“640K ought to be enough for anybody” – Bill Gates 1981
“The cost for 128 kilobytes of memory will fall below U$100 in the near future” – Creative Computing magazine 1981
It’s always funny to read those old magazine adverts because nothing gets old faster than technology news. Can you believe that the computer in your cell phone already has more processing power than all the Apollo 11 computers in the Lunar Lander that put two men on the moon? Did you know that the first HDD introduced in 1979 by Seagate was only 5 MB and cost ~ $1500 USD? These facts make us feel so good about our current gadgets, but our kids will laugh at our 2TB portable HDD disks or 8GB DDR3 RAM.
Whilst the Apple MacIntosh and Commodore 64 were impressive for their time, they seem a little rudimentary by today’s standards. Not to mention, their ‘80s designs were about as blocky as they get. In fact, the hallmarks of this era are everywhere: the long copy ads, the hairstyles, and, of course, the fashion choices. Well, at least Apple’s advertising campaigns have always remained interesting into the future.
Anyhow, plug in and get ready for some ‘80s nostalgia. Here are some very cool vintage computer ads for you – laugh while you can, because next time someone will be laughing at what you have right now.
1. The Hard Disk You’ve Been Waiting For
2. ‘70s / ‘80s Adverts At Their Best
3. Old Magazine Advert For The Girl or The Computer?
4. Every Kid Should Have an Apple after School
5. 16K RAM Working Giant
6. ‘80s Nostalgia Overload
7. Old Apple MacIntosh Advert
8. ‘80s Design In Full Effect
9. Original Use of an Apple
10. Vintage Christmas With The Commodore 64
11. Baked Apple… Literally
12. What the Heck is Electronic Mail?
13. Under $10k
14. Compact and Mobile
15. Old Magazine Advert For Computer Games
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Laughing at older technology is misguided and inappropriate. No matter how primitive older technology may seem, most people could never even hope to understand how it works much less create or build it themselves. No matter how high tech our gadgets are, we wouldn't have any of them today without the technology of yesterday, and we are not entitled to feel smug about their existence simply because we use them. Laughing at older technology is disrespectful to the pioneers who created it. They not only got us to where we are today, without their contributions we could not get to where we hope to go tomorrow.
Laughing at older technology is misguided and inappropriate. No matter how primitive older technology may seem, most people could never even hope to understand how it works much less create or build it themselves. No matter how high tech our gadgets are, we wouldn't have any of them today without the technology of yesterday, and we are not entitled to feel smug about their existence simply because we use them. Laughing at older technology is disrespectful to the pioneers who created it. They not only got us to where we are today, without their contributions we could not get to where we hope to go tomorrow.
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