A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

PerSci delivers the Dual-Headed Diskette Drive

Peripheral Sciences - or PerSci - with its dual-headed dual-floppy unit, was going up against companies like Shugart which had just introduced the 5¼" floppy. Ignoring their size, these huge 8" drives...

Smoke Signal Broadcasting: Hail to the Chieftain

Founded in 1976 as a supplier of plug-in boards for SWTPC's 6800 micro, Smoke Signal Broadcasting is a bit of an obscure entry in the canon of early computing. The machine in the advert - The Chieftain...

The Sharp MZ-80 Computer System - Now Available On Earth

This advert from Sharp continues the company's long-running theme which implies some sort of extra-terrestrial origin for its computer. This particular micro, which was first launched in Japan as a...

Seeing is believing: ACT Sirius 1

This advert for the ACT Sirius 1 - a machine designed by 6502 and Commodore PET legend Chuck Peddle, and of which Peddle said "Eats Apples and **cks PETs" - appeared around twelve months before the IBM...

North Star's Advantage is easy to see

The North Star advantage was launched in 1982 and came with dual 360K 5.25" floppies, for a total storage of 720K, an optional 5MB Winchester, and high-resolution 640x240px graphics with its own 20K of...

Take Your Pick of the Litter - Novation

Up until the back end of the 1990s, the Modem was the only affordable way that people at home could connect to the Internet - and various other networks, databases, dial-ups or bulletin-board systems...

Rainbow 100 - It's The Complete System for Complete Solutions

No collection of adverts about the early computer industry would be complete without at least one featuring Digital - otherwise known as Digital Equipment Corporation or DEC. This was the company that...

Franklin's Baker's Dozen!

The Franklin 1200 was an update of Franklin's earlier 1000 model, and both were unofficial Apple II clones. The company always referred to its machines with the acronym ACE, which stood for Apple Compatible...

VIC-20: The Waiting is Over. The Rush has Begun

This is the advert that formally kicked off Commodore's launch campaign in the UK for the VIC-20 - the 6502-based colour computer which became the first ever to sell a million units, going on to sell...

Commodore PET: Choosing a Computer Made Simple

The PET had been around for nearly five years by the time this advert was published, and so it's less of a case of advertising the hardware - which hasn't really changed much, apart from a bigger screen,...

Pear II - we proudly announce the arrival of the computer you have been waiting for

This advert is a brazen attempt to sell an Apple II clone machine, but unlike Franklin's ACE 1200, had the extra "beyond the call of duty" feature of even naming the machine and company after another...

Versatility is the Key - The Video Genie System

The EG 3003 Video Genie System was a sort-of TRS-80 Model 1 clone, made by enigmatic Hong Kong electronics company EACA and distributed in the UK by Lowe Electronics. It was first launched in early 1980....

Microtan 65 - Designed With Expansion in Mind

The basis for the Microtan 65 was a 6502-based single-board computer, which as advertised was sold for the bargain price of £80, which is only about [[80|1981]] in [[now]] money. That's slightly misleading...

Are you the QX-10 that undertakes financial modelling, stock control, book-keeping...?

This advert is for the somewhat-flawed Epson QX-10, a machine aimed at the IBM/Sirius market and which was launched less than two months after Epson's previous HX-20 portable. The QX-10 was a Zilog Z80-based...

The Ultimate - Zenith Data Systems Z-100

One of a myriad of IBM-PC-like machines around during this era, although pitched more as an alternative than a compatible machine, the Z-100 was actually the pre-built version of Heathkit's H100 kit computer...