Hotel Microsystems Advert - August 1987

It's often said that the rise of cheap commodity PCs and affordable networking killed off the multi-user system, but it's still here in 1987 in the form of Hotel Microsystems' Minstrel 4.

Hotel Microsystems - or HM Systems PLC as it was now known - appeared to originate from a division of reseller Guestel, which - clue's in the name - specialised in micro systems for hotels.

Its first product - the Minstrel (later Minstrel 1) was a fairly straight-up Z80-based multi-user system on an S-100 bus, which made a thing out of its compatibility with North Star's systems.

The Minstrel 4 of the advert maintains the multi-user approach, but it's on steroids - although each Minstrel computer could host up to 16 users - with their own dedicated processors - they could themselves be networked with other Minstrels to offer up to 4080 simultaneous users, and a frankly surreal 4080 printers.

The network chosen by HM was Datapoint's 2.5mbps Arcnet, which connected via BNC-terminated coaxial cables. This allowed up to four Minstrel's to be connected straight away, but required the addition of a dedicated "active node" to expand beyond this. Regular IBM PCs or Apricot micros were also supported, but these each required a £495 (£1,800 in 2025) Arcnet card.

The Minstrel 4 was first released in the spring of 1986, and was mentioned in May 1986's Personal Computer World, with Guy Kewney writing:

"The extraordinary thing about the Minstrel 4, apart from the fact that users say it is fast and powerful, is the nostalgic feature of an S-100 bus. The manufacturers say that most people are astonished how small it is - occupying 23 inches by 10 inches and at 9 inches high, it's approximately AT sized. The other unusual thing is the operating system, TurboDOS. Fomerly an 8-bit alternative (faster version) of CP/M, it is now a 16-bit alternative to MS-DOS. Obviously this limits the number of programs, but apparently people buy it for special-purpose work^[1]".

It was reviewed a few months later, with Peter Jackson concluding:

"There is no doubt that there's a market for multi-processor, multi-user machines which are reliable, fast and easy to use ... The only drawbacks for the business buyer will be the lack of real IBM compatibility and the lack of graphics - at least without adding extra graphics boards and terminals to the system. For software developers, the machine looks very good. But then all the top software developers have been using S-100 machines for many years, even if the software is being written for the Apricot or the IBM PC. As S-100 systems go, the Minstrel 4 has all the advantages of the breed and fewer disadvantages than many. It is a shame though that the S-100 is no longer for hobbyists^[2]."

The system - which included an Oki laser printer - retailed for £15,465 + VAT, which is about £62,700 in 2025. That was for eight users - the full 16 would be an additional £10,074, or £35,500 now.

In common with such expensive systems, it was popular in the UK's public sector, where most of the company's 4,000 installations by 1988 seemed to have ended up^[3].

It didn't have too much competition in its own corner of the market, with only Altos and a handful of S-100 multi-user companies remaining. However, it was up against cheap IBM PC clones, where every user by definition had their own processor but where sticking in a four-port serial card and connecting terminals to turn a standard PC into a "multi user" system was also quite common.

Nevertheless, when it came to competing with single-processor multi-user systems, it won "hands down", even though its initial cost was significantly higher. Personal Computer World put the Minstrel 4 in perspective when it said:

"The up-front cost of an S-100 system is high, and success will be very dependent on the quality of dealers and system integrators which the mancufacturer can attract to the flag. But the advantages of the breed are obvious once you have seen the [Intel] 8086, or even [Motorola] 68000, trying to handle 12 users on its own. The Minstrel's tower-block design is more compact than most of the competition, the terminals are attractive and competitively priced, and the performance is all you could ask for^[4]".