1981 adverts

Some Hard Facts from Haywood

Given the side-bar looking for distributors, this would appear to be a fairly early advert from Haywood Electronic Associates, trading as Haywood. However, the company appeared to have been going since...

The Acorn Econet: the new low-cost interconnecting communication system for computers and peripherals

Here's a rare advert for Acorn's Econet - an affordable network using cheap four- or five-wire cabling (instead of the coaxial cabling found on some other networks) and which could support up to 255 nodes...

The Sinclair ZX81 Personal Computer - New High Performance, New Low Price, Same Sinclair Simplicity

Here's another advert for the Sinclair ZX81 - the computer that sold more than 1.5 million units and which almost single-handedly kick-started the computer revolution in the UK. In common with several...

VIC-20: The Waiting is Over. The Rush has Begun

This is the advert that formally kicked off Commodore's launch campaign in the UK for the VIC-20 - the 6502-based colour computer which became the first ever to sell a million units, going on to sell...

Commodore PET: Choosing a Computer Made Simple

The PET had been around for nearly five years by the time this advert was published, and so it's less of a case of advertising the hardware - which hasn't really changed much, apart from a bigger screen,...

Pear II - we proudly announce the arrival of the computer you have been waiting for

This advert is a brazen attempt to sell an Apple II clone machine, but unlike Franklin's ACE 1200, had the extra "beyond the call of duty" feature of even naming the machine and company after another...

Versatility is the Key - The Video Genie System

The EG 3003 Video Genie System was a sort-of TRS-80 Model 1 clone, made by enigmatic Hong Kong electronics company EACA and distributed in the UK by Lowe Electronics. It was first launched in early 1980....

Important notice to all micro-computer purchasers: The BBC Micro-computer system

This is perhaps the advert that really started it all for Acorn, at least in terms of the Acorn Proton, a.k.a. the BBC Micro. It announced the upcoming availability of the new BBC Microcomputer System...

Micronetworks introduce PM1000

Here's a seemingly one-off advert for what also seems to be a one-off machine: the PM1000 from Micro Networks, of Pall Mall in London. It's unusual because it's one of only a handful of micros which...

The Commodore Computer Range Price List

This advert is a sales-channel price list for later-model Commodore PET computers. Prices ranged from £632.50 for the entry-level 16K 40-column 12" screen PET 4016 (about [[632|1981]] in [[now]] terms)...

Kontron: Look to tomorrow with the PSIΨ80 Microcomputer Series

It's another advert aimed at OEMs rather than the end user, this time from Kontron Mikrocomputer GmbH of Echning, near Munich in what was West Germany. Demonstrating its target market of engineering,...

WHSmith: What Would I Do With a Computer?

This advert is a small A5 4-page booklet produced by UK newsagent chain WHSmith and demonstrates nicely how such regular high-street shops were very much part of the early home computer revolution. Sinclair...

Turn your Apple into the world's most versatile personal computer.

This is a real curiosity from Microsoft which shows how different the company was before the power of its coming hegemony with Intel and its own MS-DOS - and later Windows operating system - corrupted...

5¼" Winchesters - from Hotel Microsystems

Over a year before Hotel Microsystems Limited - later HM Systems - launched its first microcomputer, the Minstrel, comes this advert positioning the company as an importer and parts supplier. The advert...

Choose Atom Power

Right on the cusp of Acorn's launch of the Proton - the computer better known as the BBC Micro - comes this advert for its existing Atom, the 1980 machine which evolved from the even-earlier System 1,...