A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

Psion MC400

Launched in 1989, the Psion MC 400 - for Mobile Computer - was Psion's first entry into the nascent "netbook" market. Although based on a CMOS version of Intel's 8086 - the 80C86 ...

If only all personal computers were this big

The Psion Series 3 - launched in 1991 - was an update of the popular Organiser II (itself an update of the original Organiser), which by 1989 had sold a combined 300,000 and prope...

Announcing a computer that thinks in BASIC for only $298

Ohio Scientific seemed to only ever advertise variations of its Challenger series of sometimes-fridge-sized microcomputers, however here is the exception that proves the rule - th...

PIPS: We've cracked the BASIC problem

Sord seems to be advertising in reverse as it's starting out advertising software before any of its actual hardware, but that's probably because this is really an advert for poten...

I think, therefore IBM won't get my PC order

Atari released its first IBM compatible - the £400 entry-level 8086 Atari PC - in June 1987, although it had been previewed at the Atari show held in London during April. Atari's...

Amstrad's new baby is even smaller than most miniature PCs

It's five years since Amstrad purchased Sinclair and moved into the computer business, going on to sell a range of highly-succesful home micros, word processors and, later on, bus...

Amiga 1500 - the world at your fingertips

The Amiga 1500 appears to be considered very much the mystery. It was essentially a cut-down version of the existing Amiga 2000, but shipped with an extra - but empty - CPU slot, ...

Golf Portable: Small by design - big in business

Goupil - or more properly Societé de Micro-informatique et Telecommunications (SMT) Goupil - was a French company that had been established in 1979 and which mostly produced compu...

Kaypro: if you want inside information... freephone 100

Another week, another clone: this advert focuses on Kaypro's 286 computer, which was the first IBM AT clone launched back in 1985. Although 80386 machines were around - not leas...

Tulip sharpens your image

This is an advert from Tulip, formerly known as Compudata of the Netherlands, for its LT 286 laptop, based on Intel's CMOS 80C286 CPU plus the 80C287 maths co-processor. It was Tu...

If you want to upgrade your office, here's a tip

It's another advert for Amstrad's P‍CW 8256, featuring a rubbish-tip metaphor that occured in a few of the adverts run around this time. The P‍CW 8256 and 8512 were hugely succes...

CompuStar - it's number one

Wells American had started out as Intertec Data Systems, which had been famous in the late 1970s and early 1980s for its Superbrain twin-Z80-based all-in-one micro, which looked a...

The Olivetti M290. Whatever you put it through, it'll turn in a brilliant performance

The M290 from Olivetti was another entry in the mass of IBM-compatibles, in this case aiming at the AT with an Intel 80286 CPU running at 12MHz, and 2MB RAM. Olivetti had been do...

A pocket PC at a pocket-sized price

Sometimes considered as the very first true IBM-compatible portable, Atari's IBM-compatible pocket PC was originally known as the PocketPC, but it eventually christened the Portfo...

HM Systems: The new Minstrel 4EP

HM Systems - formerly known as Hotel Microsystems - is back with an update of its Minstrel 4, the Minstrel 4EP. It's quite an impressive spec, supporting up to 18 users with betw...