Hotel Microsystems Advert - August 1987
From Personal Computer World
A Minstrel 4 eight-user package - £15,564 complete
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 system - which included an Oki laser printer - retailed for £15,465 + VAT, which is about £58,500 in 2024. That was for eight users - the full 16 would be an additional £10,074, or £33,100 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[1].
Sources
Text and otherwise-uncredited photos © nosher.net 2024. Dollar/GBP conversions, where used, assume $1.50 to £1. "Now" prices are calculated dynamically using average RPI per year.