Beneath Apple DOS, by Quality Software

It is not an advertisement, but is about computing in the 1980's. If you did any Apple II programming, you probably had a copy of this manual. It contained all of the details one needed to "hack" Apple DOS back in the day.

Beneath Apple DOS manual cover

The evolution of Apple DOS

Do not feed the programmers

Beagle Brothers Software

Beagle Brothers made great software for the Apple II computer. They had a unique sense of humor in their advertising.

Beagle Brothers Adverstisement

Beagle Screens samples

Beagle Brothers Software Catalog Cover

Early Music Synthesizer

Maxell floppy disks

1980 computer advertisement for Maxell floppy disks

Floppy disks. A staple of 1980's computing. In the early part of the decade it was cassette tape or floppy disk. Hard drives were insanely expensive. Now floppy disks are like just like phonograph records, ask any kid today and they won't know what you are talking about.

IBM Charlie Chaplin

1980 Computer advertisement for the IBM PC

The IBM PC became king by the late 1980's. IBM had a series of classy advertisements featuring Charlie Chaplin.

Okidata

1980 computer advertisement for Okidata dot matrix printers

In the day, before laser printers, before color ink jets, there were dot matrix printers. They were noisy machines, which made a loud high pitched sound as the print head hammered out the characters. Dot matrix printers were also fast compared to teletype or daisy wheel printers. Okidata was one of the major printer companies back in the day.

Olympic Decathlon

1980 computer advertisement for Olympic Decathlon by Microsoft

Before Mario Party and Kinect Sports there was Olympic Decathlon. I have fond memories of wildly button mashing the keyboard to make my athlete run just a little bit faster.

Atari 800

1980 computer advertisement for the Atari 800

The Atari 800. I never owned one, but growing up playing games on the Atari 2600 VCS really made me want an Atari 800.