1983 adverts

Concurrent CP/M - Multiplies the power of your microcomputer

Digital Research had been set up in 1976 to capitalise on the popularity of Gary Kildall's CP/M operating system - the popular and de-facto standard OS for most serious microcompu...

If you want to help with research, buy someone else's computer

At almost the anatomically complete-opposite end of the scale to Commodore's Maureen the Elephant comes this advert featuring cute guinea pigs, from little-known Globe Business Ma...

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 p...

The Jupiter Ace: Clever enough for Forth, dumb enough to sell for £90

The Jupiter Ace, launched in August 1982, was an unusual entry into the canon of early 1980s British home computers. Although it was Yet Another Z80 Machine, it was different in ...

Are you the QX-10 that undertakes financial modelling, stock control, book-keeping...?

This advert is for the somewhat-flawed Epson QX-10, a machine aimed at the IBM/Sirius market and which was launched less than two months after Epson's previous HX20 portable. The...

The Ultimate - Zenith Data Systems Z-100

One of a myriad of IBM-PC-like machines around during this era, although pitched more as an alternative than a compatible machine, the Z-100 was actually the pre-built version of ...

Computerise without compromise: Quantum QM 2000

This is short-lived advert from Leed's-based Quantum Computer Systems Limited, for its new all-British Quantum 2000 microcomputer, where the definition of "all British" is somewha...

Micro-Professor: The 64K Computer That Spans Generations

First launched in 1982, the Micro-Professor MPF II was Multitech Corporation's update to its earlier MPF1 machine, although this time it was aimed more at the home and Apple II ma...

CAL Personal Computer: Bet you wish you were called IBM

It's sometimes mistakenly given that the name of the intelligent computer in 2001 - HAL - is a dig at IBM, as it's every letter of that company's acronym shifted down one in the a...

Commodore 700: It's a picture - and it's worth a thousand words

With a case popularly believed to have been designed by Ferdinand Porsche, but which was actually designed by Commodore's regular industrial designer Ira Velinsky, an on-board 650...

A two-minute operation turns your BBC Micro into the heart of a word-processor

Although didn't do much outside its home market, the Acorn BBC Micro Model B was quite a big thing in the UK. Its popularity in the UK was largely thanks to a unique collaboratio...

Introducing the Micronix 80HD - a complete microcomputer on a single board

Single board computers - like the Raspberry Pi - are still quite popular, especially with hobbyists as they're often small and have low power requirements. The fun with this adv...

Commodore VIC-20 - Let Commodore expand your horizons

Even though the Commodore 64 had been launched the year before, the VIC-20 was still shifting units - it would end up selling over 2.5 million before it was discontinued in 1985, ...

Introducing the Tandy Micro Executive Workstation

Proving that it's possible to stretch out a model name to any possible extreme, comes the "Micro Executive Work Station" (MEWS), otherwise known as the TRS-80 Model 100 - the TRS-...

Rainbow 100 - It's The Complete System for Complete Solutions

No collection of adverts about the early computer industry would be complete without at least one featuring Digital - otherwise known as Digital Equipment Corporation or DEC. Thi...