BASF
September 1980
BASF gives a good deal
As if to prove that absolutely everyone seemed to be having a go at the microcomputer industry, even German globo-chemico-corp BASF launched its own micro, ostensibly off the bat of its manufacture of...
A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts
Euro-Calc/Plessey
December 1979
EuroC - Simplicity is the watchword
Built for Euro-Calc by Plessey Microsystems, the EuroC was firmly aimed at businesses with its "computer as furniture" manufacture and extensive list of requisite business software like purchase, sale...
20th March 2015
A Map of connections in the early microcomputer industry
This is an attempt at a visualization of the connections in the sometimes-incestuous early microcomputer industry. It is not yet claimed to be complete, but should be seen as a work-in-progress. Prima...
Zilog
December 1979
How to solve Systems problems - Zilog's MCZ family
A rare advert from Zilog for its MCZ range of micros - everything from an entry-level floppy-disk-based model up to the MCZ 1/35 rack-mount machine with 10MB storage. The entry-level "low cost" machin...
Acorn
May 1980
Acorn Atom - from Acorn Computer
This was Acorn's first advert for its first full consumer-oriented micro - the Acorn Atom. The Atom was a 6502-based machine and was available primarily in kit form. It was a natural progression from ...
Tandy/Radio Shack
February 1980
Tandy - new lower prices on the TRS-80
Tandy had announced its follow-up to the 1977 TRS-80 Model 1 at the end of 1979 and was expecting to take orders from the beginning of 1980. Even so, it wasn't initially expecting to ship until April,...
RAIR
April 1980
RAIR Terminal Choice - choose from the best
This is an early advert from enigmatic company RAIR. RAIR appeared to have started out, like ACT, as a timesharing bureau as well as a supplier of peripherals and terminals. The company, as RAIR Times...
Tangerine
February 1980
New from Tangerine Computer Systems - the Microtan 65
This is an early advert from Tangerine announcing the company's new Microtan 65 in its simplest form - just a board with chips on it and an RF-modulator to drive a standard domestic television. The co...
ACT/Computhink
February 1980
The cheapest most advanced business Microcomputer
Marketed as the ACT Series 800 and built by Computhink of California, where it was known as the Minimax, the 800 was the company's first micro and came some 15 years after ACT's 1965 start as a comput...
Shelton
March 1983
Sig/Net For a growing business
Shelton Instruments Limited, of White Lion Street near Angel Tube Station in London's Islington, had been started back in 1970i by Chris Shelton, who ended up working a stint at Nascom - once the UK's...
Dynabyte
February 1980
Dynabyte - the Business Computer System your customers can afford
If nothing else proved the need for the likes of Commodore's Jack Tramiel or Sinclair's eponymous Clive to come along and build micros that normal people could afford to buy, it must the opening gambi...
Commodore
June 1983
If only he'd bought a Commodore computer
The Commodore 700, and its cheaper sibling the 500, were short-lived entrants in Commodore's business range. Confusingly named as the B128, B256 or CBM 128/256-80 in the US or the 700 series in Europe...
Compaq
December 1984
American take-away
The first company to produce a clone of IBM's PC BIOS had been Columbia, but the second - and the first to do it legally - was Compaq, a company set up in 1982 and whose first product was this, the Co...
Olivetti
April 1983
For impartial advice on which computer to buy, don't ask a salesman. Ask a computer
This is one of those implausible ads where the reader is expected to believe that Olivetti really programmed a bunch of computers in order to determine which, based on specs and performance, was the b...
Sinclair
March 1984
The first Arabic personal computer in the world
An interesting random advert for what was billed as the first ever Arabic personal computer in the world - a modified version of Sinclair's ZX81. In an era when English-derived programming languages -...