1981 Personal Computer Catalog

edibobb writes "I just fired up my scanner and uploaded the 35-page 1981 (+/- 1 year) personal computer catalog from American Small Business Computers. 16K RAM for $22; 10 megabyte hard drive, 5 meg fixed and 5 removeable, with 14-inch platters; 25-character per second printer. Things have changed a bit since then!"

Comments

Made in USA?

[Bryan Ischo]

One thing I notice is that 20+ years ago alot more high tech development seemed to have been happening all over the USA, instead of being highly concentrated in just a few places as seems to be the case now. Printers from Florida? Word Processors from Oklahoma? I remember reading the the original MOS chips were manufactured in PA in the 1970s! If I bought a printer today and the box said that it was manufactured anywhere other than Taiwan or China, let alone Florida or Oklahoma, I'd be shocked!

Re:Made in USA?

[Bryan Ischo]

I think alot of people misunderstood my post. Probably my fault as I wasn't entirely clear.

I don't think it's a shame that this has happened. I just think it's interesting. It's a throwback to a different era, when even little nowhere towns in the middle of Pennsylvania could fabricate chips, and tiny tech startups were happening in Florida and Oklahoma and everywhere. I really have no position whatsoever on whether or not it's better this way or that way, I just thought it was interesting.

Blast from the Past

[General Sherman]

I don't see what's so special, it's just like taking the tour inside NASA.

Oh the hair and the suits.

[nlinecomputers]

Those guys in those suits. Did we really dress like that? Fuck I'm old.....

Re:Oh the hair and the suits.

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

If it's any consolation, it's not so much their clothing as the dorky mustaches.. ^_^

1981? Not Later?

[angst_ridden_hipster]

I suspect that was actually from later than 1981.

In 1980, I spent $269 for 16k RAM for my TRS-80.

That was 4116s, too. I can't believe I spent nearly an order of magnitude too much, since I watched prices in 80-Micro and Byte like a hawk.

My (ahem) memory could be failing, but I think this may have been more recent than 1981...

Re:1981? Not Later?

[Mr. Troll]

Check out the MTBF on the printer:

1 year at 75% duty cycle. That's AWFUL....unlike my modern Lexmark, which only cost me $40, I mean that thing lasted.....oh wait

At least todays crappy printers don't weigh 44 freakin pounds..

Too Pricey

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not upgrading my memory until it drops to a buck per K, a few months from now.

Phone number

[kavachameleon]

The phone number given is now the phone number for Upperspace. They make CAD software.

Re:Phone number

[zjbs14]

Same company, different products. Back in the later 1980's they released Design CAD as a low-cost alternative to AutoCAD. My parents' company actually used to by Corvus stuff from these guys.

If you've ever been to Pryor, OK, you'd be amazed that anything technical would have come from a town like that.

Check out those hairdos and moustaches...

[isny]

What do you think? 1970s Pr0n stars or computer salesmen? You be the judge!

a blast from the present

[ChipMonk]

Things have changed a bit since then!

Yeah, the Slashdot effect hadn't been invented yet.

Oh man

[ryanr]

I really wanted one of those Corvus drives about that time. You could hook your Apple ][ up to them, several simultaneously, in fact. They functioned like a rudimentary network. If I coulda had a whole 10 *MB*... that would have been like having 70(!) simultaneous 143K floppy disks worth. The warez board I would have run....

That remind me, I should pick up a few more drives, and finish off my home Terabyte...

Re:Oh man

[netringer]

I really wanted one of those Corvus drives about that time. You could hook your Apple ][ up to them, several simultaneously, in fact. They functioned like a rudimentary network.

AND as I recall as Local Area Networks began viable Corvus took that file sharing idea and became known as....guess who?


.......Novell!

Ethernet was WAY too expensive. At first we used 4mb/sec Arcnet. It had a maximum of 256 nodes and you had to set the address of each one by hand on DIP switches.

Definition of server masochism (n):

[ErikTheRed]

A desire to cause pain to one's server, primarily though the Slashdot linking of an article that consists of nothing but large .jpg images. This condition should be treated immediately with extensive psychiatric care (the glowing and smoking remains of the server can be hosed down once the heat dies down enough to allow approach).

Re:Here I sit

[DrunkenTerror]

Nice mailto, Ass In Gap. That's your Indian name from now on.

Re:Remember Bill Gate's quote?

[Chess_the_cat]

You must be the last guy on earth to believe he actually said that. He didn't.

Mirror...

[Copperhead]

I mirrored the site here since his site doesn't seem to be weathering the storm. If you see broken images, it's because I'm still wgetting it.

I'll take it down if he wants me to, of course, but I thought it would help.

marketing

[shams42]

To me, what is even more striking than the change in computer technology is the change in marketing! Everytime I see an early 80s advertisement, I just want to laugh at the naivete. Is this presentism, or have modern ads really become that much more compelling?

Re:marketing

[SmackCrackandPot]

Everytime I see an early 80s advertisement, I just want to laugh at the naivete. Is this presentism, or have modern ads really become that much more compelling?

I think modern adverts are much more serious; Back in the 80's everything was much more laid back and relaxed. I've got a collection of old Byte magazines from this time; For those adverts in color, the advertisers usually took the companies name literally (Eg. Smoke Signal Systems would have a company meeting with everyone looking as if they were having an 1850's fancy dress party). If that didn't work, then a beautiful woman in cocktail party dress was an alternative. Alternatively, using D&D characters (wizards, trolls) wouldn't be too bad either.

A good retro web page is TheOldComputer.Com

Re:marketing

[Quill_28]

Or who they are marketing to.

I am guessing you were marketing to a more informed crowd.

Re:1981? Not Later? (geezing!)

[Rick Zeman]

n 1980, I spent $269 for 16k RAM for my TRS-80.

Ugh, that's way worse than me first populating my Apple II 1mb RAM card at about $100 per 128k with those silly bank of 8 chips. I was forever bending those little feet. I almost got a woody when Macs with SIMMS came along. :)

Joke I played

[Bryan Ischo]

I found an old Fry's Electronics San Jose Mercury News ad section in a box of old papers at my father-in-law's house once a couple of moths ago. As a joke I replaced the ad in that day's newspaper with it. It was funny seeing his reaction later that evening when he browsed to the Fry's section to check out the day's deals as he normally does. It took a little while before he realized what was going on. Fry's ads from 1989 look almost identical to those of today, but the 386's listed for $2500 and dot matrix printers for $500 eventually tipped him off to the joke.

It's a stupid story, but I thought it was funny.

Credit Cards

[Traxton1]

Holy crap, people actually paid more to use credit cards back then? People don't even carry cash anymore. I wonder how freaked out people would be now-a-days if I told them I was adding 3% to their purchase.

Re:Credit Cards

[Quill_28]

hmmmm... I have actually shredded my credit cards and have one debit card used for gas and internet purchases.

Cash makes the perfect budget, can spend what you don't have.

Just remember I think it is Sears that makes more money on financing than they do selling stuff. My understanding is that this is becoming the norm.

Yes, I know my post if offtopic.

Re:ah, the trs-80 color computer

[Anonymous Coward]

Er...that would be John Conway's Game of Life. Less fragging.

THINGS HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL.

[Peter Cooper]

Things have changed a bit since then!

SOME OF US DO NOT HAVE THE FANCY MONEY TO SPEND ON 300 BAUD MODEMS AND EGA SCREENS AND HAVE TO MAKE DO WITH WHAT WE HAVE GOT. I RECENTLY SAVED UP TEN BUCKS TO BUY A 32K EXPANSION PACK FOR MY COMMODORE PET. IT IS NOT PRETTY BUT IT WORKS.

BEFORE YOU ASK HOW I AM ON THE ARPANET, I AM ACCESSING VIA PACKET RADIO SERVICE. MY NEAREST REPEATER IS 25 MILES AWAY AND THEN THE NEXT REPEATER ON HAS A FOURTEEN POINT FOUR KILOBIT MODEM CONNECTION TO THE ARPANET. I WAS SENT THIS MAIL BY A FRIEND OF A FRIEND WHO HAS WINDOWS AND HAVE READ IT AND AM WRITING THIS REPLY ON MY COMMODORE PET USING KA9Q AND PINE.

BEST REGARDS AND 73S
PETER COOPER
STATION WS47X

Re:THINGS HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL.

[Kufat]

When I saw this many caps in one place, I thought I was going to be seeing a request for my assistance in helping money leave a small country.

Slashdot effect

[JustinXB]

Thanks to the Slashdot effect, you get to see the catalog at 1981 speeds!!!

My ENIAC boasts unbreakable security!

[rice_burners_suck]

16K RAM for $22; 10 megabyte hard drive, 5 meg fixed and 5 removeable, with 14- inch platters; 25-character per second printer.

You think that's advanced technology, eh? You should come to my place sometime and check out my ENIAC. You have to be the 1337est of the '1337 to operate this thing. No hard drive. No mouse. No graphics... hell, there ain't even a CLI for cryin' out loud! (Real Programmers don't need no stinkin' user interface.) To enter commands into this baby, you gotta connect hundreds upon hundreds of wires, kind of like they did in the old telephone switchboards, where a human operator connected your call.

And best of all, this computer does it all.

• Want to multiply two numbers in just 3 milliseconds? Done.
• Want security even the likes of OpenBSD can't beat? Done.

The designers of this system knew what they were doing. The inability to store a program means that this system CANNOT get a virus, ever, period. Of course, then Von Neumann had to come along and invent stored programs, and the next thing you know, Outlook automatically executes email attachments...

Things have changed?

[evilviper]

Things have changed a bit since then!"

They have?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've still got a terminal from '81 still up and working within arms reach of me. Poor thing doesn't even know vt100, fortunately some OSes still have qvt in their termcap (most don't :-( )

I've got a new Tandy Color Computer 80 with monitor in my closet (new in box, only opened and used once!). (I can also get a hold of one that is still in mint condition, outer box hasn't even been opened.

If it wasn't for the multi-GHz computer I'm tying on, it would still be 1981 around here...

Oblig. Apollo 13 quote

[Wheaty18]

"We even have computers that can fit inside a single room!"

you had catalogs!?!

[pyrrho]

when I was young we had to signal our computer orders (usally replacement beads for the abacus) with damp blankets using smoke signals.

And we liked it.

Re:$22 for 16k of RAM...

[cliffy2000]

Actually, it would be $1,441,792. 22 * 1024^2 / 16. You forgot to multiply by 22/16. Close, though!

Re:Here I sit

[the_mad_poster]

Holy shit

That is the FUNNIEST fucking comment EVER. I have preserved a screenshot in case it ever changes at http://www.simple-sam.com/ass_in_gap.png

I am so drunk..... (because I took off work tomorrow). WAIT! I'm not drunk enough to not qualify my statement.... and I made the link into a link.... so I'm... uh... not drunk?

Bah, Cash only makes "the perfect budget"...

[brunes69]

.. for people who don't have enough sense to manage their money.

I have had a credit card since I was 18, I charge over $1000 on my cards a month.. I buy everything on credit card, including pay my bills. This way I maximize the free "points" my credit card gives me.

Guess how much I have paid in finance charges the past 6 years? I would say a max of 25 dollars *total*??? ( and that was only due to purposeful "letting it ride" for a few weeks since I was on vacation ).

50 dollars in finances for well over 600 dollars in rewards.

Seriously, credit cards are only "the devil" to people who have no will power. Just because I have thousands worth of credit in my pocket, doesn't mean I am about to go buy a car on my visa.

Not to mention if you charge something and you break it or it is stolen in the first 3 months, you can usually get a free replacement.. or if you get ripped off you can contest the charges. Try that with cash.

That's because

[Sycraft-fu]

The credit card compaines got on them about it. Declared if you didn't offer credit for same as cash pricing, they'd yank your verification system so you couldn't take cards anymore. There are actually several ongoing lawsuits about this (companies claiming this an unfair practice).

Just look how advanced we are!

[chevybowtie]

Since the average guy has to run the spam filter, virus scanner, Service Pack 12, pop-up blocker and spy-ware removal tools, his new Dell runs about the same today as those did. Why did we have to go from 4.77 Mhz to > 3000 Mhz and and not see near 1000 fold increase in snappyness? Because of all the freakin' 3l337 haxor d00d, because-I-can-spammer's, Gaim a**holes, MS programming school of buffer mangement & X10 snakeoil salesmen.

Re:Just look how advanced we are!

[dmaxwell]

Don't forget all of the eye candy, abstraction layers, and the replacement of assembly and C with high level languages...which are probably running on a virtual machine. And we can't blame it all on MS either. Everybody is operating that way.

For all that developers have a bit too much ease of use vs efficiency, today's PC has apps that just weren't possible with that old gear. Non-linear video editing and audio compression just isn't going to happen on a 12 Mhz 286.

In another 10 or 15 years, I believe that computing will cease to be sexy in any way shape or form. Don't get me wrong; advances will still be occuring but they won't be hot topics. Most major applications will have well understood methodologies for accomplishing them. APIs and architectures will be settled down more. That is the point where there will be value in making things a bit more efficient and maintainable. Hell, I even think the IP tulip mania will be mostly over with by then. But things will stay chaotic as long as Moore's Law still has steam in it.

1990 Computer Shopper

[suso]

Somewhere in my parent's house is a 1990 issue of Computer Shopper with the world's only 4GB hard drive at the time (by IBM). price: $20,000

I kept that around just to look back at times like this.

Save time - read the obligatory Slashdot comments

[mrklin]

"Is the site hosted on a the original server with 16K RAM and a 10 megabyte hard drive becase it is Slashdotted!!!!!"

"Yes, but does it run Linux?"

"Bill Gates said 640K ought to be enough for everyone." which is then followed by 10 variations of "Actually, Gates never said that."

"I actually owned one of those (insert archaic by modern standards technology here)" which is followed by another 10 variations of "That's nothing. We didn't even have those abovementioned technology because Big Bang just occurred and we only had hydoren and helium available, you insensitive clod!!"

Snooze...

no promotions anymore

[asv108]

Remember 15+ years ago when a lot of products would feature in advertisements that they were made in the USA? A lot of it was a reaction to perceived threat from Japan and the thought of NAFTA. In current times that is a rarity, globalization aside. Even though people are buying Mercedes made in Alabama and tech support from India, it would be interesting to see a return of promotional campaign designed to promote goods made in the US. Perhaps there can be a similar campaign designed to promote companies that don't use overseas labor?

Something similar

[danuary]

Check out this unix ad, also from 1981 (hi Bob! -dp). Brought to you by Bell Labs. It's amazing how times have changed......

Wikipedia

[cos(0)]

Wikipedia is amazing -- it even has an entry for The Magic Wand word-processing software advertised on one of the catalog's pages:

Magic Wand (software)

Re:Here I sit

[GlassUser]

I have modified my sig for the first time in forever, to honor this.