A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

British Micro: Now Other Micros Are Less Than Perfect

At first sight this is another obscure entry in the who/what/where department, however British Micro was connected to the more famous and , both founded by John Marshall. The co...

Microsoft: MS-DOS gives you the only complete set of tools for 16-bit systems

If there was once company that, for good or bad, has influenced the early home and business computer industry more than any other, it has to be Microsoft. Formed in 1975 in Albe...

Hewlett-Packard Calculators - The First Family

The first half of the 1970s was something of a boom time for calculator manufaturers. The machines were something of a novelty and were often staggeringly expensive - often costing...

Climax 60: If you know what's good for you - you'll take our PICK

If choice of operating system is anything to go by, then this particular machine is fairly unusual. It features Pick - a multi-user multivalued database system which, whilst not a ...

Processor Technology: New 16K RAM Fully Assembled

More bits per buck than ever before on a fully burned-in and tested board unconditionally guaranteed for one year, says the advert about what is apparently a breakthrough price for...

Three Atari Video Computer Systems Must Be Won!

Here's a nice competition advert which featured in a March or April edition of the comic 2000AD, and which offered the chance to win one of three Atari VCS2600 (sometimes known as...

Exidy: Announcing the new Sorcerer

The Sourcerer was originally manufactured by Exidy of Sunnyvale, California, but was cancelled in 1979. It was however popular enough in Europe and ended up being built under licen...

Weetabix: 100 Dragon Home Computer Sets to be Won!!

In the year that Dragon Data went in to receivership comes this "proxy" advert from Weetabix, in what would have been quite a good prize bundle at the time. Each of the 100 sets...

Vector 4: The Versatile Computer with the features you need for Today and Tomorrow

This advert is for the curious-looking Vector 4, from Vector Graphics of the US, as distributed by long-time UK distributor Almarc Data Systems. Contrary to the company's name, ...

Torch - The Computer to Set the World Alight

After former chartered accountants Martin Vlieland-Boddy and Peter Harris had been applying their finance-gained skills to bring technology to the world of management consultancy,...

SWTPC 6800 - Complete with 2K of memory

This is a straightforward advert from SWTPC - South West Technical Products Corporation - which originally made its name as a supplier of electronics kits, for the company's Motoro...

Adler 1630: Because computer professionals need a professional computer

This computer doesn't seem to exist - at least there doesn't seem to be any information on it, although ribbons for its printer still seem to be available. Old Computers.com mentio...

Newbrain: No other micro has this much power in this much size for this much money

This machine is possibly best known as the computer that might have been the BBC Micro, as chosen by the BBC for its influential Computer Literacy project, if its owners had only ...

Osborne 1: The only personal business computer you can take anywhere

The Osborne 1, launched at the West Coast Computer Faire in March 1981 (with the first machine shipping in July), is often credited as being the first computer designed specifical...

WH Smith: What Would I Do With a Computer?

This advert is a small A5 4-page booklet produced by UK newsagent chain WH Smith and demonstrates nicely how such regular High Street shops were very much part of the early home c...