Cromemco Advert - March 1984

It's three years into the era of the all-conquering IBM PC, and Cromemco - a company founded back in 1974 - is still hanging on.

What's more, it's still producing broadly-similar systems from the 1970s, with its range of machines based around the venerable Z80 CPU.

First there's the C-10 personal computer, which is still very much rooted in the 1970s as it's a standard Z80A machine with 64K ram, its own CDOS operating system and a structured BASIC.

Then there's the System 1, with a 21MB hard disk, and the company's dual Z80A/Motorola 68000 processor, the latter being the same 16/32-bit CPU as used in the Apple Mac, and the later Amiga and Atari ST. Just to make sure it's hanging on to the 70s though, it does come with an S-100 bus.

Perhaps it's a case of "last man standing" - The S-100 bus in particular dominated for years, and there was clearly still some sort of market for systems still compatible with it.

Cromemco survived until 1987, when it was sold to Dynatech.