1983 adverts
Acorn
1983
Acorn Electron
This sales brochure, featuring a very Salvador Dali-esque painting including a Rubik's Cube - one of the defining icon of the 1980s - was for the Acorn Electron, sometimes known a...
Hewlett-Packard
1983
After you ask what it can do for you now, ask what it can do for you later: HP-86
More proof that it took at least a few years for the IBM PC format to bulldoze everything in its path, comes this advert for the Hewlett-Packard HP-86. Looking a bit like a very...
Dragon Data
1983
Dragon 32: There's only one thing harder than bulding a great computer. Building software to match.
The Dragon 32 was another entry in the burgeoning early-80s British computer scene and was originally developed by Mettoy, the company that also made Corgi toys. Mettoy suffered ...
Apple
January 1983
It's the same old Apple II, except for the front, back and inside
The Apple III, which had been released three years before in 1980, had been a relative failure, shifting only 65,000 units before it was canned, so the venerable Apple II line was...
Tangerine
January 1983
Oric-1 - created by Tangerine
Tangerine had been around for a few years, and had previously been selling a 6502-based one-board computer called the Microtan. This was abandoned after around 10,000 systems ha...
Osborne
January 1983
Every week, more and more people like you are going to work with an Osborne personal business computer
The Osborne One was designed by Lee Felsenstein, who had designed Processor Technology's Sol computer back in 1976. Osborne, the company, went through hard times during 1983, not...
Epson
February 1983
Epson HX-20: It could mean the end of the rubber duck as we know it
From the time when the only colours allowed in anyone's decorative colour scheme were black, red and grey comes this advert from Epson. It's perhaps one of the more irresponsibl...
Digital Research
February 1983
CP/M Graphics - your ticket to success
Intergalactic Digital Research was founded by Gary Kildall, along with his wife Dorothy, in 1976, three years after Kildall first wrote CP/M - the first-ever disk operating system...
Triumph-Adler
February 1983
Triumph Adler makes it all refreshingly simple with the Alphatronic micro
Triumph-Adler, originally of Germany, was first bought out by the US Royal Typewriter Co. in 1969 and then, more implausibly, by German car-giant Volkswagen, which acquired a major...
Zen
February 1983
Solve the "Which microcomputer to buy" puzzle in six easy moves
There's nothing quite like an advert without a photo of the thing you're selling to really promote it, although this one does at least feature a custom Rubik's cube. That's mayb...
Commodore
February 1983
At £299 it's very little. At 64K it's very large
The Commodore 64 was the company's replacement for its VIC-20 machine, the limited but popular home computer which was the first to sell more than 1 million units. Designed by a ...
Commodore
February 1983
It's only £695. And that's the last reason you should buy it.
The Commodore 500 was part of the CBM-II Series - an attempt to produce an update for the original Commodore PET and seen as the company's last chance to break the business market...
Casio
February 1983
Casio PB-100: The best way to put 1,568 steps in your pocket
Casio's PB-100 was one of several small "pocket computers" released around the same time that look more like calculators, however it was programmable as it had a resident version ...
Commodore
March 1983
Home is the last place you should learn about a home computer
Even though the Commodore 64 was on the market, there was still plenty of demand for the VIC 20, launched two years before in 1981 (or three if you count Japan, where it was test-...
Sinclair
March 1983
ZX Spectrum - 16K or 48K RAM from only £125!
This advert is part of an impressive four-page spread that appeared early in 1983 for the Sinclair Spectrum, launched at the end of April 1982 but which took eight weeks until fir...