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A History of Computers, As Seen in Old TV Ads
Tiny Tuba writes "PC World's Harry McCracken pulls together a compendium of vintage PC commercials posted on YouTube. There are commercials from the 1980s right up to the present. If you are looking for a laugh, you will have fun with the Atari 400, Commodore 64 and more." Worth it for the Shattner Vic-20 commercial alone, but the others are well-picked too. Naturally, the Apple 1984 commercial is included.
Khan! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
...the best ad EVER!
;)
Are You Keeping Up With The Commodore?
I guarantee you'll have that stupid jingle stuck in your head for DAYS! (BWHAHAH!) I even named my most recent blog article after it.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
There was a few comericals for Prime Computer with Dr. Who. I wish I could find a link for them.
Those were some serious adds.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
A more interesting progression is in the increase in pr0n quality on computers. You can't beat the classics .
I thought it was funny until I found an Atari 400 in the shed......and then tripped over the Commodor 64.
"Dark Wings, Dark Words"
Here is one I had downloaded some time ago from somewhere, and recently put up on YouTube. Featuring: Tommy Lasorda, the Pointer Sisters, Chuck Yeager, and 'Tip' O'Neil!
Dark Reflection
Cool video: A 15 minutes YouTube video showing off the Amiga 500, also known as the A500. It was the first "low-end" Commodore Amiga 16/32-bit multimedia home/personal computer. It was announced at the winter Consumer Electronics Show in January 1987, at the same time as the high-end A2000, and competed directly against the Atari 520ST.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I kid you not, right after watching the Ballmer commercial, the sound went out on my computer.
That mofo has some powerful anti-mojo.
(Though I am from Nebraska, so maybe that's why.)
Stupid monkeyboy...
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
I don't know about you guys, but it was 'Reversi' that finally sold me.
Dark Reflection
[blockquote]Q: Where are these commercials from?
A: The U.S., as far as I know. Rule one of European computer commercials: They're too dirty for American TV.
[/blockquote]
The commercial that they link to is definitely something that could be shown on television. I have seen FAR worse than that. Granted, the U.S. certainly has worse decency laws than Europe (I remember seeing a water-bottle commercial involving a woman swimming naked in a submerged room), but censoring that would just be ridiculous.
---- "XML is like violence. If it doesn't fix the problem, you aren't using enough."
Mentioned, but not listed, the Windows 95 Start Me Up Launch Video
Sig: I stole this sig.
Halfway down the page, here. Now don't say I never give you anything!
Before the IBM PC, there were quite a few computers that were taken seriously. A lot of things were developing in interesting ways. There was progress. Some of them were good at graphics, some were good at video, some could do decent music, some were actually decent business machines, some had GUIs. Then the IBM PC came along with its bad graphics (a Hercules monochrome card was considered an upgrade) and we got a command line monoculture for the next ten years. Even by 1990, getting AutoCAD and Animator to play nice on the same machine was painful. (If I ever get my hands around the throat of the sadist who invented the PharLap memory manager ...)
It was kind of like the giant foot came down from the sky and squashed Bambi. I wonder how things would have developed if IBM hadn't given us their PC.
The Apple "1984" commercial is considered to be one of the greatest advertisements of all time, in any product category. Indeed it is standard curriculum in marketing classes at colleges & universities around the world.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
My parents didn't really know what a computer was, they just knew that my brother and I wanted one. I had dreams of building an intelligent computer that could talk to me like War Games. So, when the flyer came in the mail that we would get a free Commodore 16 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_16 if we drove 3 hours south to visit a Time Share resort, I begged and pleaded until we were on the road.
To make a long story short. They had to send us the computer in the mail as they didn't actually have them in stock. So the long drive drive, and Time Share presentation we endured was frustrating in the end... But a few weeks later I was saving my first madlibs program on a tape drive, and truly enjoying life.
This lead me to my first Commodore 64, and then the 128. I made silly games like Box Hunters and Iron Clad that used the amazing sprite animations available on the 128. I thought I was a genius...lol
My God I loved my Commodores. I still do. BBS's.. Ghost Busters, Winter Games, Mission Impossible, Overkill... I could go on, but I bet MANY of you had the same experiences. Times will never be like that again. That feeling of having a keyboard in your hands and thinking that somehow you are going to give your computer AI with the BASIC computer language... The thought of downloading software over your phone line, and playing games with people you couldn't see...
I think I'm going to cry.
Yeah, instead we became bums living in their basement begging for more chips
These ones are much more recent but they make me laugh every time I see them... but it might just be me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpY2Ei02lKI: Powerbook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHWDAomz2CY: I Mac