A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Introducing the Micronix 80HD - a complete microcomputer on a single board

Single board computers - like the Raspberry Pi - are still quite popular, especially with hobbyists as they're often small and have low power requirements. The fun with this advert is that whilst a...

If you want what's best for your PET, choose Commodore software

This is an advert for Commodore's own software tentacle, which was placed in many Commodore - as well as general computing - magazines of the day, and which ran for at least six months. It features the...

New low price for Level 1 BASIC 4K RAM

The TRS-80 was one of the "1977 Trinity" - which also included the Commodore PET and the Apple II. They were the first three modern personal computers - micros that could be taken out of a box, plugged...

Keen Computers takes you into the future with the Apple II

This is a third-party advert for the Apple II, one of the "1997 Trinity" of computers that changed the landscape of computing. Apple, true to form ever since, was the most expensive of the three - this...

Cromemco System Three - the professional one

With a 4MHz Z80A CPU and an expansive 21 card slots, the System 3 was particulary impressive in being able to address 16MB of memory - a fairly fantastical amount in 1979, where 4-32K was the normal order...

Tuscan from Transam - Take a step up to your next computer!

Another entry in the "who?" category is this advert for the "Tuscan", from little-known British computer company Transam. It was yet another Z80-based system with an S-100 bus, built into something like...

Britain's first complete computer kit - Sinclair ZX80

The ZX80, designed by Jim Westwood and launched on January 29th 1980, was Sinclair's first real computer and was the machine that helped really start the UK's home computer industry. It had many issues...

Intel delivers SDK-85. It's the quickest way to sink your teeth into 8085 design

Back in the 1970s, almost every time a new CPU came out it would most likely possess an entirely new instruction set. Even within the same range of computers, often code would have to be changed between...

The first complete, low-cost microcomputer system for business, home or education - TRS-80

Technically, it wasn't - the Commodore PET was launched several months before the TRS-80 at the January Consumer Electronics Show and as such was the first of the "1997 Trinity" (which also included the...

Introducing Apple II - You've just run out of excuses for not owning a personal computer

The Apple II was one of the "1977 Trinity" - along with the Commodore PET and the Radio Shack TRS-80 - which were the first three true personal computers to be launched. The PET was actually first, being...

Horizon - The complete computer. Look to the North Star Horizon

The North Star Horizon might be filed under the "who or what?" category of computers, however judging by the regularity of the company's adverts in magazines of the day it was around for quite a while...

Cromemco Z-1: This is the industry's most powerful microcomputer

This advert is for a Z80-based machine on an S-100 bus, similar in form to many of the computers of the time such as the Intel-based IMSAI 8080, which is not surprising as it was an IMSAI chassis with...

Experience the excitement of owning the finest personal computer - IMSAI 8080

This is another advert for the IMSAI 8080, as used by Matthew Broderick's character David Lightman in the classic nerd-film "War Games", although at least when this advert came out the machine was actually...

Now $2750 - America's lowest-priced personal computer system with color graphics

The Compucolor 8001 was an Intel 8080-based personal computer which upped the ante compared to other machines like the Cromemco and the IMSAI 8080 by having a real keyboard, 34 I/O ports and a colour...

Commodore VIC-20 - Let Commodore expand your horizons

Even though the Commodore 64 had been launched the year before, the VIC-20 was still shifting units - it would end up selling over 2.5 million before it was discontinued in 1985, mostly thanks to being...