15 Computer Ads From The Past (1950-1980)

Written by The Shit

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.

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7 Rockin' Comments

Stephane Grenier
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!
The Shit
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.
Old Earl
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.
The Shit
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.
DiscussHub
October 30th, 2008 at 1:16 am

Nice Article, Adding to RSS Now
The Shit
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
kooldj
November 9th, 2008 at 7:20 am

and kick the a** of others?