Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (101-104)

Most or all of the photos in this set were taken in 1970.

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (101-104)

PC World (July 1995)

PC World was probably the post popular PC magazine through most of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The July 1995 issue includes:

Source: PC World (July 1995)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (097-100)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (097-100): It appears that most or all of these photos were taken in the early 1980s.

RUN: The Commodore 64/128 User’s Guide (May 1988)

RUN was one of the Commodore 64 related magazines that I bought back in the day. However, I didn't start buying it until pretty late in its life. Instead, I mostly picked up Commodore Magazine when I had the chance and switched to RUN when Commodore Magazine ceased publication. The May 1988 issue of RUN includes:

Source: RUN: The Commodore 64/128 User’s Guide (May 1988)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (093-096)

All of these photos were likely taken in the late 1960s.

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (093-096)

My Introduction to Anime

No, Space Adventurer Cobra was not quite my first exposure to anime but it is, indirectly, what got me interested.

The first anime I ever saw, though I didn't know it at the time, was Battle of the Planets (otherwise known as Gatchaman). This was when I was probably only around 6 years old and to me it just happened to be my favorite cartoon. I had no concept of what anime or Japanese animation was.

Fast forward a decade or so and I'm sitting on the couch flipping through channels on the TV. I'm passing by MTV when some interesting animation catches my eye. It turned out to be scenes from Space Adventurer Cobra (though I didn't know that at the time) and it was in a music video for 'Girlfriend' by Matthew Sweet (this was back when they actually played music videos). It was quite the serendipitous moment in that I can trace my love of both anime and of the music of Matthew Sweet to that moment.

I didn't see Space Adventurer Cobra for a few years but I went off to college the next year and was introduced to things like Oh My Goddess, Bubblegum Crisis, Ghost in the Shell and tons of other anime, famous and obscure. Ah, the good old days :)

Nowadays anime is as common as dirt in North America but back in the day (I'm talking about the early to mid 1990s) there were no streaming services and commercial releases (VHS, laserdisc and eventually DVD) were relatively rare. Mostly you had to rely on fansubs or imports. So what was YOUR intro to anime?

PC World (April 1996)

Though I was never really a subscriber to PC World, I did get the occasional issue over the years. It was probably the best general magazine dedicated to the PC though I preferred Maximum PC which came along a little later. The April 1996 issue of PC World includes:

Source: PC World (April 1996)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (089-092)

All of these photos were likely taken in June 1971 and feature locations in Colorado.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (089-092)

Digital Archaeology: Floppy Disk #14 – SEP84.DOC

This post includes the contents of SEP84.DOC. This appears to be a report that gives details on the usage of the SIG (how many hours each user spent in the SIG, etc.). This is in the from of an e-mail from someone named KELLY who was presumably an employee of Delphi. The e-mail is dated October 4th, 1984.

Source: Digital Archaeology: Floppy Disk #14 – SEP84.DOC

Atari Jaguar

Atari Jaguar ad

“Here’s something to gnaw on. The new Jaguar interactive multimedia system has a mind blowing 64 bits of power, compared to a simply 16 bits for the competition. 64 bits means 16 million colors in a 3D world. Breakneck speeds. Cat-like control. And special effects like you see in the movies.

How does it sound? Well, if this ad had a volume button your mother would be yelling at you to turn it down. Car crashes, alien screeches, jet engines and other bone rattling stereo CD quality sounds will make you jump out of your seat.

When you do, make sure to run to the nearest store. Everyone else will be there chomping at the bit to buy one.

What we’re really saying is Jaguar’s 64 bits eats the competition alive. Sink your teeth into it and you’ll see what we mean. Get Bit by Jaguar.”

The Atari Jaguar was Atari’s last attempt at a home console. The Atari Jaguar was released in 1993 and discontinued in 1996 after selling only 250,000 units.

The Jaguar had a lot going for it when it was released. It was the most powerful system available (even if the 64-bits claim was a bit of an exageration… it would more accurately be called a 32-bit system) and it was affordable. However, the multi-chip design made it difficult to program for and there were too few 3rd party releases and without quality software, no system can survive. In addition, the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation were released in 1995 and for the most part, these were technically superior systems, easier to program for and had more 3rd party software. Despite the price advantage (the Jaguar was much cheaper at only $149) and the release of a CD peripheral, it just could not compete.

This failure was pretty much the end of Atari. Atari left the home video game market for good and Hasbro Interactive bought out Atari in the late 1990s.

However, the Jaguar lives on. The patents were released to the public domain and homebrew games are still being developed for the console. Jaguar hardware also lived a little longer as the basis for the Atari arcade games Area 51 (1995), Maximum Force (1996) and the combo version (1998).

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (085-088)

All of these photos were likely taken in the early 1970s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (085-088)

Price Pointe (Computer Shopper, May 1996)

This ad is from the May 1996 issue of Computer Shopper. While Computer Shopper was a quality magazine with good editorial content, it was best known for the hundreds of vendors that advertised in its pages for desktop systems, laptops, computer parts of all kinds, and anything else you can think of that is computer related. The May 1996 issue had nearly 900 pages and this was probably near the height of its popularity.

This ad is one of hundreds of similar ads throughout this magazine. There were so many vendors it could be difficult to chose one. You could flip through the magazine trying to compare prices but an add would only contain a small cross section of the thousands of products that the vendor probably had. In this case, Price Pointe advertises over 30,000 products in stock. I'm sure within a few years as the .com boom came, 99% were probably out of business. I mean who has ever heard of Price Pointe, the vendor in this ad?

This ad is pretty typical and offers a small cross section of the things you could find in this magazine. Some highlights include:

• Networking - At this point in time, motherboards did not typically have built in networking features. The average user didn't even have a use for one as broadband was not widely available yet. But if you did need networking at this time you would probably be buying a 10mbps PCI or ISA card for about $100. Hubs and switches were vastly more expensive than today with a 6 port hub setting you back nearly $1000.


• Modems - If you were buying a modem for dial-up internet or BBS use, then you would be getting a 14.4bps or 28.8 bps modem. Though prices varied based on brand and specific features, a 14.4bps modem would be about $100 and a 28.8bps modem would be about $200.


• Monitors - The vast majority of people at this time would have a 15" or 17" CRT monitor (though some would have a 14" or if you had the money, a 21"). A modest 15" monitor would cost you $350 and up. ViewSonic, Mag, CTX, and NEC are all brands I recognize though I don't remember ever seeing a Nokia monitor.


• Notebooks - At this time, notebook computers were significantly less affordable than they are now. Speeds in this add range from 75-MHz 486 based machines (~$2000) to 133-MHz Pentium systems (~$4300 and up). Most had 8MB of RAM and 800MB to 1.2GB hard drives. Brands such as Texas Instruments, AST, Hewlett Packard, Digital, and Toshiba are advertised here.


• Hard Drives - You could get a 635MB IDE drive for as little as $173 but a 2.1 GB SCSI drive would set you back $700 or more. Seagate and Western Digital are brands probably familiar to most but Conner disappeared in the 90s. They were once known for producing quality drives but ran into financial difficulties and were purchased by Seagate.

...and much more.

Popular Computing Weekly (October 23rd, 1986)

Popular Computing Weekly was, as the title suggests, a weekly publication that covered the popular computers at the time in the U.K. where it was published. The October 23-29 issue includes:

Source: Popular Computing Weekly (October 23rd, 1986)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (081-084)

None of the slides in this set have dates but they are like from the early to mid 1960s.

The first two photos feature a high school graduate in her cap and gown.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (081-084)

Maximum PC (June 2001)

Maximum PC (or 'boot' in its earliest days) was my favorite PC magazine. It started life in the late 1990s and continued being published until just a few years ago. It was targeted towards PC enthusiasts. It was sort of like a PC version of the Macintosh dedicated MacAddict. The June 2001 issue includes:

Source: Maximum PC (June 2001)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (077-080)

The first photo is labeled "Summer 1964" and appears to be from a band concert in a park. You can see kids with popcorn sitting on the ground nearby.

All of the slides in this set are from the 1960s.

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (077-080)

The One (June 1991)

While The One covered multiple 16-bit computers and consoles throughout its life, by 1991 it was exclusively and Amiga games magazine. The June 1991 issue includes:

Source: The One (June 1991)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (073-076)

All of the slides in this set are dated from 1967 or 1968.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (073-076)

PC World (November 1984)

As far as mainstream PC specific magazines go, PC World was probably the best. I preferred Maximum PC but that one was a little more specialized. Plus it came along more than 20 years after this issue. 1984 was still early days for the PC and PC magazines. The November 1984 issue includes:

Source: PC World (November 1984)

Sinistar (Atari 5200)

Sinistar was a fairly popular arcade game released by Williams Electronics in 1983. Interestingly, in a time when arcade to home ports were very common, no home port of Sinistar was released until more than a decade later as part of several of the Midway compilations for a variety of systems. Versions for the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit computer line were planned and mostly completed but for some reason never released. This probably had a lot to do with the video game crash and the decline in popularity of home video games at that time. 8-bit computer games were quite popular still but the Atari line was rapidly losing market share to the Commodore 64 and the Apple II.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, the nearly completed Atari 8-bit version has been found, ported to the Atari 5200 and released. For more information on this, to order a cartridge, or to download an image for emulators, see https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=955

The Atari 5200 was the second major console released by Atari. It was released in 1982 and discontinued after less than two years and a million units sold. In terms of hardware, it was nearly identical to their 8-bit computer line except that it used analog controllers. They were a little ahead of their time with this as most games of the time weren’t really suited to such controllers (plus they didn’t auto center). Despite the fact that the Atari 5200 was the most advanced system of the time, it did not fare well commercially. Part of this was due to the video game crash and part of it was do to some bad design decisions, particularly in regards to the controllers.

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (069-072)

All of the slides in this set are dated August 1968 or 1969.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (069-072)

PC World (December 2007)

As far as mainstream PC specific magazines go, PC World was probably the best. I preferred Maximum PC but that one was a little more specialized. Though it would eventually become watered down with other tech products (TVs, phones, etc.), that kind of stuff was only really just starting to creep in in 2007. The December 2007 issue of PC World includes:

Source: PC World (December 2007)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (065-068)

I believe that all of the photos in this set are from the early to mid 1980s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (065-068)

Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron E1405

I'm not sure why what were identical models were released under two different model numbers but that seems to be the case with the Dell Inspiron 640m / Dell Inspiron E1405. According to ChatGPT, this was related to a transition in Dell naming conventions (sound familiar?). The 640m designation is the older naming scheme whereas the E1405 naming scheme is newer. The 'E' supposedly stands for 'Entertainment' but without a dedicated graphics chip, I guess that was meant to refer to using it for DVD playback or something. It does have a row of media control buttons on the front that were common at the time. I have the model labeled as E1405 and it's config includes:

Source: Digital Archaeology: Dell Inspiron E1405

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (061-064)

All of the photos in this set were taken in the very early 1970s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (061-064)

GamePro (November 1997)

GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly were really the two biggest video game magazines throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s. I preferred EGM myself but picked up an occasional issue of GamePro. The November 1997 issue of GamePro includes:

Source: GamePro (November 1997)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (057-060) | PeakD

All of the slides n this set have the date August 1968 stamped on them and feature some kind of a day camp for kids and a zoo trip.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (057-060)

Info (November/December 1986)

Info is a magazine that covered Commodore computers. At the end of 1986 that included the Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and Amiga. Info wasn't as widely available as some other Commodore magazines though it was still fairly popular. It was also produced using Commodore computers (the Amiga at this time). The November/December 1986 issue includes:

Source: Info (November/December 1986)

Zzap! 64 (June 1987)

Zzap! 64 was a gaming magazine dedicated to the Commodore 64 and published in the U.K. Living in the U.S., I was not aware of its existence but I'm sure it's something I would have loved. While there were several Commodore 64 magazines, we didn't have any dedicated to gaming on the C64. The June 1987 issue includes:

Source: Zzap! 64 (June 1987)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (049-052)

The photos in this set have a pretty wide date range with the earliest from probably the 1960s and most from the early 1980s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (049-052)

PC World (November 2011)

PC World was probably the most successful mainstream PC magazine in the U.S. PC Magazine was another but I don't think it lasted as long. By 2011 things were going downhill though as the page count was getting pretty light, especially when compared to its peak. Also, there was a lot of non-PC coverage with two out of the three features in this issue being about phones and TVs. The November 2011 issue includes:

Source: PC World (November 2011)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (045-048)

All of the photos in this set are from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (045-048)

Electronic Gaming Monthly (December 1993)

Next to VG&CE, EGM was my favorite gaming magazine. It also was the last major video game magazine that you could really get. I mostly read it in the late 8-bit through the first part of the 32-bit era. The December 1993 issue includes:

Source: Electronic Gaming Monthly (December 1993)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (041-044)

All of the photos in this set are from the late 1960s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (041-044)

>Digital Archaeology: Floppy Disk #14 – AUG94.DOC

This post includes the contents of AUG94.DOC. This appears to be a report that gives details on the usage of the SIG (how many hours each user spent in the SIG, etc.)

Source: Digital Archaeology: Floppy Disk #14 – AUG94.DOC

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (037-040)

All of the photos in this set are from the very early 1970s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (037-040)

Info (September 1989)

Info was a magazine for Commodore computer owners. The unique thing about it was that it was also produced using Commodore computers, the Commodore 64 in the early days and later on the Amiga. By 1989, focus had definitely shifted to the Amiga but it was still covering the Commodore 64. The September 1989 issue includes:

Source: Info (September 1989)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (033-036)

All of the photos in this set are from the late 1960s.

Source: Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (033-036)

Byte (November 1981)

Byte tended to be the most technical of mainstream computer magazines though it became less so over time. It was not PC specific (after all, it was being published long before IBM's PC was released). 1981 was the same year the PC first appeared. If you owned a "home computer" it was likely made by Apple, Commodore, Atari, or Tandy. Personal computers on the business side were most often CP/M based. The November 1981 issue of Byte includes:

Byte (November 1981)