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"55 Vintage Computer Ads" news post

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barythrin

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Not sure if anyone saw this before, fun little read (but wow did it load slowly lol) Someone put together some old magazine ads for lots of systems to check out which is pretty interesting to see the path different vendors were looking at. Microsoft obviously kicking back with their look of this makes things so easy, Apple putting themselves out there as sort of a college/hipster user base, IBM of course business suits, and then all sorts of other comparisons of the current market vs X system.

Anyone remember these or did any ad specifically you remember guide you towards a system? What was the best marketing that convinced you to buy a certain system? Magazine ads, news paper articles, word of mouth, club meetings?
 
I always enjoy looking at old ads. The Vic 20: "The only computer you'll need for years to come!" (LOL)

Thanks for posting.

Tez
 
I think the man holding the IBM 5100 Portable is struggling not to let his face show how awfully heavy the computer is.:D
 
I always went to the grubby black and white ads in the back where they tried to list 5,000 items in 4 point type. :D

I remember most of these ads. The Apple "What Kind of Man Owns a Computer" series was interesting to watch as they tried to convince Mr Smith he needed a computer more than he needed the Tareyton cigarettes on the opposite page, or STP for his engine, or a Rolls-Royce nose on his VW bug.

The ads shown are pretty random, they cover such a wide range of time and technologies they aren't directly comparable to each other, IMO.

Of the ads, the Ohio Scientific ad appeals to me the most. It's the one that comes closest to saying, "Open up our computer and bring your soldering iron." I'll admit I was motivated by the C-64 ads, that was a lot of computer for the price. I pre-ordered my 64 with a 1540 disk drive and a Gemini 10 printer. I forced myself to wait out the warranty period before I opened it to put in a reset switch.
 
ppo said:
I think the man holding the IBM 5100 Portable is struggling not to let his face show how awfully heavy the computer is.:D
Click to expand...
Perhaps they took the guts out for the shoot. .. or held it up with something ... or used makeup on him so you couldn't see his red face. :p
 
Actually, those ads brought back the severe pain of paying around $800 for a 4K S-100 static ram board. In 1981, I had to settle for a single floppy drive as I couldn't afford a second one. " Real fun " is trying to copy larger files from 1 floppy disk to another one using a single drive. I had to patch the disk directory to split up the file into smaller parts, copy the parts, then patch the backup disk to put the pieces back into one file. My 1985 clone PC cost $1500 for the unit and another $1500 for a external 20MB hard drive. So, some fond and some not so fond memories.
 
chuckcmagee said:
Actually, those ads brought back the severe pain of paying around $800 for a 4K S-100 static ram board. In 1981, I had to settle for a single floppy drive as I couldn't afford a second one. " Real fun " is trying to copy larger files from 1 floppy disk to another one using a single drive. I had to patch the disk directory to split up the file into smaller parts, copy the parts, then patch the backup disk to put the pieces back into one file. My 1985 clone PC cost $1500 for the unit and another $1500 for a external 20MB hard drive. So, some fond and some not so fond memories.
Click to expand...

$800 for a 4K board -- ouch!

I paid a total of $1600 (not in one payment) for four 16K static memory boards for my S-100 bus system -- this was 1977-1978 timeframe. Northstar floppy disk drives went for $500 apiece, if my memory serves me. Yes, I remember copying diskettes with only one drive. Software development was really a pain with only one drive.
 
Hmm, now that you mention it, I do think it was a 16K board, not 4K. Later on, my work place had some free Cromemco boards available so I had a yummy 64K in my S-100 after that. I never did manage to get much software for the S-100 system. Good old Zork I was the only game I had.
 
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