Hotel Microsystems Advert - June 1984

This crossover advert takes March 1983's Z80-based Minstrel from Hotel Microsystems, replaces the Z80 with a Motorola 68000, rebrands the company as HM Systems and releases the machine as the Minstrel 68K.

Also gone is CP/M, MINOS and TurboDos, which have been replaced by Unix System III, in the form of Microsoft's Xenix.

However, the original Minstrel case remains, as does the S-100 bus - first introduced in 1975's Altair 8800, but which was, as of 1983, an official IEEE standard, just in time for it to be obsoleted by the increasingly-dominant IBM PC.

The entry-level two-user Minstrel 68K system retailed for £6,995 plus VAT, or around £33,700 in 2025.

Also available: the older Minstrel, now branded as the Minstrel Turbo, and available as a two-user system for £6,500, or £27,400 in 2025

If that was a bit much, the original Z80 version - now branded as the Minstrel Turbo - which came with CP/M, three Z80A processors, a 20MB Winchester and two terminals, was available for £6,500, or £27,400 now.

Alternatively, there was a five-user version for a hefty £12,800 - that's £54,000 in 2025.

And if money was no object, up to 256 Minstrels, each supporting up to six terminals, could by networked together over Datapoint's ARCNET, creating a 1,500-user local area network at a cost of nearly £3.3 million, and that's without allowing for inflation.

The company became reasonably successful, and counted the BBC, Kodak, British Telecom and BUPA amongst its customers. It was still around until at least 1990^[1].