A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Epson HX-20: It could mean the end of the rubber duck as we know it

From the time when the only colours allowed in anyone's decorative colour scheme were black, red and grey comes this advert from Epson. It's perhaps one of the more irresponsible ever, given the potent...

There's one thing about this MSX that isn't quite standard - the price tag

This entry in the MSX hall-of-fame is slightly unusual in that GoldStar is not a Japanese company, as nearly all MSX builders were, but Korean. With a style that looks as if it might have been designed...

Samurai - your powerful ally

Despite fears of an imminent Japanese invasion going right back to almost the start of the Personal Computer revolution, not much really happened until Microsoft-sponsored Japanese-backed MSX machines...

The home computer that means business - Amstrad CPC 664

When interviewed about the upcoming Atari ST, former Commodore founder and all-round legend Jack Tramiel said "Home computer? I never heard of it - I make personal computers". It was a theme common...

The MSX micro that's paid its musical dues

Luckily for the incumbent micro manufacturers of the UK and the US, the Japanese - whose invasion had been feared since the late 1970s - were surprisingly late to the party. When they did arrive, it...

The 520ST. Over-qualified and under-paid

After resigning from Commodore in January 1984 - the business he founded as a typewriter repair outfit in the 1950s, and the company that produced the world's first all-in-one "personal computer" the...

Oric-1 - created by Tangerine

Tangerine had been around since 1978, and had previously been selling a 6502-based one-board computer called the Microtan 65. This was abandoned after around 10,000 systems had been sold, but was ressurected...

Probably the fastest computer in the universe - the Jupiter Ace

Perhaps this early advert for the Jupiter Ace - an 8-bit Z80-based micro designed by ex-Sinclair engineers Richard Altwasser and Steven Vickers, both of whom had worked on the ZX Spectrum - is edging...

Memotech explores the excellence of your ZX81

Memotech, the company which would end up producing its own range of well-regarded almost-MSX machines during 1984, started out as a producer of memory and interface expansions for Sinclair's plastic-wedge...

Microcomputers? Let Rank Xerox point you in the right direction

Hugely influential in the early computer industry with its Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) spawning computer fundamentals like Ethernet, Laser printers and the graphical user interface - a preview...

Bywood SCRUMPI: 2 + 3 = ?

Had it not been for one of The Register's great articles on one of the forgotten pioneers of the early computer scene, this advert from Bywood, a company founded in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, by...

For home or business the IBM compatible Advance 86a

The Advance 86, produced by a small British company with big Ferranti connections, had the backing of high-street retailer WH Smith, which had picked it over the Sinclair QL as its choice for the burgeoning...

64K User RAM and not a bit less...

Here is an advert from Memotech for its MTX512, which seven months after its release was down to the price of Memotech's previous entry-level model MTX500 at £275, or about [[275|1984]] in [[now]] terms...

Get on line with Laskys - for the best in personal computers

Laskys (or should that be Lasky's) was not a computer company at all, but the company is still worthy of an honourable mention in dispatches for being a stalwart of the home computer industry in terms...

Spectravideo: Leaves the Atari, Dragon, Commodore 64 and Lynx for dead

Another advert from Spectravideo - the company formerly known as SpectraVision - which had started out making games for the Atari 2600, Colecovision and Commodore VIC-20. It shows its first machine...