Gulfstream/Bytec Advert - June 1983

Sadly, this particular Gulfstream was nothing to do with the rarified world of luxury executive jets but was rather more prosaically a subsidiary of Canadian company Bytec.

The Hyperion portable was also known as the "Ajile", which was sold by Anderson-Jacobson, a company better-known for acoustic coupler modems.

This re-sale agreement had been made with the original manufacture of the Hyperion - Dynalogic - but hadn't been mentioned when Dynalogic sold out to Bytec, so there was some confusion when Anderson-Jacobson discovered that Gulfstream was also selling "their" machine in to the same UK market.

It also led to the firing of Anderson's PR firm, Patria Design, which had issued a press release entitled "Ajile versus Hyperion" which included the offer of a 20% discount on the Ajile and which incurred the wrath of Gulfstream.

Gulfstream was also a reseller, and here it's offering Liberty Electronics' patriotically-named Freedom 100 VDU terminal, which retailed for £500 - about £2,200 in 2026

Commodore's portable - a re-branded Hyperion - at the Hannover Fair, 1984Despite Patria insisting that the press release was approved, AJ's managing director, one Brian Warrington, denied everything^[1].

The Hyperion was also later sold as a re-badged Commodore, following the signing of an agreement which also gave Commodore the rights to second-source Intel's 8088.

This crucially meant that Commodore could now produce its own IBM-compatible micros^[2] - Commodore was vertically integrated and didn't like anyone else producing stuff it relied on.

Commodore's version of the Hyperion was first shown during 1984's Hannover Fair^[3].

Oh, and photo of some dude hauling the thing around whilst wearing a suit? Check.