The best Christmas computer and electronics ads of 1980

[doctorow]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/03/simon-v-speak-n-spell.html

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[nixiebunny]

This takes me back. I worked in high school as the repair dept of the local Byte Shop computer store from 1978-79, which is when a lot of this stuff was introduced.

We sure paid a lot of money for machines that did very little back then.

[MrShiv]

I remember when that Coleco football game came out. Guys were playing it on the school bus, at recess, in the bathrooms, etc. That tune still plays in my brain sometimes

[gracchus]

Looking at all those things in one place returns me to the state of overwhelmed joy I felt in that year: Zork! Coleco Football! (I didn’t like real football, but loved that game)! A calculator watch! The TRaSh-80! Want, want, WANT!

[Jorpho]

I hadn’t seen that Star Trek thing before. Was it actually released? I’m guessing it’s not half as interesting as it looks. ('Course, its target audience at the time would have had plenty of fun throwing it across the room while making wooshing noises. I hope it was durable.)

ETA: Handheld museum says outlook not so good.

[stefanjones]

I was 2 1/2 years away from owning a computer in Christmas 1980.

I did look longingly through copies of Creative Computing in the library of Nassau Community College, and wonder if I’d ever be able to afford a PC.

It was SUCH a different time.

[FGD135]

[anon61221983]

It’s really crazy how cheap computers and memory are now a days, considered how expensive they used to be…

[David_Guilbeaul]

“did very little” ? Does “Hello world” mean nothing to you ?!?

[eap]

I love how the radio shack ad has a spelling error in the title.

[FGD135]

[d_r]

@stefanjones

I was 2 1/2 years away from owning a computer in Christmas 1980.

Me too, but I had full access to one of these two offices down:

[KingGhidorah]

Whenever I see ads from that time period, I still really want all of the featured products. Like, it’s been ingrained into my brain to respond to that particular style of ad, and to those products. Modern advertising does nothing to me, but ads from my childhood still evoke a frantic consumerism impulse.

[gomezlopez_javier]

“The adoption of the home computer, starting with the Apple II…”

Ummm, I will dispute that, I think the commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum Series did much more for the adoption of home computers and the appearance of commercial home-use software and games

[anon65433207]

This was the one that got me. I still build my own machines.