A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

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...

The Comart Communicator: One computer system that won't sink in to obsolescence

One popular theme that ran through microcomputer advertising throughout this era is that of a simmering paranoia about being "left behind". This was, of course, understandable as things were rapidly...

Triumph Adler makes it all refreshingly simple with the Alphatronic micro

Triumph-Adler, originally of Germany, was first bought out by the US Royal Typewriter Co. in 1969 and then, more implausibly, by German car-giant Volkswagen, which acquired a majority stake in 1979. ...

Every week, more and more people like you are going to work with an Osborne personal business computer

The Osborne One was designed by Lee Felsenstein, who had designed Processor Technology's Sol computer back in 1976, and was heavily influenced by Alan Kay's NoteTaker concept at Xerox PARC. It was launched...

As your company goes places, will your computer grow with it?

It's another advert for the Alpha Micro, not to be confused with the Alphatronic Micro produced by Triumph-Adler. The AM-1062 model shown in the advert was an upgrade to the original Alpha AM-100 -...

Microframe - Future-proof computing systems from under £3000

With a futurist "space cargo"-style modular box construction, the "future proof" Microframe seemed to live up to its name. Although not directly billed as an IBM compatible, it did use an Intel 8088...

The new British Minstrel with Winchester drive

This machine and advert is such a spectacular throw-back that it had to be included. It's for the "New" British Minstrel, as produced by the oddly-named Hotel Microsystems Limited of London - a name...

32/16-bit power and unique versatility at your fingertips

The Corvus Concept was one of several 32/16-bit machines appearing at the time, like the Fortune 32:16 or Sage II, in an era when 16-bit machines were only really getting going and 8-bit home computers...

Portable micros - taking the computer a step further

This is one of a few adverts that appeared around about the same time which could be read as something of a sad coda on the life of Transam Microsystems Limited. Transam had started out as Transam Components,...

Our professional-series integrated business systems software is free

Winner of the award for most puzzling advertising campaign must surely go to Iotec, which for the best part of a year seemed to feature adverts all in black with just the word "iotec" on them, or with...

The unbeatable TI home computer. It's all the computers your family will ever need

TI's pushing of Commodore out of the calculator market in the 1970s had come back to haunt it in 1983 - the year of this advert. When TI, which had been manufacturing the calculator parts that many...

A history of communications: part 1

This colourful and quintessentially 80s advert from Torch was one of two sequential adverts in PCW and provides a nice summary of the company's output so far. This includes the original Communicator...

CP/M Graphics - your ticket to success

Intergalactic Digital Research was founded by Gary Kildall, along with his wife Dorothy Kildall, in 1976, three years after Kildall first wrote CP/M - the first-ever disk operating system for a microcomputer....

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 Machines Ltd, which seems...

Meet Adam: the Colecovision family computer system

Coleco's Adam was announced in a "blaze of publicity" during the summer of 1983 and appeared to be a major breakthrough in price, with POCW suggesting that it provided a system comparable to machines...