A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Amstrad's new CPC 464 comes with plenty of free plugs

Harking back to the early all-in-one computers of the late 1970s - not least the very first, 1977's Commodore's PET with its built-in cassette player - comes Alan Michael Sugar Tr...

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 BB...

Equinox 100: When you put it together, it's really together

For those moments when the computer's playing up and there's clearly nothing better to do than hit the bottle comes this advert for the Equinox 100, made by Parasitic Engineering ...

Altos presents a new standard in quality and reliability - Altos ACS8000

This is an advert for the Altos "Sun Series" ACS8000, made by Walsh Avenue, Santa Clara, California-based Altos Computer Systems. Altos was founded at the end of 1977 by David Ja...

Now there are at least 102K more reasons to buy the Heathkit H8 - the WH17 Floppy!

This is a straightforward ad from popular electronics-kit manufacturers Heath, trading as Heathkit Computers of Benton Harbor Michigan. Heathkit's H8, an Intel 8080A-based machi...

Announcing the IMSAI VDP-40 - Microcomputer System Solution

Here is an advert for IMSAI's less well-known VDP-40, the VDP bit standing for "Video Data Processing", whilst IMSAI was a contraction of IMS Associates, Inc, itself standing for ...

Another Heathkit Color TV Breakthrough... The world's only computerized TV system

This is a great advert for the space-faring TV-as-furniture model GR-2001 television from Heathkit, the electronics kits and projects company which joined the burgeoning computer ...

SWTPC: Need hardcopy? How about pictures?

This is an early computer-related advert from SWTPC, the San Antonio, Texas, company that had been founded in 1967 out of the earlier Daniel E Meyer Company business and which spe...

Buy Nascom 2 Now and get a free 16K RAM board

The Nascom 2 was one of a range of kits produced by UK computer manufacturer Nascom, a company founded by John Marshall and Kerr Borland. The previous model, the Nascom 1, had b...

Now. The Perfect Microcomputer: Vector 1 - it's a two-touch affair

Founded in November 1976 by Lore Harp and Carole Ely as one of the very first female-led microcomputer companies, it didn't take long for Vector Graphic, which was already a milli...

The Alpha Micro Computer: Multi-user, Multi-tasking, Timesharing, Memory Management

Alpha Microsystems Inc, more normally known as Alpha Micro, was founded in Costa Mesa, California, in 1977. The multi-user AM 100 series featured in the advert was its first micro...

Vector Graphic Inc.: Assembled! Tested! The same 8K static memory for the same price!

This is an early advert for Vector Graphic, the company formed in 1976 by two housewives - Lore Harp and Carole Ely - along with Lore Harp's husband Bob Harp, who had been selling...

Commodore CDTV - it's nothing short of revolutionary

Launched in March 1991, Commodore's CDTV - not Compact Disc TeleVision, but actually Commodore Dynamic Total Vision - was one of the very first consumer systems to provide video ...

Almarc: Specialists in Vector Graphic

Vector Graphic was an American company set up in 1976 by husband-and-wife team Robert and Lore Harp. Vector's machines were distributed in the UK by Almarc Data Systems, a compa...

Miracle Technology WS2000 Modem: Ace Down The Line

The last time a modem was advertised as a thing in its own right was probably towards the end of the 1990s, when the pinacle of dial-up - the 56K modem - came out. Before then, ...