Old Computer and PC Brands

Soldato
Joined
26 Jul 2004
Posts
3,317
Location
Thunderdome
A little nostalgic trip down memory lane... the computer brands graveyard - something that occured to me when looking at the 'What was your first PC spec?' thread.

I had forgotten just how many computer manufacturers there were and many of them home-grown. From the 80s though the 90s in into the 00s we were certainly spolt for choice. Not all of them great, but many fondly remembered.

Who remembers these bygone brands? Doesn't just have to be computers, but anything related. I'll start us off...

  • Acorn - Obvious one, I still have my BBC B 32k and my BBC A3000 (Archimedes)
  • Abit - Great motherboards, what happened to them?
  • Cirrus Logic - still going!
  • Dragon - 8-bit computers produced in Wales!
  • Dan
  • Elonex
  • Evesham - The first PC I bought with my own money
  • MESH - Often PC Pro group test winner, always wanted one
  • Oric - Sinclair Spectrum competitor
  • Tiny - budget brand PC manufacturer, seemed ok at the time
 
Time, along with Gateway were big in the consumer PC space at the time.

Opus was also another PC vendor i remember. I think you could buy a Opus pc from the Argos Catalogue
 
Last edited:
Time computers were pretty poor. A friend bought one solely on the basis that Leonard Nimoy was part of their advertising campaign! We told him not too; it had a non standard psu and motherboard and would only run at reasonable temps with the case off.

Ah I didn’t know Argos sold PCs…
 
Another that I thought was gone but it still around is Viglen
I had a tour round their factory. Up to about that time they had been primarily manufacturing plastic cases and saw a market to put 5.25" drives in to a case and flog them for the BBC market. I guess this would have been 1983. I bought BBC that autumn and already had the dual 40/80 switchable drive from Viglen. Amazing where they went after that small start.

As we have Dragon I guess Commodore and Texas should get a remember too.
 
Last edited:
Remember getting my first PC from Escom. P60, 8mb ram and a tiny HD in a full tower case, most of which was completely empty. :cry:
Is that just before they went bust? They made my Amiga 1200 too!

Tandy is another I remember as a kid, they even had a shop in my local town.

Panrix was another that I lusted after, but they were at the more expensive end.

Aries… I think they made PCs too.
 
Last edited:
I remember MSX computers being advertised in the computer magazine I used to read (C+VG probably) I really wanted one, not sure why.
 
Back
Top Bottom