Gemini Micro Advert - December 1984

Gemini Microcomputers, of Amersham in Buckinghamshire, seems to have based its entire existance on more-or-less the same thing - boards built around the Z80 CPU and running CP/M, the popular but ageing operating system from the 1970s.

The company's Multiboard concept came from founder John Marshall's previous company Nascom, which had been through some financial problems and had gone into receivership.

When that happened, it developed a contingency plan in case the business failed to sell - a couple of boards which together replicated the popular Nascom 1 and 2 micros, and which Marshall ended up taking when he left to start Gemini Micro.

The range of Multiboards expanded rapidly and here Gemini is offering them in an off-the-shelf style, where it was possible to have micros built to order.

This business model became especially popular with the rise of IBM PC clones, where hundreds of random companies based in anonymous industrial estates around the UK would build PCs to specific requirements.

The model still remains today, in particular with gaming PCs.

In a nod to the now and/or near future and the growing dominance of the IBM PC standard, Gemini is also offering "the addition of a 16-bit card [which] will allow you to run many popular programs now being generated".

The advert, meanwhile, at least shows some originality, in contrast to many others which just showed a moodily-lit computer sitting on a table. The tailoring metaphor actually works, unlike some.