1977 adverts

Cromemco Z-1: This is the industry's most powerful microcomputer

This advert is for a Z80-based machine on an S-100 bus, similar in form to many of the computers of the time such as the Intel-based IMSAI 8080, which is not surprising as it was ...

Experience the excitement of owning the finest personal computer - IMSAI 8080

This is another advert for the IMSAI 8080, as used by Matthew Broderick's character David Lightman in the classic nerd-film "War Games". At least when this advert came out the mac...

SWTPC 6800 - Complete with 2K of memory

This is a straightforward advert from SWTPC - South West Technical Products Corporation - which originally made its name as a supplier of electronics kits, for the company's Motoro...

Processor Technology: New 16K RAM Fully Assembled

More bits per buck than ever before on a fully burned-in and tested board unconditionally guaranteed for one year, says the advert about what is apparently a breakthrough price for...

Introducing Sol Systems - A complete computer/terminal concept

This advert - which was part of an impressive six-page spread - shows the Sol-20, a machine which first shipped only a month before in December 1976, as well as the impressive ran...

Microcomputer programming is a snap with the Iasis Computer in a Book

This is a real wild-card entry from Iasis Inc. of Sunnyvale in California - an actual functional computer in a book, with surrounding 250-page instructional material in the form o...

Meet the OSI Challenger

Before it was even the Challenger 1 is this advert for Ohio Scientific Instruments' Challenger. It was an S-100-based system which derived from the company's earlier "Superboard 4...

Cromemco Z-2: Meet the most powerful μC system available for dedicated work

Just a few months after Cromemco's Z-1 Z80-based micro comes the update in the shape of the Z-2. Only there doesn't seem to be that much updated - it still runs the same 4MHz Z8...

/ability - It Comes Naturally With The Altair 8800b

Another nice advert for the later-model Intel 8080-based Altair 8800b, showing several system boards rising out of its chassis. According to Wikipedia, the Altair 8800 was the mach...

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it with the Noval 760

Noval was founded in the summer of 1976 as a spinout of Gremlin Industries, a manufacturer of electronic arcade games. Its stated mission aim was to supply the market with its own ...

Now $2750 - America's lowest-priced personal computer system with color graphics

The Compucolor 8001 was an Intel 8080-based personal computer which upped the ante compared to other machines like the Cromemco and the IMSAI 8080 by having a real keyboard, 34 I/...

Vector Graphic Inc.: Assembled! Tested! The same 8K static memory for the same price!

This is an early advert for Vector Graphic, the company formed in 1976 by two housewives - Lore Harp and Carole Ely. The husband of the former, Bob Harp, had been selling similar 8...

Now. The Perfect Microcomputer: Vector 1 - it's a two-touch affair

Founded in November 1976, it didn't take long for Vector Graphic to go from making 8K memory cards to complete systems, as shown by this advert from July 1977. The Vector 1 was the...

The Poly 88 Microcomputer System - from PolyMorphic

PolyMorphic had started out making expansion cards for the Altair 8800 - the 1975 micro that as well being the first affordable microcomputer in the modern sense also gave the wor...

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...