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15 Vintage Tech Ads

Posted by kdawson on from the when-we-were-young-and-some-of-us-weren't-even-born dept.

JimLynch writes "Tech ads just aren't what they used to be. Sure, you have your robot phone wars and naked spokeswomen in bathtubs (what was she selling, again?). But missing are the cheesy songs, silly slogans, and giant gadgets that made the tech ads of yesteryear so wonderful to watch. Check out these 15 vintage tech commercials for yourself. If all the obsolete technology doesn't put a smile on your face, surely the cameo by a young William Shatner will." Apple's "1984" is included, and it has a strange and unanticipated resonance these days.

96 comments

  1. Priceless by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not sure which one I laughed at more, the MS-DOS 5.0 upgrade or Steve Balmer mocking himself while pitching Windows 1.0.

    1. Re:Priceless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      adblockplus

    2. Re:Priceless by Yvan256 · · Score: 2

      Yeah! Those damn ads are distracting me while I'm trying to watch those other ads!

      Oh wait...

    3. Re:Priceless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It even comes with a clock!!!! Holy shit, now I can tell what time it is!!!

    4. Re:Priceless by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Forget the clock, what about that awesome control panel!

    5. Re:Priceless by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't think that was a vintage advert. I think it was made by MS sales executives to motive sales people and give them a quick overview on whats new - something I've personally seen done in lots of companies.

    6. Re:Priceless by Daengbo · · Score: 2

      I'll let you what commercial was on each page along with my thoughts:

      1. 1. Mario Brothers (Live action)
      2. 2. Sony Super Walkman (Lose inches off your waist)
      3. 3. Atari Pole Position (With Biff, Buffy, and Biff Jr.)
      4. 4. Magnavox Videowriter (I used to have a dedicated word processor in the 80s -- What a waste)
      5. 5. MSDOS 5.0 upgrade (Who knew upgrading DOS could be so much fun?)
      6. 6. Commodore Vic-20 (These were actually the wonder computer of the 80s if you included the price)
      7. 7. Commodore Vic-20 (the interview)
      8. 8. Apple Mac 1984
      9. 9. Prodigy (It has an encyclopedia!)
      10. 10. Windows 1.0 with Ballmer
      11. 11. IBM PS/2 (worst jingle award)
      12. 12. Radio Shack Cell Phone (I remember lugging one almost that big around)
      13. 13. IBM 5100
      14. 14. Apple IIc (Probably the best of the ads)
      15. 15. Commodore 64 (The best real computer for the value)
      --
      Put identity in the browser.
    7. Re:Priceless by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      I dunno, for a moment there I thought I was watching a "Weird Al" Yankovic video.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    8. Re:Priceless by Pharmboy · · Score: 1

      The MS DOS 5 Upgrade rap commercial makes me ashamed to be Caucasian. That guy was a Navin Johnson, tuna fish sandwich eating, with the crusts cut off, and a twinkie for dessert kind of Caucasian. I could actually visualize Bill Gates clapping his hands and stomping his foot, almost in rhythm with the video, just like Navin.

      I don't feel so good now.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    9. Re:Priceless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno, for a moment there I thought I was watching a "Weird Al" Yankovic video.

      A bad one, you mean.

    10. Re:Priceless by schon · · Score: 2, Informative

      tuna fish sandwich eating

      As opposed to all those guys who eat tuna beef, or tuna chicken?

      Exactly how many things exist that are called "tuna", which are not fish?

    11. Re:Priceless by ReneeJade · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The MS DOS 5 Upgrade rap commercial makes me ashamed to be Caucasian. That guy was a Navin Johnson, tuna fish sandwich eating, with the crusts cut off, and a twinkie for dessert kind of Caucasian. I could actually visualize Bill Gates clapping his hands and stomping his foot, almost in rhythm with the video, just like Navin.

      I don't feel so good now.

      I'm fairly certain the MS DOS 5 one was meant to be a bit silly, a bit of a joke. And for that reason I think they pulled it off well. I thought it was one of the less dorky ones. You can tell that MS put a fair amount of money into it.

    12. Re:Priceless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on there. You're telling me tuna is a fish? I thought it was the chicken of the sea.

      At least I still got my buffalo wings.

    13. Re:Priceless by CityZen · · Score: 1

      You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.

      (but seriously, though, there's a tuna pear: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tuna )

    14. Re:Priceless by timewasting · · Score: 1

      I still have a fondness for Bach's Invention #13 from the commodore commercials of my youth. And remember the magazines that had the code for games written out in them. Good times.

    15. Re:Priceless by Lavene · · Score: 1

      Stupid website spreading its content over 10 pages to force people all ads ten times.

      Click the "Print this" link. A nice, clean, single page.

    16. Re:Priceless by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      That's true for many old "computer ads". You know, it's the 80s, and all those highly skilled (ymmv) ad artists have no idea how to sell "computer stuff". On one hand, you have to be legitimate, staid, serious, you're selling business machinery, office equipment. On the other hand, you have to be goofy, playful, action driven, you're selling a game machine, an electronic toy.

      Combine it, and you get Ballmer. A goofy guy in a suit.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    17. Re:Priceless by chewthreetimes · · Score: 1

      They pulled it off the opposite of well, imho. It was the only one I couldn't watch. It's just cringe worthy.

    18. Re:Priceless by Pharmboy · · Score: 1

      Amen with cringeworthy. The girls walking in at the beginning were not even remotely synced, it was like they accepted the first take of everything, with no rehearsal, and a bad script to start with.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    19. Re:Priceless by NJRoadfan · · Score: 2, Informative

      The MS-DOS 5 video is a promotional video Microsoft gave out to dealers. It was never aired on TV as a commercial. Still got the tape too.

    20. Re:Priceless by ciderVisor · · Score: 1

      That guy was a Navin Johnson, tuna fish sandwich eating, with the crusts cut off, and a twinkie for dessert kind of Caucasian.

      "Sir....you are talking to a nigger !"

      --
      Squirrel!
    21. Re:Priceless by Pharmboy · · Score: 1

      Hey, I'm just like each and every American. After careful thought and consideration, these basic fundamentals come to mind: We eat tuna fish, our cars have VIN numbers, and these are true facts. The end results still remains, that sometimes we are redundant in any and all of our expressions ;)

      ($10 to whoever picks out all of them...)

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    22. Re:Priceless by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      tuna fish sandwich eating

      As opposed to all those guys who eat tuna beef, or tuna chicken?

      No, as opposed to tuna mammal, aka dolphin. He's of the picky kind.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  2. Blinking Animated Gifs! by lemur3 · · Score: 1

    I am sure these will be added to the list some day.

  3. Ill-Informed Public by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I can't help but look at the old tech ads and see how they were catered to a tech-illiterate population. Compare the iPhone and the 1984 commercials. For being a revolutionary product the Mac ads didn't -say- much about the Mac while the iPhone shows what all it can do.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:Ill-Informed Public by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 1

      The Apple IIc commercial used a little bit of "fear" ... and it looked like most of the bad MTV videos that featured kids in school.

    2. Re:Ill-Informed Public by lemur3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      you must recall what 'tech illiterate' meant back then.

      back then you got a 'computer' and it came with a big book of BASIC code telling you how to code your own games! right out of the box!

      now? you get a 'computer' and the odds of you coding your own games are quite unlikely.. even most 'literate' computer users wouldnt know where to start

    3. Re:Ill-Informed Public by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not every family had the money for those toys back then.

      Technical literacy had little to do with it. None of my peers had trouble learning, navigating, and exploiting the Apple ]['s or the early Macs at grade school.

    4. Re:Ill-Informed Public by mirix · · Score: 1

      The new ads show flashy shit, they don't show the basic compiler.

      I'd assume if the old mac had glitter they'd have pimped it too.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    5. Re:Ill-Informed Public by bughunter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      you must recall what 'tech illiterate' meant back then

      Back then it meant 'the parents'. Those commercials are mostly aimed at the parents of teenagers who wanted a computer. I know I constantly begged my parents for a Trash-80, but I never got one. (By the time the Amiga and the Mac came out, I was making my own purchases.)

      Today the young computer-literate parents are grown up and buying their own toys. Thus, the commercials now are more practical and informative, since their audience will be the users, too.

      --
      I can see the fnords!
    6. Re:Ill-Informed Public by Darkness404 · · Score: 1

      I think the difference is what people call fun and up to date. Back in the day, you could re-create Pac-Man and that was a large achievement because Pac-Man was -the- game out there. Today people expect to make Pac-Man in less than a day their first try. Back in the day, an NES game was considered to be a large and deep game. Today though, people will look at SNES and even N64 games and think that there isn't enough content in them.

      Essentially anything with less content than Ocarina of Time is looked at as obsolete. No one is impressed with coding Pac-Man anymore and no one is going to take the time to learn everything to make a modern game.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    7. Re:Ill-Informed Public by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

      Not every family had the money for those toys back then..

      That's for sure. I remember my Atari 800--2 external 5-1/4" floppy drives, a RS-232 serial adapter interface, a big, big 48KB of RAM--$1200, no monitor included. Ow.

      --
      This ain't rocket surgery.
    8. Re:Ill-Informed Public by cgenman · · Score: 1

      Also, tech moved so fast that it made less sense to invest.

      I have been using the same laptop for 5 years, and it's still considered pretty good. It started with XP, ran Vista, and now competently handles Windows 7.

      5 years in the 80's was a huge generation in computing. That would take you from DOS to Windows 3.0. Nothing you knew or loved about computing would be the same.

      Give a kid a computer today, and it will probably be viable for years and years. Give them a computer in the 80's, and welcome to constant upgrade hell.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    9. Re:Ill-Informed Public by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      <pedanticasshole> None of those computers shipped with a basic compiler. </pedanticasshole>

    10. Re:Ill-Informed Public by Vectormatic · · Score: 1

      bad MTV videos that featured kids in school.

      wow, when reading this the twisted sister vid for 'i wanna rock' popped into my head

      too bad i dont have any 80s glamrock on my ipod, otherwise today would have been Glamtastic!

      --
      People, what a bunch of bastards
    11. Re:Ill-Informed Public by ozmanjusri · · Score: 0, Troll
      I have been using the same laptop for 5 years, and it's still considered pretty good. It started with XP, ran Vista, and now competently handles Windows 7

      That's more an indicator of how badly OS progress has stagnated under the Microsoft monopoly than any intrinsic quality of the x86 hardware.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    12. Re:Ill-Informed Public by dangitman · · Score: 1

      Also, tech moved so fast that it made less sense to invest.

      That's absolutely backwards. Tech moved pretty slowly in the 1980s, a machine made in 1984 wouldn't be that different to one made in 1989. The 1990s had a much more rapid pace of acceleration. Things have slowed down a bit in the 2000s, but by far the most rapid advances were from around 1995 - 2001.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
    13. Re:Ill-Informed Public by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      A troll mod for pointing out monopolies stifle progress?

      Slashdot has sunk pretty low.

    14. Re:Ill-Informed Public by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      The fear angle worked well back then. Even though I can't remember it myself, my dad recalls him coming home from his construction job (we were somewhat on the low income scale back then) when I was about a year old (so circa 1982) and my mother was sobbing crying because she'd seen some commercials that led her to believe that a kid would never be able to get a job without knowing about computers - and she feared they'd NEVER be able to afford one.

      Luckily, our situation improved, I did end up getting a Commodore 64 a few years later, and ended up getting a BS in CompSci :D. Still, the thought of her kids being without computer skills absolutely terrified my mother, and it was all a result of marketing.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    15. Re:Ill-Informed Public by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      That's pretty much spot on. Look at the Commodore 64: it was produce for retail sale in the same configuration from 1982 to 1994. TWELVE YEARS for the same system. Sure it was waning in popularity by the time the 90's rolled around, but it covered most of the 80's as a useful system.

      Back then GUI's were new and a luxury. Only the expensive computers had such things. The lower cost computers were text based for quite a while, and such systems just don't take much horsepower.

      I personally had the C64 for much of my youth and it taught me how to program in BASIC, which was a great investment. If I had started with a more complex/full featured Windows system in the beginning, I doubt I would have developed any interest in programming. As it is when I finally upgraded to a 486 w/ Windows 3.1 and DOS 5, the first thing I did was to go searching for QBASIC :).

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    16. Re:Ill-Informed Public by oatworm · · Score: 1

      ... and no one is going to take the time to learn everything to make a modern game.

      More importantly, no one could. Games are interdisciplinary these days - your "one" would have to excel at graphical design, programming, game theory, possibly physics (depending on the kind of game), and on and on and on. Outside of little Flash games, you're just not going to achieve the depth of knowledge required to make a full scale game.

    17. Re:Ill-Informed Public by oatworm · · Score: 1

      It's because a five-year-old laptop could just as easily run most newer versions of Linux. It's not because "OS progress has stagnated", it's because there's no more "low-hanging fruit" for OS designers to reach anymore. Hardware has been advancing well ahead of software requirements for years. Just as importantly, we're no longer at the point where "basic household tasks" are being constrained by the hardware; back in the '80s, I used to fill the 128k of RAM on my Apple //e by writing a decently long report. In the early '90s, a high resolution picture would max out the RAM on most PCs of the time. Nowadays? We have so much RAM, hard drive space, and processor throughput where household video editing (something which didn't really exist until fairly recently, might I add) is easily performed on most PCs; the only differentiating factor now is "how long will it take", instead of "can I do it".

      That's big - bigger than any monopolistic practices that Microsoft might be embracing at any given moment.

    18. Re:Ill-Informed Public by dangitman · · Score: 2, Informative

      Or how about the Apple II series? Variants of it were sold from 1977 to 1993. That's right, 16 years spanning the decades of the 1970s to the 1990s, with few changes in basic specs. It even made more money for Apple than the Macintosh for years after the Mac's introduction.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
  4. Everything on one page... by Itninja · · Score: 5, Informative

    ....so, yeah: http://www.itworld.com/print/105778

    --
    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
    1. Re:Everything on one page... by c.r.o.c.o · · Score: 1

      Much appreciated. :) The only problem with having all clips on one page though is that if you don't want to finish watching one of them, they'll still finish buffering in the background after you've paused it and moved on to the next one. Not a problem on a desktop or a laptop, but on my N900 this can be a bit of an issue.

    2. Re:Everything on one page... by Man+Eating+Duck · · Score: 1

      Autopager also works quite well if you have Firefox available :)

      --
      Are you a grammar Nazi? I'm trying to improve my English; please correct my errors! :)
  5. Multimodem commercials by Joe+U · · Score: 1

    I miss the old "Things you can't do with a MultiModem" radio commercials. For some reason they're still stuck in my head.

  6. I'm sorry by way2trivial · · Score: 4, Funny

    how the HELL could they not include this gem
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGO2hVA3P58

    go ahead- skip to 2:20

    THEN SKIP TO 2:55 WHEN SHE DROPS HER CLOTHES

    --
    every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
    1. Re:I'm sorry by NekSnappa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wow. Just wow.
      This just goes to show that the trendier something is when it's made, the sillier it will look in the future.

      --
      I want to shoot the messenger!
    2. Re:I'm sorry by CAL2009 · · Score: 1

      Damn you sir, damn you all to hell!

    3. Re:I'm sorry by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's worse than the DOS 5.0 upgrade 'Rap'. It was just painful to watch. If that's what Windows does to a person it should come with a Surgeon General's warning label.

    4. Re:I'm sorry by gmack · · Score: 1

      In grade 6 my class had this music teacher who wanted to be all trendy and made us do rap songs about things like the dangers of drug use. Had she actually been "up with it" she would probably have noticed how much we hated doing it. The DOS 5 upgrade ad is causing flashbacks to that music class.

    5. Re:I'm sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I loved when she asked that guy to hand her his d*k.

    6. Re:I'm sorry by Cannonball+7 · · Score: 1

      Boring until 2:20 when production is taken over by crack-smoking monkeys.

    7. Re:I'm sorry by Kazoo+the+Clown · · Score: 1

      I just posted my thoughts about another one from 1980, the ad for the Vector Graphic System 3005, but now that I see this one, I bow to the superior entry... Only Microsoft could have the total lack of aesthetic sensibilities to come up with such a howler-- I should have known...

    8. Re:I'm sorry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like the sig (and wish I'd thought of it) -- but isn't it missing welcoming the all-your-base owning overlords ?

    9. Re:I'm sorry by humdinger70 · · Score: 1

      Listen to the background music. It's a Mission:Impossible riff from the original TV series. How appropriate.

  7. Submitter making money off this? by KingKaneOfNod · · Score: 1

    Is it just me, or does the "source=smlynch" at the end of the URL in the summary mean that the person who submitted this story is profiting out of every person who clicks the link?

    I guess we've finally discovered what the mysterious ??? in slashdot business plans stands for.

    1. Re:Submitter making money off this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even worse, it means Jim isn't his actual first or middle name!

  8. Just not really funny... by fredjh · · Score: 2

    I just didn't think they were all that funny.

    Well... except the Radio Shack cell phone ad.

    --
    Stupid, sexy Flanders.
  9. damn you! by Chrutil · · Score: 1

    I'm going to have that 'OooooohhOohOohOohOoh, Pole Position" jingle in my head for the rest of the day.

    1. Re:damn you! by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      It's the "IBM PS/2" one for me. They even mention getting that song stuck in your head for 4 days in the article. Sadly, that friggin tune has been stuck in my head for 20 years. Before I even opened the article I thought to myself "I bet that damned PS/2 ad is gonna show up in here."

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  10. Don't copy that floppy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They forgot this funny one: don't copy that floppy

  11. Not that unreasonable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's some temporocentrism going on here. A few of these ads are truly goofy compared to any time period (MS DOS 5), but most aren't and are perfectly reasonable commercials given the time they came out. For example, the one about the VideoWriter. Sure, it seems stupid now, but replace that product with another product of today and you have a modern commercial, somewhat.

    I've also seen a few comments on how commercials of old seem to be catered towards a more tech illiterate crowd than today's. I find this to be untrue. It's just that the level of tech literacy has risen significantly since then. Back then, there really wasn't much in the way of portable electronic gadgets, there wasn't really much to be tech literate about. Portable electronics were simple, almost featureless. Personal computers were new and completely foreign to most.

    These days, electronics are ubiquitous and everyone has had some exposure to them, so the commercials need to scale in accordance. There are a lot more features, and these need to be advertised, because there's also a lot more competition. They're still aimed at a tech illiterate crowd. I find that the common, self proclaimed "tech savvy" people are not savvy at all. They know how to operate a mobile phone and how to download Firefox. That's a spit in the ocean, that's all it is.

  12. Fire the marketing droids. by owlnation · · Score: 1

    It's pretty obvious from the Microsoft ads here that they've really needed to fire their Marketing department for a very, very long time.

    From the People who brought you a brown Zune that squirted, and the Jerry Seinfeld ad, there was the MS-DOS 5 ad that was the original clue that they should have been fired.

    Their products may not be better without the Marketing department, but they would surely be more successful. Microsoft: shooting itself in the foot since at least 1990.

    1. Re:Fire the marketing droids. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      More successful? For everyone who thinks 90% market share ain't enough?

      IMO you shouldn't replace the MS markedroids, they do a great job at convincing their customers. If anything, replace the users with people not stupid enough to fall for such moronic ads over and over again.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Fire the marketing droids. by dangitman · · Score: 1

      IMO you shouldn't replace the MS markedroids, they do a great job at convincing their customers. If anything, replace the users with people not stupid enough to fall for such moronic ads over and over again.

      I very much doubt it's the ads that sell Microsoft products. Has anyone in history ever bought a Microsoft product due to an ad? Sure, plenty of companies buy due to business-to-business marketing (i.e salespeople), but that's not really the same thing as mass-market advertising.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
  13. They missed the windows 386 one! by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 2, Informative

    They missed the windows 386 one!

    now that one is odd

  14. My Commentary Here by Scarletdown · · Score: 2

    If I was still collecting classic systems, I sould soooooooo be wanting one of those IBM 5100 "portables". The alternate VIC-20 commercial had a major flaw to it. Since the applicant had his Munchman score listed in his resume, that meant he did have a personal computer, and not just a video game console. The TI-99/4a was a perfectly viable computer for its time.

    The lack of the Atari 5200 Joust Commercial (which deserves the Good Weed/Bad Acid Award) was a major disappointment in the article. Also disappointing was the lack of the Coleco Adam commercial that starts with a girl's parents having a conference with her teacher about her failing in school and convincing them to buy her an Adam. I remember how her face lit up when they broke the good news to her, and nowadays, I am imagining her having a meltdown like that kid in the faked video where his brother filmed him throwing a fit after his WoW account was cancelled.

    Ah well... Time to go Youtubin for a few hours to see if I can dig up that commercial.

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
    1. Re:My Commentary Here by Notquitecajun · · Score: 1

      The VIC-20 had some personal-comp type programs - calculator, accounting, VERY basic spreadsheet apps, stuff like that.

    2. Re:My Commentary Here by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      The TI also had its adequate share of non game titles (a ton of educational stuff, plus access to the PLATO system), Multiplan, TI Writer, etc). Granted, for "important" work, an expansion system with a disk drive and printer (which were priced at unobtanium levels) were required, but still, the TI was not all games, and it could have been a viable competitor at the time if not for asshat decisions made by the folk at Texas Instruments.

      --
      This space unintentionally left blank.
  15. Apple internal videos by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Some of them were amazing. I remember one where Woz and others were middle aged (with gray hair) showing off the new tech - The Apple 5000(?) mainframe that replaced IBM, and a disk drive so small it fit into the side of a pair of glasses (which was a computer with screen in teh glasses). In some ways they are not as far fetched today as they were in 1983/84. I wonder if any of them survived?

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  16. My favorite Vintage ad from Apple by Renderer+of+Evil · · Score: 1

    A commercial from France, late 80's

    Think Different

    It's very dark, but amazing. The target of the ad is IBM/Compatible, I presume.

  17. Once again by gmhowell · · Score: 1

    Once again, a message that kdawson forgot to include when he allowed this article to go up:

    YHBT
    YHL
    HAND

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  18. Burger Time by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

    I always liked this one.

    --
    This ain't rocket surgery.
  19. In another 30 years... by ReneeJade · · Score: 1

    It occurs to me that, according to most accounts of the past, young people's attitudes towards new computers hasn't really changed at all. We begged our parents to upgrade our PCs all through the '00s to no avail; and were even less successful on the X-Box front.
    Now at 20, I've finally got the top-end gaming machine I've always wanted. But what will this computer seem like in another 30 years? Will my 3.7GHz quad core and dual Radeon HD5850 graphics cards seem slow? Will Windows 7 seem quaint? Probably. But at the moment it is my absolute pride and joy. I just laughed at myself as much as I laughed at these ads, when I realised that nothing has changed.

    1. Re:In another 30 years... by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      I don't know. The 80's were the early days of computing. The golden era when it really took off and people started getting them in their homes (not nearly as common as today mind you, but you could finally see a computer in the corner at someone's house and not think "What the hell!?!?!?". Things ramped up fast from there, but they've slowed down a lot since. Honestly, aside from VERY incremental improvements, things really haven't changed that much in the user experience department in that least 10 years. Phones seem to be making strides there, but general usage computers? We've plateaued out.

      I'd compare it to automobiles. If you look at the cars of the late 1800's/early 1900's then they're curiosity pieces - nothing more. Sure they worked at the time, but that time is long past. Eventually though, when you start getting into the 1930's and beyond, cars sort of even out into something a bit more stable. Sure there's still been a TON of technological advances from then to now, but if it was in proper condition people could still get their basic tasks done in a circa 1930 automobile just fine.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    2. Re:In another 30 years... by ReneeJade · · Score: 1

      Yeah. This makes me sad. I feel like I've missed the golden era of computing. I wish I had been there.

    3. Re:In another 30 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We? '00? WE aren't all THAT young. '00. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

    4. Re:In another 30 years... by turgid · · Score: 1

      I don't know. The 80's were the early days of computing.

      No, the 50s were the early days of computing. Programs were generally written in machine code and ran on the bare metal. Compilers for a few high-level languages were just being developed. LISP hadn't arrived. Only the very privileged had access to computers.

      By the 1980s personal computers (microcomputers) were mass-market and high-level languages (C, Pascal, Modula-2, FORTH, BASIC) were replacing machine code and assembly language programming. Computers came with operating systems (often only a few kB and in ROM). They had graphics and sound and mass storage. RISC had come along and computer power mushroomed.

      --
      Stick Men
    5. Re:In another 30 years... by ReneeJade · · Score: 1

      We? '00? WE aren't all THAT young. '00. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!

      I was talking about my brother and sister and I. Sorry, I though the context would have made it obvious.

      Of course, things aren't exactly the same as they were. But I know that one day I will laugh at how amazing I think my PC is now.

  20. No Atari? by AdamD1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can't believe they didn't include any of the Atari 400 / Atari 800 ads.

    You could learn geography, or French. (Always followed by some version of Space Invaders or Missile Command.)

    Alan Alda was a spokesman for a period of time.

    Yeeesh...

    I think in hindsight Atari obviously spent slightly more on TV advertising than product R&D, but I could be wrong.

    ad

    --
    Because I can! [Brainrub.com]
    1. Re:No Atari? by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 2, Interesting

      the funny thing about that ad...

      Alan Alda's approach to selling a computer made sense.

      The dweeb at the keyboard sounds more like the average slashdotter.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  21. Coming soon ... by daveime · · Score: 1

    My Top 1000 Advertisements and Sponsored Links, conveniently spread over 15 pages of actual (poor) content and user comments.

  22. 1984's future resonance was clear and predictable by Eternal+Vigilance · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apple's "1984" is included, and it has a strange and unanticipated resonance these days.

    The "1984" commercial's resonance is neither strange nor unanticipated if one understands the nature of projection .

    Knowing that, it was obvious even 25 years ago what was (unintentionally) being revealed.

    And while it's startlingly clear here in the case of Apple, the larger reason I mention projection is so more people learn how it works and how to use it to understand the world. It's both incredibly useful and incredibly beautiful. And if we want to create a world where we can do more than look at the mess and say "how strange and unanticipated," it's essential.

    Every day statements are made with just as much future significance as "1984."

    We might wanna learn to recognize them. ;-)

  23. Ummmmmm by PAjamian · · Score: 1

    At least I still got my buffalo wings.

    Errrrrr, hate to break this to you ...

    --
    Windows is a bonfire, Linux is the sun. Linux only looks smaller if you lack perspective.
  24. Re:1984's future resonance was clear and predictab by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I think you're just projecting your own projection on to everyone else.

  25. Nope, the winner is Vector Graphics, circa 1980 by Kazoo+the+Clown · · Score: 1

    They missed it entirely. The Vector Graphic TV ad from the early 1980s is the most hilarious of all time, now just as it was then. I think it was the model 3005. It shows the machine up on a stage in front of a microphone addressing the excited press, saying, "And in conclusion, I'll only use my exceptional powers for the good of mankind." The camera then moves to a couple watching in the back, where one says "what a mind!" and the other says "what a body!" (I forget who said which, the man or the woman, but in either case, it was just totally over-the-top ridiculous). This would appear to be the associated print ad.

    I probably have it on an old VHS tape somewhere, but I couldn't tell you where. If I ever run across it I'll have to upload it to YouTube. It beats all 15 in the original article here hands down, IMHO...

    1. Re:Nope, the winner is Vector Graphics, circa 1980 by dangitman · · Score: 1

      This would appear to be the associated print ad. [vector-graphic.info]

      I'm impressed how they refer to the "rigid disk" system. A couple of decades after the old "floppy" and "hard" disk jokes, they manage to bring fresh humor to the double-entendre.

      --
      ... and then they built the supercollider.
  26. In 1964 the entire concept of computers changed by dgriff · · Score: 1
    I love this advert.

    With SYSTEM/360 you get the largest low-cost core memory ever offered. [...] The main memory comes in sizes up to 512,000 characters. To this you can add up to 8 million characters of bulk core memory.

    Why would you ever need more than that?

  27. We se farther by NorthWay · · Score: 1

    You think the Apple of today exhumes cool every which way? Flash back to 1985 and re-discover the double-page spreads Electronic Arts did for their Amiga software and developers when they said "We see farther". EOA (as they used to shorten it) were actually coooooooool once upon a time.

    1. Re:We se farther by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 1

      You think the Apple of today exhumes cool every which way?

      Well, obviously. Somebody keeps "digging up" the 1984 ad.

      ;-)

      --

      I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.

  28. Re:1984's future resonance was clear and predictab by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

    I think you're just proj .... ah never mind!

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  29. No Amiga 500? by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06di_a588b0
    That has to win the award for burning through the most cash with nothing to show for it. Celebrity endorsements for a computer? If it's not Bill Shatner, why bother?

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.