1988 adverts

Mission 386.2: The world's first 20MHz 80386 machine.

Here's another nice example of how it seemed every company even vaguely related to electronics was getting into the microcomputer game, in this case UK high-end hifi manufacturer ...

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...

We asked our designers for a portable PC. They got completely carried away.

Launched at Comdex Fall '87 in Las Vegas and at the UK's Which Computer? Show, the PPC range of not-quite-laptops was Amstrad's entry into the portable market. It was fully IBM c...

A new kind of computer to revolutionise the way you work

Here's a nice advert ticking all the mobile-worker cliché boxes, not least the one of the dude on the train who's actually lucky enough to get a group of four seats all to himself...

How good are Tandy computers? Ask someone who's bought two million of them

Tandy's TRS-80 - the Tandy Radio Shack/Z80 - was one of the first three "appliance" computers - those you could take out of a box, plug in and use right away - ever, when it was l...

Above all else, there is Apricot

This advert from Apricot shows the company clearly aiming at the Desktop Publishing market that Apple was coming to own since the 1985 release of Aldus Pagemaker, and Apple's even...

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...

The 3 best takeaways of all time

Here's an amusing advert from Epson for its "PC Portable", otherwise known as the Q150A, which was launched at the beginning of 1988 - with the hard-disk version being launched in...

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...

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...