A history of the microcomputer industry in 300 adverts

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...

Kaypro laptop at rock-bottom price!

Kaypro seems to have gone a bit down market with its advertising for this one, featuring its Kaypro 2000+ laptop. Instead of its usual retail price of £1,799, it was available "w...

Hyper Micro: Three computer architectures combined to give the best advantages of each

In the olden days of computing, i.e. the 1970s, there were essentially three types of computers: room-sized mainframes like IBM's 360, refrigerator-sized minicomputer systems like...

Switch on to the world's first plug-in-and-go multi-user computer

Comart was another member of a small group of companies that survived from the 1970s and through the era of the IBM PC, although it wasn't entirely unscathed as it had been bought...

As recommended by the inventor of the PC modem

Hayes did not really "invent" the PC modem, as the devices - a contraction of modulator/demodulator - had been around in some form since the 1920s, although they weren't commercia...

Our new thoroughbred has lots of room for growth

Perhaps confusing the world of thoroughbred horses for that of pedigree dogs, this advert from Ferranti is for its new XT IBM-compatible personal computer. It's a bit confusing t...

Available now! The Tandy 1000EX

Pitched as a competitor to IBM's ultimately-doomed PC Jr., Tandy's 1000 EX was a version of its Tandy 1000 IBM-compatible PC, with everything built into a home-friendly all-in-one...

Zenith: The leading light

Zenith Data Systems had started out in 1979 as a division of the Zenith Radio Company, after the latter had bought the famous Heath company from Schlumberger. Heath - trading in ...

Altos Computer Systems offer you the drive to succeed absolutely free

Altos was one of relatively few microcomputer manufacturers that made the transition from the 1970s through the era of the IBM PC and was still around on the other side. From 197...

Tulip: Pick the one that stands out from the rest

To its credit, it took Tulip a good eight years since its founding in 1979 to use the most obvious metaphor in its adverts - a field of actual tulips. In this case, it goes one s...

Archimedes: 1987 Microcomputer of the year

Acorn's Archimedes - also known in at least some parts of the press as the ARM - had been launched in 1987 and first started shipping to dealers in early Autumn. Acorn's Stephani...