A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Sage Computer Technology: The wise man's choice

The Sage family of micros, looking as they do like external 5.25" floppy disk units in this advert - which is another accessiblity fail with its low-contrast black-text-on-dark-brown colour scheme - seemed...

Cifer: When a microprocessor costs £3, why make do with one?

The Series 1, from Wiltshire-based Cifer - a company which had been "at the forefront of computer technology for over ten years" and which had a "bread and butter business in terminals" and a turnover...

The Tiger from HH

Whilst there had already been a few computers produced by regular electronics companies, such as Heathkit with its H9, there's probably no other example of a company that was famous for building amplifiers...

Kenneth Kendall: Now in chip form

This advert is for a speech synthesis chip for the BBC Micro which used the voice of one of the greats of 1970s television news broadcasting - Kenneth Kendall. It's a nice bit of circular reference...

Discover the remarkable NCR Decision Mate V

Hot on the heels (well, not really) of 1962's NCR 390, comes National Cash Register's Decision Mate V. It was a dual-processor machine, with an 8-bit Zilog Z80 and a 16-bit Intel 8088, two 360K floppy...

NEC personal computers

NEC was another of those companies, like Texas Instruments and Commodore, that was vertically intergrated - in this case making the computers as well as - according to the advert - most of the components...

Solve the "Which microcomputer to buy" puzzle in six easy moves

There's nothing quite like an advert without a photo of the thing you're selling to really promote it, although this one does at least feature a custom Rubik's cube. That's maybe because this appears...

There are spreadsheets and spreadsheets. And there's Multiplan

Multiplan was part of the wave of spreadsheet software that followed on from the release of VisiCalc for the Apple II in 1979. It had been written in such a way that it could be easily ported, and so...

Intertec offers the warranty your first computer should have offered

Intertec - based in Columbia, South Carolina, US - had been founded as a terminal manufacturer in 1973. It then launched its Z80-based SuperBrain micro in 1979, which seemed to be everywhere throughout...

Personal computers from Fujitsu. Japan's leading computer manufacturer

Founded in 1923 as a joint venture between Furukawa Electric Co. Limited and Seimens of Germany, originally as a telecommunications company, Fujitsu was part of the much-feared Japanese invasion of the...

The ORB Microcomputer from ABS Computers

Possibly the funkiest-looking microcomputer ever built, the Orb from ABS Computers of Brighton came in one of eight possible colours, including orange which, according to PCN, made it look twice as hideous....

The Xcalibur portable: The Apple IIe-based system for people on the move

This is another advert for an official Apple clone from the days before Apple changed its mind and decided it wasn't going to allow such things. Rather than a straight-up Apple II clone, like 1980's...

To get the most out of your new computer, you really need to use your feet

The SX-64 "portable" wasn't a new idea as there had been similar attempts at luggables in the past, for instance the Digital Group's Mini Bytemaster - although this did have a much larger screen. However,...

The new Argus Pro-personal. Above all, a true 16-bit computer

Ferranti was a major UK-based electrical engineering firm which had been established in 1885. It had built its first computer in 1951, but was perhaps more well-known in the microcomputer industry as...

PC 20: Now you can master a business computer in just a few simple steps

This advert is almost an epitaph for Commodore as well as the whole early micro industry since the first "modern" personal computer, Commodore's own PET. From those first few machines through the explosion...