1981 adverts

Thanks to Commodore Computer we now use computer simulation to test heat pump and solar design applications

So says Cristoph Sobotta, R&D Director of Stiebel Eltron, in this US advert. Stiebel Eltron was based in West Germany and came under the purview of Commodore Germany, which was ...

Apple II: The Managing Director's Personal Computer

It's another advert for the Apple II, the 6502-based computer that might not have made it - as it was over twice the price of its compatriots - had it not been for the advent of V...

Comart Communicator: The clean simplicity outside... conceals the pedigree inside

Comart - based in St. Neots, Huntingdon - was founded in 1976 by David Broad and John Lamb as a mail-order supplier of imported software and S-100 boards, but by 1977 was resellin...

Almarc and Vector Graphic - the complete partnership in microcomputers

Here's another straightforward advert from Vector Graphics' sole UK distributor, Almarc Data Systems of Nottingham. It shows nicely Vector's range of micros available at the time...

Equinox: A Word Processor, Data Base Manager and a computer all for £1,195

Parasitic Engineering of Albany, California, would go bust in 1983, but prior to that it had established a network of resellers for its Equinox 100 micro throughout Europe, includ...

Atari: There's No Comparing It With Any Other Video Game

It's another advert for the legendary Atari 2600 "Woody" games console, launched four years before in 1977 and still doing well in 1981. The advert shows a nice stack of games cart...

Unique in concept - the home computer that grows as you do!

The Acorn Atom was a 6502-based 8-bit computer that in its basic version managed to pack even less RAM than the VIC-20: 2K compared to 3.5K. However, it was very modular and so ...

Why the Sinclair ZX80 is Britain's best selling computer

Just before the release of the ZX81 comes this advert for the ZX80, available in kit form for only £80, or £500 in 2025. Somewhat amusingly it claims to be "a really powerful, f...

Discover the full professional power of Hewlett-Packard's personal computer

Hewlett-Packard, which like Commodore, TI and Tandy also had a line in calculators, had launched its HP-85 micro at the beginning of 1980, with the machine even originating from t...

The Commodore PET offers you a safe passage through the primeval swamp of computerisation

This advert had a point - there were hundreds of different manufactures around at this point all producing different systems with different CPUs on different architectures, and ma...

Buy a wordprocessor for under £3,500 - and get a microcomputer for free

Well, perhaps software was a bit more expensive in the early 80s, but word processing software for £3,500 (or £18,700 in 2025 terms) seems a little steep. However, that's what t...

Microtan 65 - Designed With Expansion in Mind

The basis for the Microtan 65 was a 6502-based single-board computer, which as advertised was sold for the bargain price of £80, only about £420 in 2025 money. However, that's sli...

You're Never Alone With A Commodore PET

In the year that the VIC 20 would be released comes an advert - very much a contemporary of the similar Primeval Swamp - for the Commodore PET, or rather not for any particular PE...

Fortronic F500: The £4,000 microcomputer that thinks it's an £8,000 microcomputer

This advert seems to be treading somewhat risky ground with its assertion that somehow £4,000 (about £21,400 in 2025 money) is actually cheap for a micro, when something like the ...

RAIR: Black Box III Microcomputer solutions

Nearly nine years before the band Black Box released chart-topping track "Ride on Time", The other "Black Box" from RAIR was released. Based on Intel's 8085, and later 8088 CPUs...