A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Sinclair
February 1982
Sinclair ZX81 Personal Computer - the heart of a system that grows with you
This advert was quite an impressive 4-page spread which featured in several computer magazines and was used to advertise the ZX81, which launched in the UK in March 1981. The ZX8...

LSI
February 1982
The new micro from LSI - Putting Britain back in front
It's another random entry in the "who?" category, from paid-up flag-flying British company LSI - not to be confused with Lear Siegler Incorporated, a US terminal manufacturer - w...

Texas Instruments
July 1982
You can't get a home computer from Texas Instruments under 16K RAM
Here is an advert from the company that did quite a bit to shake up the 1970s calculator market, and in doing so caused Commodore to buy MOS Technology and with it the 6502, which...

Transam
July 1982
Over forty of the world's leading software houses have one thing in common - Transam Microsystems
It's another advert from Transam Microsystems Limited, showing a generic Transam box, that might be a Tuscan, in the "PET on steroids" style that Transam seemed to like, together ...

IBM
July 1982
The IBM Personal Computer, from £2,890
This is a third-party advert for the original Intel 8088-based 5150 IBM PC, the computer which defined the "PC" for a generation or two. In Europe, the Sirius/Victor 9000, which...

DAI
July 1982
When you outgrow your personal computer, that's the time you'll wish you-d bought a DAI
Rather than being the name of a computer made by a staunchly Welsh computer company, the curiously-shaped DAI comes from Belgian company Data Applications International. It had ...

Atari
July 1982
The graphic difference between Atari computers and all the others
The Atari 800 and its cheaper membrane-keyboard sibling the Atari 400 were the result of a project that was kicked off soon after the launch of the legendary Atari 2600 "Woody" ga...

Sinclair
July 1982
New! Sinclair ZX81 Personal Computer
This is another common advert for Sinclair's ZX81 - the home computer which shipped with only 1K RAM, although Sinclair's BASIC was heavily tokenised and so it wasn't quite as bad...

Ithaca InterSystems
June 1981
Outside of the garden you need a computer that can grow - Ithaca InterSystems DPS-1
This adverts shows one of many ageing Zilog Z80-based machines of this era running on an S-100 bus: the DPS-1, from Ithaca InterSystems, founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1977. Th...

Commodore
November 1984
Commodore 64 - The Advanced Home Computer
This is a nice 4-page gate-fold sales brochure for the computer that remains the best-selling home computer of all time - the Commodore 64. The brochure, printed for the UK market ...

Commodore
January 1982
VIC-20 Colour Computer - What VIC-20 Can Do For You
This nice gate-fold sales material was made for the VIC-20 a few months after its UK launch. It's full of archetypal 80s people looking at screens, and the blurb contains informa...

Tatung
September 1984
A Complete Colour Micro With No Hidden Extras for Around £499
Designed entirely by Tatung UK, an offshoot of Taiwan's largest company, the Einstein was aimed vaguely at the business market, but with a Zilog Z80A processor could also emulate ...

Torch
September 1984
From only £764 the new Torch Graduate will upgrade your BBC Model B to a powerful 16 bit busiess computer
Here's something of a curiosity from the days when it was quite common to hybridise computers, like the Commodore C128 with its own native mode, a 6510/6502 equivalent for C64 com...

Acorn
September 1984
The Electron has added even more strings to its bow
Here is another advert for the Acorn Electron, or rather software from Acornsoft for the Electron, featuring a dude rather self-consciously dressed up as Cupid. The Electron, la...

Acorn
September 1984
Hey Prestel. A new dimension for the BBC Micro
Here's another advert that shows that the world of 'on-line' was alive and well long before the advent of the Internet. Prestel was a UK electronic information system set up by ...