Bytec,  Hayes,  Haywood,  Heathkit,  Hewlett-Packard,  HH,  Hitachi,  Hotel Microsystems,  Iasis,  IBM,  ICL,  Imagine,  IMSAI,  Intel,  Intertec,  IO Research,  Iotec,  ITCS,  Ithaca,  ITT,  Jarogate,  Jupiter Cantab,  Kaypro,  Laskys,  Limrose,  LSI,  Mattel,  Memotech,  Metacomco,  MicroDaSys,  Micromation,  Micronet,  Micronix,  Microsoft,  Microtanic, Midwest Scientific Instruments (MSI),  Miracle Technology,  Mission,  MITS,  Mitsubishi,  Morrow,  MOS Technology,  Multitech,  Namal,  Nascom/Lucas,  NCR,  NEC,  Netronics,  Newbury Laboratories,  Newbury/Grundy,  Newtons Laboratories,  North Star,  Noval,  Novation,  Ohio Scientific,  Olivetti,  Olympia,  Opus,  Orb Micro,  Oric,  Osborne,  Pace,  Panasonic,  Pearcom,  PerSci,  Philips,  Polymorphic,  Portico,  Prism,  Processor Technology,  Psion,  Quantum,  Qume,  RAIR,  Rank Xerox,  RCA,  Research Machines,  Rockwell,  Sanyo,  Schneider,  Scicon,  Seiko,  Semi-Tech/Pied Piper,  Sharp,  Shelton,  Shugart,  Sinclair,  Sirius/Victor,  Smoke Signal,  Sord/CGL,  Soroc,  Space Byte,  Spectravideo,  SWTPC,  Tandata,  Tandon,  Tandy/Radio Shack,  Tangerine,  Tatung,  Tava,  TDI/Sage,  Telcon/Zorba,  TeleVideo,  Texas Instruments,  TLF,  Torch,  Toshiba,  Toyo Menka,  Transam,  Transtec,  Triumph-Adler,  Tulip/Compudata,  Tycom,  U-Micro,  Vector Graphic,  Victor,  VisiCorp,  Wang,  Wells American,  Wicat,  Wren Computers,  Xcalibur,  Yamaha,  Zen,  Zenith Data Systems,  Zilog

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A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

adverts home | a-z index | industry connections | timelines | by year | next 15 adverts | previous 15 adverts

Commodore advert thumbnail

Commodore

October 1983

The Commodore 8296 Business Computer puts power at your command

Released in 1983, the 8296 was the last of the PET line - the world's first personal computer, which had been first shown at Chicago CES in January 1977. Commodore had already tr...

Commodore advert thumbnail

Commodore

December 1984

The report you are waiting for: simple, factual, honest and 100% biased

This advert was part of a lavish four-page spread in the December 1984 edition of Personal Computer World. It's obviously Christmas as there's a Santa under the entry for "X" for ...

Acorn advert thumbnail

Acorn

January 1984

BBC Micro: Not all computers stay at home

This was one of several similar adverts for the BBC Micro which ran for a few months. They all follow a pattern of showing various things that the BBC - aka Proton - was good at, ...

Seiko advert thumbnail

Seiko

January 1984

Seiko: Where fools rush in - we made sure...

Perhaps more famous for its digital watches, Seiko had its own Business Computers line and launched this - the Series 8600 - in 1983. It ran on an 5MHz Intel 8086 CPU and came wi...

Olivetti advert thumbnail

Olivetti

25th February 1984

When you add up the facts, no other micro equals ours

It's another advert for British Olivetti's M20 - in this case the entry-level dual-floppy M20 CQ, available for £2,064 - about £8,710 in 2025. The M20 - first released in 1982 - ...

Gemini Micro advert thumbnail

Gemini Micro

December 1984

Gemini: Customised Computers, at off-the-peg prices

Gemini Microcomputers, of Amersham in Buckinghamshire, seems to have based its entire existance on more-or-less the same thing - boards built around the Z80 CPU and running CP/M, ...

ACT/Apricot advert thumbnail

ACT/Apricot

December 1984

Our Rivals are Speechless: The Apricot Portable

Here's an advert for the Apricot Portable - the first portable computer anywhere to offer a speech recognition system, with a four-thousand word vocabulary and the ability to unde...

Toshiba advert thumbnail

Toshiba

October 1984

Toshiba MSX

Although Toshiba had dabbled in the computer market a couple of years before, with its T-200, and whilst the US and the UK markets were busy churning out as may systems as possibl...

MITS advert thumbnail

MITS

August 1975

Altair 8800: World's Most Inexpensive BASIC Language System

If there's one microcomputer that can claim to be the grandaddy of the entire industry then it's this - the Altair 8800, from Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, better k...

Tandon advert thumbnail

Tandon

December 1986

Tandon: The Magnificent Seven

This advert more than many sums up the dullness of the microcomputer industry in the latter half of the 1980s. Instead of an actual variety of computers, like Commodore might hav...

Atari advert thumbnail

Atari

June 1983

Atari 400 and 800: More K's, Less £'s

Excepting an egregious use of "less" instead of "fewer", this advert nicely shows Atari's 400 and 800 machines, which had been launched in 1978 but didn't make it to the UK until ...

Triumph-Adler advert thumbnail

Triumph-Adler

June 1983

Alphatext: the WP system that stands alone

Here's an advert for another dedicated word-processing system, in an era where it seems that the idea that general-purpose computers could do word processing as well as other thin...

Digital Group advert thumbnail

Digital Group

April 1978

Tomorrow's computer here today: The Bytemaster

The Bytemaster - or perhaps more correctly the Mini Bytemaster - was the last computer to be designed by the Digital Group, of Denver, Colorado, before the company's collapse in 1...

Equinox/Parasitic advert thumbnail

Equinox/Parasitic

October 1977

Equinox: All Together Now!

The Equinox 100 was a Zilog Z80 or Intel 8080-based system with an industry-standard S-100 bus - the most popular bus standard of the day. It was built by Parasitic Engineering ...

Tandy/Radio Shack advert thumbnail

Tandy/Radio Shack

November 1982

Tandy TRS-80 Word Processing System

There was a phase for a few years where the idea of microcomputers being general-purpose machines still hadn't caught in with some sectors of the market, and so these general-purp...

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