Personal Computers In The 1980s: The Faces And Sensations That Made Us All Triangle Drawing Nerds

Jacqueline Pearce the scheming Servalan in the TV series Blake 7, looks at the first talking computer for the home, made by Texas Instruments and retailing for £995.
Ref #: PA.5786338
Date: 10/04/1980

Superbed, a bed that has everything. This bed has a ‘his’ and ‘hers’ television, computer controls even a device to set the mood of the moment – all for a mere £80,000
Ref #: PA.4454700
Date: 01/04/1980

International chess master Jon Speelman, the 1978 British champion, did some hard thinking in a match with a new electronic opponent, the £279 Sargon 2.5 chess computer. Jon Speelman was one of only 2 players (the other was ex-Welsh national champion Manny Rayner) who beat the computer on the fifth of it’s seven levels of difficulty. Jon persuaded it to resign after 40 moves.

American computer technology led the way in developing portable translating brains in Tokyo on Feb. 7, 1980, but Japanese firms have edged out imports with a model especially suited to the difficult to translate tongue. Unlike the American machines, which spell out Japanese words in the Roman alphabet, this unit displays both Roman and Japanese kana’ characters. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

The Apple Computer Inc., manufacturing plant in Milpitas, Calif., producing Macintosh computers, is shown in this Feb. 24, 1984 photo. Apple was formed on April Fool’s Day in 1976.

In this Jan. 24, 1984, file photo, Steve Jobs, chairman of the board of Apple Computer, leans on the new “Macintosh” personal computer following a shareholder’s meeting in Cupertino, Calif. Apple on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011 said Jobs has died. He was 56. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Richard J. Nelson of the RB Robot Company sends a model 5X through its paces at the annual Atlanta Computer Show in Atlanta on Dec. 8, 1983 by having it offer a cup of coffee to viewers. (AP Photo/Joe Holloway Jr.)

This visitor to a Tokyo robotics show plays the oriental board game of ‘Go with a computer – robot combination that figures out opposing moves, then actually moves the pieces in Tokyo on Thursday, Sept. 8, 1983. Japanese and foreign firms which specialize in the rapidly growing field exhibited their products at the show. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

Japanese youngsters master electronic games at Akihabara in Tokyo’s high-tech shopping center, May 17, 1983. The stereo stores and computer shops draw tens of thousands of marveling Japanese daily. In the 1980s, as the world stands on the threshold of a technological future, it seems likely that the Japanese, through team effort and hard work, will probably dominate. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)

A chimp at the controls of the latest computer game from American, “Evolution”
Ref #: PA.12849913
Date: 17/06/1983

A 1984 photo of William Gates, founder and chairman of the Microsoft Corp

Sandy Aldrich and her daughter Philippa consult their home ‘Teleputer’ in Colgate. Sandy’s husband Mike Aldrich is head of Rediffusion Computers in Crawley, and the Teleputer is claimed to be the first-ever product which combines the personal computer with television and videotex.
Ref #: PA.18358004
Date: 27/08/1983

IBM Personal Computer – A man tries out the enhanced version of International Business Machines Corp’s Personal Computer which was unveild in New York, March 8, 1983. IBM also introduced several other related products including devices that boost the memory of its existing machine, a color display terminal and new software, or programs, to run both the personal computer and the new model. (AP-Photo)

Robot beauty is only skin deep, or so it seems with this Japanese model on display at a trade show of TV games and other amusements in Tokyo on Oct. 5, 1985. Suitable skin, plastic naturally, and a computer programmed pout make this robot look a little more – human. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)

Video games, Federal Reserve style, are the center of attention at the San Francisco bank with the opening of a $2 million exhibit of cartoons, photographs, talking computer games and push button graphics on Feb. 17, 1983. It’s all designed to explain economic mysteries like supply and demand and governmentÂ’s role in the economy. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)

Sgt. Tom Van Ansdell of the Beverly Hills, Calif., police department displays a 4-foot robot at police station in Beverly Hills on August 18, 1982. The robot, complete with color television screen and camera, micro computer and two-day communications, was taken into police custody after it was found clanking through Beverly Hills during Tuesday rush hour. Police took the robot into custody when the person, as yet unidentified, operating it by remote control, refused to identify himself to police. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

Soccer – Football League Division One – Wolverhampton Wanderers v Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town’s Eric Gates and Kevin O’Callaghan enjoy a game of TV tennis in their hotel on the morning of the match.
Ref #: PA.482315
Date: 27/02/1982

A dozen new game cartridges, including the popular Pac Man, are being developed for the Atari Video Computer System in February 1982. (AP Photo/HO)

People play video games at a New York game arcade.
Ref #: PA.8038390
Date: 20/12/1981

Craig Silverstein, a nine year old third grader at a Pittsburgh area elementary school, works with his computer which he programmed to help him with his math on May 6, 1981. Craig was competing in a scholastic computer competition featuring some 70 elementary and high school students from Pittsburgh area schools. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar)

The countdown has started for the ATARI International Asteroids Tournament. Seated at the controls of the ATARI Video Computer System, built into Atari’s modular game stations, contestants will vie for top scores on ATARI’s latest home video game program, Asteroids.
Ref #: PA.8038393
Date: 01/01/1981

A copy of the Columbus Dispatch and a computer terminal listing the index for Dispatch and Associated Press stories which can be viewed through the CompuServe system in Columbus, Ohio on July 9, 1980. (AP Photo)

Lee Coates, center rear, the manager of engineering for the Great Adventure amusement park, demonstrates a new computer controlled fire detection and sprinkler system at the park in Jackson Township, New Jersey, March 26, 1985. Last year a fire in a Haunted Castle attraction at the park killed eight patrons. (AP Photo/Mike Derer)

Marshall Smith, head of Commodore Computers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1985. (AP Photo)

British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” and its soon-to-be -released sequel “2010: Odyssey Two,” poses with a Hewlett-Packard portable computer in Los Angeles Griffith Park Observatory, Dec. 6, 1984, during his current trip to the U.S. (AP Photo)

At the Hamilton Gallery in London unemployed art graduate, Hugh Riley was the winner of Commodore Computers £5000 endowment, the 1st prize in a computer art competition. His baby son Louis inspired his winning entry, and a buzzing fly which had landed on his nose.
Ref #: PA.5782889
Date: 03/09/1984

Decathlon World record holder Daley Thompson at the Carlton Tower Hotel wher he saw for himself a microcomputer game which offered players the chance to compete, under olympic qualifying standards, against Daley. The machine was launched to coincide with the 23rd modern Olympics in Los Angeles.
Ref #: PA.5785915
Date: 29/06/1984

Untied Airlines employees try their luck at one of the computer games being installed in one of United’s jets in their San Francisco maintenance facilities on June 8, 1984. The computers embedded in the tray table attached to the seat backs facing the passenger feature video backgammon, checkers, blackjack poker and soccer. Unlike the casinos, however, the on-board games are free and silent. (AP Photo/Mark Costantini)

In this June 5, 1984, file photo, a woman in Chicago demonstrates Atari’s new game, Mind Link, which utilizes a headband that picks up electrical impulse from the movement of the forehead and transmits them to a receiver attached to a video game or home computer console. (AP Photo/Charlie Knoblock)

Graphic demonstrating how the system of electronic tagging will work.
Ref #: PA.20352017
Date: 08/05/1989

In this March 30, 1989, file photo, Steve Jobs of NeXT Computer Inc., displays his NeXT computer during a public demonstration in San Francisco.

Digital Equipment Corp. president Ken Olsen reacts as he demonstrates the DEC station 3100 in Littleton, Massachusetts on Jan. 10, 1989. The DEC station 3100 is considered a breakthrough because of its speed and because it cannot run software written for Digital’s VAX computer line. (AP Photo/Carol Francavilla)

An unidentified Tokyo salesperson plays with Nintendo’s latest computer game, “Game Boy, in Tokyo, Japan. Nintendo, which spent most of its one hundred year history producing playing cards, is leading the toy industry with computer games.
Ref #: PA.10134336
Date: 01/01/1989

Dealing on the new high technology computer systems begins on the floor of the London Stock Exchange as the City’s “Big Bang” shake-up takes off.
Ref #: PA.1743056
Date: 27/10/1986

Steve Wozniak, creator of Apple’s first computer, sits by the new Apple IIgs in Cupertino, Calif., on Sept. 16, 1986. (AP Photo/Steve Castillo)

Kerry Walker, 9, gives Britain’s Princess Anne instructions in the use of a computer, at the Park Junior School at Stonehouse, near Stroud, Sept. 8, 1986. The Princess was opening the school, in an area of Britain where the disease meningitis has reached epidemic proportions. (AP Photo/Pool/Gerald Penny)
Ref #: PA.10419483

A computer game based on the crucial battles of the Vietnam War is a new program being offered by MicroProse, a software firm in Hunt Valley on June 10, 1986. Bill Stealey, president of the company, says the game highlights the little-known battle decisions of field officers and foot soldiers in the guerrilla conflict. (AP Photo/Bill Smith)

Richard Conner, 15, plays a game of “Star Trek” on a small, relatively cheap “home” computer at the Computer Store which is owned by Dick Heiser, left, in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 1977. The so-called microcomputers are used for everything from playing games to doing your income tax yourself. (AP Photo/George Brich)

Microcomputers wait for customers at this Tokyo shop in Akihabara the electronics marketing district of the capital, June 23, 1982. Japan shares the computer craze with the United States, and reports that Japanese computer specialists conspired to steal U.S. computer giant IBM’s trade secrets and hardware made for front page news in Japan. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)

Sgt. Tom Van Ansdell of the Beverly Hills, Calif., police department displays a 4-foot robot at police station in Beverly Hills on August 18, 1982. The robot, complete with color television screen and camera, micro computer and two-day communications, was taken into police custody after it was found clanking through Beverly Hills during Tuesday rush hour. Police took the robot into custody when the person, as yet unidentified, operating it by remote control, refused to identify himself to police. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon)

Lillie Steinhorn, 74, stands inside the computer tape storage room at the headquarters of the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, Aug. 12, 1985. She began work for the agency in 1936, a year after the Social Security Act was signed into law. The SSA administration is replacing these tapes with more modern, direct access storage devices that take up less room. (AP Photo/Bill Smith)

Nintendo game counsellor Brian Anderson plays a video game while giving out game strategy and other advice about company products over the telephone in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, Wash., where the headquarters of the video game giant is located. Game counsellors handle 140,000 calls a week at the company from stumped video game players in need of help.
Ref #: PA.10134354
Date: 21/12/1989

Crystal Robinson, 11, works with a small, kit-built robot, right, as Allie Chassanoff, 13, observes, left, with Rick Gaines, director of the Thames Science Center in New London, Connecticut on Dec. 4, 1989. Gaines conducts a robot building course, Project Robot Acts. The computer in the background helps run the robot. (AP Photo/Marty Reichenthal)

Stanley Frank, President of Britannica Software of San Francisco holds a new 5” compact disc containing 26 volumes of Compton’s Encyclopedia in New York Tuesday, Sept. 20, 1989. The “talking” encyclopedia is intended for schools teaching students from the fourth through the eighth grades. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Ref #: PA.9529859

At a hairdressing salon in Colmer in the Alsace region of eastern France, Jean-Jacques Henry can’t keep the children away since he installed video computer games to keep them amused while undergoing a hair cut.
Archive-PA231846-1
Ref #: PA.15216886
Date: 12/05/1989

Patricia Ricalton of Franklin Computers in Mt. Holly, N.J., holds a Holy Bible computer during the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago on June 2, 1989. The computer will be available in either the King James or revised standard versions and will include both the Old Testament and New Testament. (AP Photo/Mark Elias)

Two people demonstrate the EyePhone system which uses special goggles and a “DataGlove” which allows them to see and move objects around in a computer created environment. The EyePhone, developed by VPL Research, is on display at the Texpo Telecommunications Show being held in San Francisco on June 7, 1989. (AP Photo/Jeff Reinking)
Ref #: PA.9197076