IMSAI Advert - February 1978

This looks a lot like the "portable" version of the Commodore 64 - the SX-64 - that would appear on the scene some seven years later, and may also be an early attempt (like the Osborne) at a luggable computer. It, like the SX-64, featured an almost-useless 4" built-in screen, but ran an Intel 8080 at 3 MHz (even though the advert says 3 millihertz) on an S-100 bus. It came with quite a lot of stuff for its $1499 price tag (about £5,000 in 2011 terms). There's more at old-computers.com

In the UK, by early 1980, IMSAI seemed to have earned a reputation as a poisoned chalice, at least as far as dealerships were concerned. Guy Kewney, writing in February 1980's issue of Personal Computer World, mentioned that the closure of micro dealers Corner Store bought up to three the number of high-profile IMSAI dealers that had failed to make a profit handling that franchise^[1]. This included the formerly-profitable Comart distribution chain, often seen in adverts of this era.