A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Commodore 64: It's not how much you pay, it's how much you get

In the era of the IBM PC, this Commodore advert compares the price and features of the Commodore 64 and the IBM PCJr. Known by IBM's codename of the "Peanut", the Junior was never released in the UK...

At last, the business PC you can welcome like an old friend

Not to be left out in the stampede for IBM PCs and their compatible ilk (it's four years since the IBM PC launched), comes this offering from Commodore for its version. This particular machine - the...

The Commodore 128. When you look at the facts, they do seem to weigh rather heavily in our favour.

The 128 was Commodore's last 8-bit computer and was released in 1985, although news of the 128 started appearing at the end of 1984, with Popular Computing Weekly saying that "Commodore is working on...

Buy one of these Commodore peripherals for £199.99 and get a Seiko RC-1000 free!

It's another advert depicting the mid-1980s rage-du-jour of the "wrist terminal", in the form of the Seiko RC-1000 (also seen here). Smart watches or wearables seem to pop up every decade or so as the...

The greatest breakthrough in wrist technology since Seiko introduced quartz

Not actually an advert for a computer, per se, but an interesting reflection of what was all the rage at the time: multi-function "James Bond"-style watches. The Seiko RC1000 is shown connecting to...

The Commodore 64. Under $600

It's another Commodore advert, from August 1983, playing to Jack Tramiel's famous adage "Computers for the masses, not the classes". The origin of this famous quote dates back to 1980, which Michael...

The New Electronic Wonderland: Atari VCS/2600

Although the Fairchild "Channel F" had pioneered the idea of a video-game console which used generic microprocessors and plug-in cartridges - as opposed to the older systems which had hardwired discrete...

The $149.95 Personal Computer: Introducing the Sinclair ZX81

Before Sinclair cut a deal with US watch-manufacturer Timex to distributes the ZX81 in the US as the Timex Sinclair 1000 or 1500, it was available in its original "Sinclair ZX81" form, as this US advert...

The Remarkable SV-318 Personal Computer

The Spectravideo SV-318 was a Zilog Z80A-based computer with 32K RAM and Microsoft BASIC, which had been the de-facto standard on pretty much every computer since the MITS Altair of 1975. When launched...

Apple II: The managing director's Personal Computer

It's another advert for the Apple II, the 6502-based computer that might not have made it - as it was over twice the price of its compatriots - had it not been for the advent of VisiCalc. Apple's price...

The Sinclair ZX81 Personal Computer - New High Performance, New Low Price, Same Sinclair Simplicity

Here's another advert for the Sinclair ZX81 - the computer that sold more than 1.5 million units and which almost single-handedly kick-started the computer revolution in the UK. In common with several...

After you ask what it can do for you now, ask what it can do for you later: HP-86

More proof that it took at least a few years for the IBM PC format to bulldoze everything in its path, comes this advert for the Hewlett-Packard HP-86. Looking a bit like a very slimmed-down Commodore...

Why we chose the 'NCR' computer

From the days when computers took up whole rooms and secretaries stood around in front of monster tape drives smiling at cardboard, comes the NCR 390 - introduced in 1962 as a cut-down version of the...

Dragon 32: There's only one thing harder than bulding a great computer. Building software to match.

The Dragon 32 was another entry in the burgeoning early-80s British computer scene and was originally developed by Mettoy, the company that also made Corgi toys. Mettoy suffered ongoing financial problems...

Home is the last place you should learn about a home computer

Even though the Commodore 64 was on the market, there was still plenty of demand for the VIC-20, launched two years before in 1981 (or three if you count Japan, where it was test-launched in 1980). Whilst...