15 Computer Ads From The Past (1950-1980)
Computer ads in the past were pretty simple and straight forward. You could hardly find one bashing the other but it sure did exist but not to the extent it does today. The “I am a PC” ad is a prime example of directly targeting competitors but hey business just like politics is a dirty game and gotta do what you gotta do. Well, as usual we have yet to see Techy do anything on this blog. Yeah he is pretty busy but shit it’s not like I sit on my ass all day and do nothing ;-).
Don’t worry he will be here soon and trust me techy knows his shit so when he is here he will be here with a bang. Hope this gives a little boost….hope so.
Anyways, here are some images that show the ways computers and computer products were marketed back in the days. You will find images for each year ranging from 1950 to 1980. If you got any cool ones feel free to link it in the comments section. All images are directly linked to the main source.
Please click on the image to enlarge.
1950
Univac Scientific Computer
Ampex C1 Computer Tape
HP 524D Digital Counter
1960
Honeywell 800
Autonetics
Autonetics Recomp II
IBM 360
1970
Bit Inc. BIT 483 Minicomputer
HP 3000
Apple II
RadioShack TRS-80
1980
RadioShack TRS-80
White Computer
Action Computer Multiprocessor System
Vector VIP Computer
Were you around when these ads were circulating? If you were born in 1950 and reading this blog then we would like to give you a big ol’ pat on the back. It is commendable and we sure do appreciate you still living, breathing and computing.
11 Rockin' Comments
October 29th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Talk about a walk down memory lane. Funny thing is that I actually remember at least one of those ads specifically, even after all these years!
October 29th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
@Stephane: “If you were born in 1950 and reading this blog then we would like to give you a big ol’ pat on the back. It is commendable and we sure do appreciate you still living, breathing and computing.” If you are one of them please let us know we would like to keep our promise.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Born before 1950. And I *programmed* on a Honeywell 800, one of the strangest machines ever. Hardware multiplexing of eight program threads, two instruction registers you could flip between, a sign digit on each so you could run programs backwards, and about six jillion forms of indirect addressing. Debugging was akin to cryptanalysis.
October 29th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
@Old Earl: please accept a big ol’ pat on the back from us. If it wasn’t for “old earls” like you we wouldn’t have anything to write about.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Nice Article, Adding to RSS Now
October 30th, 2008 at 11:35 am
@DiscussHub : you are the kind of visitor we like here on TechyShit who instead of becoming a guest becomes a part of family
November 9th, 2008 at 7:20 am
and kick the a** of others?
February 18th, 2009 at 3:49 am
old but it’s true
March 21st, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Aww gee, you left out the 1975 “Cosmac Elf”. It was a $99 build it yourself computer, that I built based on some plans in Popular Electronics Magazine (I think). Programmed in hex using 8 flip switches and a 2 digit hex display. I got a lot of mileage out of the 256 bytes (not KB, or MB, or GB) of RAM….
March 28th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I remember very well almost all of these ads (and how thrilled I was when I walked by the first computer store I’d ever seen. Located in Waltham, MA, there must have been three or four machines on display. Thrilling for the time).
My favorite ad, however, was not for a computer but for a compiler. Anyone remember Data General’s ad for their new FORTRAN IV compiler with the tag line “It’s a real PIG!” beneath a picture of a pig ?
I thought that was advertising at its best …. a REAL attention grabber which, upon reading, made great sense.
Vive la Data General … I really miss’em.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
You *DO* know the HP-525D isn’t a computer, right? It’s just a frequency counter…. but, I suppose it belongs here, as the display is read in rows of numerals, each lit with a NE-2 (or similar) neon bulb.
Every decade in the display had it’s own primitive decade counter module - it was exceedingly high tech in it’s day. I used to own (personally) the next generation after that model, which replaced the digit columns with Nixie tubes. Used to have it until a couple or three years ago when I got tired of the thing (a/k/a my wife got tired of the thing) being in the way since it was big, heavy and had a BMFFan on the back panel that sounded too loud. I had all the plug-ins for it to take it to 250Mhz and beyond. Even at it’s advanced age, it was as or more accurate than the counters I still use!!!
The largest counter, in size, I use on my home hobby bench isn’t much larger than the Webster Collegiate Dictionary, though, and only weighs a couple pounds. I was comment on my newish counter being able to use an external timebase (like a GPS freq standard) but then remembered the HP-525 would as well. Imagine a beast like that, fan roaring, nixies flickering, but with cesium-source stability provided by a GPS time base. Now THAT would be a cool thing to have!!
T
(Now experiencing Cannibal’s Remorse for stripping his boat-anchor counter for parts and sending the rest to the recycler. *sniffle*)
Yes, I had a TRS-80 (I called it a Model I in a previous comment) I didn’t get it for a new price but waited ’til clearance. The CoCo and CoCoII I waited till the prices started going down. They were great machines for time and *VERY* fun. I wonder if anyone that’s still following the thread remembers the magazine for the ColorComputer, Hot CoCo???? If not, I guess I’m more of an Old F*rt than I thought.
I think the Cosmac ELF was the direct compeditor for the Commodore PET, or was it? That been sooooooo long ago.
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