A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts
Commodore
April 1987
Never in the history of business systems has so little done so much
Both the "budget" Amiga 500 and higher-end A2000 were announced at the same time during the winter CES show in Las Vegas in 1987. However, Commodore actually managed to start shi...
Commodore
February 1983
It's only £695. And that's the last reason you should buy it.
The Commodore 500 was part of the CBM-II Series - an attempt to produce an update for the original Commodore PET and seen as the company's last chance to break the business market...
C/WP-Cortex
June 1983
It's not all Greek to Context
The Context was built by C/WP (Computers/Word Processors) of the UK from a design bought from Ontel in the US, where it was known as the Amigo. It was a dual-CPU machine, with a ...
Newbury Laboratories
May 1982
Newbury. Growing mighty with the micros
Newbury Laboratories will forever be associated with the NewBrain - the small, portable micro that was temporarily the choice to be the BBC Microcomputer. However, development w...
CAL
November 1982
Britain can still find an extra byte
Here's an advert from the curiously-named Computer Ancilliaries Limited, for two of its machines - the British-built Caltext Word Processor and the Caltext Micro. The former was ...
Microsoft
November 1981
Turn your Apple into the world's most versatile personal computer.
This is a real curiosity from Microsoft which shows how different the company was before the power of its coming hegemony with Intel and its own MS-DOS - and later Windows operati...
Hotel Microsystems
August 1987
A Minstrel 4 eight-user package - £15,564 complete
It's often said that the rise of cheap commodity PCs and affordable networking killed off the multi-user system, but it's still here in 1987 in the form of Hotel Microsystems' Min...
Sord/CGL
23rd June 1983
For those that do, those that don't and those that might
The Japanese Sord M5, launched in October 1982 at the Tokyo Data Show, was one of a handful of computers - a group which included the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Jupiter Ace - that d...
SWTPC
August 1978
SWTPC: System B $4,495.00
It's another entry in that curious sideline of the early microcomputer industry: computers as furniture. On offer is Southwest Technical Products' System B - a CT-64 terminal, du...
Commodore
November 1987
New Amiga 500 - Now other home computers are just toys
The original Amiga, or A1000 as it came to be known, nearly didn't make it when it launched in 1986, as Commodore was going through some major financial problems whilst its potent...
Cromemco
March 1984
Call Microcentre for Cromemco
It's three years into the era of the all-conquering IBM PC, and Cromemco - a company founded back in 1974 - is still hanging on. What's more, it's still producing broadly-similar...
Acornsoft
October 1984
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...
Prism
November 1984
Make the BBC an expert at communications
Prism was an interesting company that, although not hugely famous by itself, had a hand in all sorts of areas of the UK microcomputer industry. It started out life as the sole di...
Commodore
25th August 1984
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 ...
Oric
July 1984
How much available memory you get with the new Oric Atmos
A simple, if striking, advert for Oric's "new" Atmos - in reality the original Oric 1 in a new case and with a load of bug fixes. The advert points out that many home micros of t...