1984 adverts

Not another new company with a personal computer

Branding itself as a "new" company, ITT had actually been around for a while. It was already famous for its ITT 2020 microcomputer of 1979 - the first official clone of the Apple ...

For the office. Or the home office.

It's a nicely-illustrated advert showing some dude as half in an office and half working at home - split down the middle whilst one-finger-typing on a Commodore 64. Commodore is ...

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 ...

Re-balance This Sheet in One Second

Like several computers of the day, Acorn's BBC Micro could take software in the form of PROM - programmable read-only memory. However whilst some, like the VIC-20, would take it...

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...

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...

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 ...

64K User RAM and not a bit less...

Here is an advert from Memotech for its MTX512, which seven months after its release was down to the price of Memotech's previous entry-level model MTX500 at £275, or about £1,160...

Don't worry. He's on your side

Sharp's MZ-700 was essentially a colour version of the venerable MZ-80K, which had been around since 1979. It was also the first Sharp micro to be launched without a built-in moni...

Get to Know Cortex - the Really Very Friendly Computer

This is an interesting advert for a forgotten machine - The Cortex - built by C/WP (Computers/Word Processors) of the UK from a design bought from Ontel in the US. In the US thi...

Kaypro 2: The last word in portable micros

Built by Andrew Kay's Non-Linear Systems, with the motherboard designed by an out-sourced circuit-design consultant, and created as a direct competitor to the Osborne 1, the Kaypr...

Toshiba MSX

Although Toshiba had dabbled in the computer market a couple of years before, with its T-200, and whilst the US and the UK markets were busy churning out as may systems as possibl...

Will you be the first Earthling to win a place among the Elite?

Elite was perhaps Acornsoft's most famous game. It was written by Ian Bell and David Braben, was hugely influential and, according to Sophie Wilson, one of the designers of the BB...

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 64: Are you only using 1/10th of your brain?

Another UK advert for the Commodore 64, extoling the virtues of more software and peripherals like printers, joysticks and colour monitors. Somewhat disingensouly, it suggests t...