EACA/Genie Advert - September 1982

Adverts for microcomputers in this era can be broadly grouped into three or four types: a micro sitting on a table surrounded by something incongruous like the family silver, a micro in an office being used to type something in - and it was always by a woman, as typing was considered somehow "non-masculine" at the time - or something ludicrously aspirational and/or possibly "James Bond".

And so it is with this advert, which easily falls into the final category, as every manager of the small factory down the road making widgets has a PA and a private jet on call.

It even manages to fulfil the cliché of category 2 as well, showing the Genie III in action, in an office, being typed on, by a woman.

The Genie III itself, otherwise known as the EG3200, was built by enigmatic Hong Kong company EACA and imported into the UK by Lowe Electronics. It was released at about the same time as the Colour Genie.

It was a fairly standard Z80-based CP/M or NewDOS/80 system designed to compete against Tandy's TRS-80 Model 3 - NewDOS/80 was a third-party operating system which had been developed to run on either the TRS-80 Model I or III.

Reviewing the Personal Computer World show in September 1982, Gregg Williams, senior editor of Byte - The Small Systems Journal, said of the Genie III that:

"Like the IBM Personal Computer, it is newsworthy not because it's innovative but because it carefully combines the best features of other computers ... Emulation capabilities are the Genie Ill's main claim to fame. It is supplied with two operating systems, NEWDOS-80 version 2.0 and CP/M 2.2. If you load NEWDOS-80, the BASIC loaded is a RAM version of Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I BASIC supplied (legally) by Microsoft; the video display shows 16 lines of 64 characters each, and the machine emulates a TRS-80 Model I. If you load CP/M, the video display shows 24 lines of 80 characters each, and the machine emulates a CP/M system with a standard screen size. Under software control, NEWDOS can also use the 24 by 80 video format^[1]".

By itself, the Genie III retailed for £2,185, or about £10,800 in 2026, whilst the advert shows bundle which also included the TABS small-business accounting package as well as a year's maintenance for £3,250 plus VAT, or about £18,500 now.