80s computer brands

Last Updated on July 1, 2025 by Dave Farquhar

A small number of 80s computer brands are the same as today, but a lot more companies played in the field than now. Profit margins were higher then, so industry consolidation wasn’t the matter of survival that it is now. You might be surprised to see all of the most popular computer brands of today were around in the 80s. But many popular 1980s computers no longer exist in any form.

There’s a human element to 80s computing that the 90s erased. In this list, besides the familiar stories, you’ll find a computer designed by an engineer who grew up in public housing, computers designed by two women, and a company that didn’t survive its CEO dying in a car crash celebrating its IPO. While some survived the 80s and into the 90s or even today, others only lasted a few years. The 1980s were a make or break time, and many broke.

ABC

It’s hard to beat the ABC 80 (Advanced BASIC Computer 80) alphabetically. The ABC 80 was a Z-80 based computer designed in Sweeden that was a staple in European schools and offices and industrial automation in the early 80s. Its successors were the ABC 800, an office version of the ABC 80, and ABC 1600, which was Unix-like.

Acer

Better known for what they do today, believe it or not, Acer got their start in the 1980s. Acer produced its first PC clone way back in 1983, although it spent most of the decade making computers for other companies, who put their names on them instead.

Acorn

Acorn was a British manufacturer of microcomputers, primarily famous today for two things. Early in the decade, they won the contract to produce the BBC micro in the UK. And when they outgrew the limitations of 8-bit CPUs, they developed their own CPU architecture. They called this the Acorn RISC Microprocessor. Today you know this as ARM, the CPU architecture in virtually every so phone and tablet, as well as many Apple computers.

ALR

ALR is an often overlooked innovator from the early days of PCs. In July 1986, ALR announced a 386-based PC, even before Compaq did. Compaq was the first to actually ship a 386-based PC, shipping its Deskpro 386 before ALR was ready, so it’s the one we remember today. But if Compaq hadn’t done it, ALR was going to.

Amstrad: a dominant 80s British computer brand

Amstrad sold a popular line of 8-bit computers in the UK and the rest of Europe, then introduced a very popular IBM PC clone in the second half of the decade. For many Europeans, their first experience with an IBM-compatible PC involved an Amstrad PC.

Looking to extend that success, Amstrad tried to sell those clones in the United States as well, saying in its advertising it may not reach the popularity of The Beatles. They were right. In a crowded market, Americans preferred slightly more conventional PCs than the Amstrad, which put their power supply in the monitor. But Amstrad continued to do well in Europe, surviving the 80s and making it into the 90s.

In March 2024, Alan Sugar, founder of Amstrad, reacquired the trademark, though what he plans to do with it probably doesn’t have much to do with retro computers.

Apricot

Apricot was a British maker of IBM PC compatible computers. Although not as famous as some of the brands here, Apricot was very technically competent and one of the few companies to license and use IBM’s Microchannel architecture from the PS/2. Arguably their most noteworthy accomplishment was releasing the first 486 PC, in late 1989.

APF

APF was a short-lived brand that went under in 1983. But in the meantime, they made the Imagination Machine, a 6800-based home computer that sold for $600 and provided an upgrade path from a game console called the MP1000. Their engineer, Edward Smith, grew up in public housing in Brooklyn, learning electronics by finding schematics at the library to fix his neighbors’ TVs and radios on his way to becoming a bona fide electrical engineer. Sadly, when APF lost their funding circa 1981, it was game over for this short-lived 80s computer brand once the existing inventory was liquidated.

Apple

Apple is the only surviving member of the class of 1977. The 80s were a bigger struggle for Apple than we remember, but the Apple II was very popular for most of the decade while Apple waited for the Mac to come into its own. And even in their darkest times, Apple had a cult following. They were always one of the most popular computer brands, regardless of what their market share or stock price was doing.

AST: Popular computers largely forgotten today

AST was a major peripheral maker in the 80s and branched into entire PCs in the mid 1980s as the market for upgrades started declining. The first AST-branded PC based on the 286 processor debuted in October 1986, followed by 386 PCs in October 1987. We remember them more as a 90s brand, but their start was decidedly 80s.

AT&T

AT&T could do better than rebranding Olivetti computers and trying to sell them for $3975, which was usually more than the cost of the closest equivalent IBM PC being sold next to it at computer dealers like Computerland. But that’s the strategy they went with, so the 1980s AT&T PCs largely flopped. They were good computers, but they weren’t worth the price AT&T was asking.

Atari: Biggest 80s computer brand of today

Although their computers didn’t become as iconic as their game consoles, Atari’s 8-bit home computers and its 16-bit ST line are both very underrated product lines. Neither of them dominated the 1980s, but they held their own as non-clones in a hostile market that was steadily marching toward IBM PC clone homogeneity. Atari was also a pioneer in mobile computing, putting the palmtop product category on the map in 1989 with the introduction of the Atari Portfolio.

Atari changed ownership a few times since the 1980s, but has recently brought itself back together and started acquiring intellectual property associated with the 1980s. Of all the 80s computer brands listed here, Atari has done more to trade on that legacy than any other.

BBC

Yes, this is BBC as in the British Broadcasting Corporation. In the late 1970s, the UK feared missing out on the computer revolution, so they began a computer literacy project. This included sponsoring the production of a computer to use in schools, publication of books and other educational materials, and a series of television programs teaching computer literacy. The BBC Micro was produced by Acorn and primarily used and sold in the United Kingdom, although its effects were felt worldwide. For a member of Generation X growing up in the UK, the BBC Micro was probably their first experience with computers.

Acorn did try to export the BBC Micro, but efforts to infiltrate the U.S. education market weren’t very successful, as Apple was already well established in that market.

Canon

Better known for printers, Canon manufactured a number of computers using the MSX standard, and later, they sold IBM-compatible PCs as well. But Canon will always be better known for cameras and printers than computers.

Casio

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. Casio was one of many Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers to give it a whirl.

Coleco

A toy company who decided to get into computers after having a successful go at a game console, the Coleco Adam failed pretty hard. There was absolutely a market for it, but production delays and a sky-high defect rate soured the public on it while Commodore and Atari were selling computers as quickly as they could make them.

Commodore

A high flying brand in the 80s, Commodore had 38% of the market all to itself circa 1984 and squandered most of it by the end of the decade.

Commodore was basically an also-ran until it introduced the inexpensive VIC-20, which became an instant best-seller. And then the follow-on Commodore 64 was the best selling computer of the decade, and its Amiga was a technological marvel that kept the rest of the industry scrambling for the rest of the decade to catch up.

But Commodore’s profits were uneven after 1984, even though their computers continued to sell well up to the end of the decade. And even though Commodore survived the price war it started in 1982, it struggled as competitors lowered their prices near decade-end.

Compaq: A popular but bygone computer brand

Compaq burst on to the scene in 1982 with the Compaq portable, one of the first legal 100% IBM compatible PCs. Its sales were modest by modern standards but the profit margins were good enough to allow the company to expand, and it followed up on its success by moving into desktop PCs and in the middle of the decade, when IBM refused to produce a PC based on the 32-bit Intel 386 processor, Compaq forced its hand, creating an IBM compatible 386 PC themselves. From this point forward, Compaq led the development of the PC rather than IBM, and this is now seen as the turning point in the PC industry. Compaq went on to be a dominant player in the 90s as well.

CompuAdd

CompuAdd had 200 of  its own retail stores, selling its own eponymous brand computers exclusively. It survived the 80s but didn’t make it far into the 90s, so it wasn’t the most venerable of 80s computer brands. But you may remember seeing their stores in the late 80s, or reading about it if you dig into the Miniscribe Brick scandal.

Corona

Corona was an early maker of IBM PC compatible PCs. Founded by Robert Harp, one of the co-founders of Vector Graphic, it released its first PC in 1983. IBM sued in 1984 for copyright infringement and won. Corona lasted into the 386 era, but after Daewoo took ownership, Corona faded. Daewoo phased out the brand in 1993. The TV series Halt and Catch Fire is a dramatization that takes elements from Corona’s and Compaq’s history.

Daewoo

South Korean conglomerate Daewoo sold a successful line of MSX computers before moving into IBM-compatible computers. The very popular Leading Edge Model D was designed and built by Daewoo.

Dell: a popular brand of the 90s and today

One of the few 80s survivors, Dell started in a college dorm room in the 1980s selling cheap PC clones. For part of the decade you knew them as PCs Limited. By the 90s it was a powerhouse, specializing in direct-order, but for part of the decade it sold computers at retail too. Dell had some struggles in recent years that led to it taking itself private to avoid investor pressure and scrutiny. But it remains one of the largest brands of computers for both home and business. Their longevity makes them one of the more sought after 90s computer brands. Love them or hate them today, Dell was a very popular computer brand throughout the 1990s.

Digital (DEC)

DEC was an old-line computer company that struggled to get into the small computer business. In 1983 it introduced the Rainbow, an interesting hybrid that ran CP/M and MS-DOS. But it wasn’t compatible enough with the IBM PC to succeed. DEC kept trying, but its 1980s minicomputers and terminals are better known today than its small computers.

Dragon

Dragon was a Welsh computer company selling a computer based on the Motorola 6809 processor. It was extremely similar to the Tandy Color Computer. Whether the Dragon was a clone of the Color Computer or extremely similar simply because both companies based their designs off the same reference design provided by Motorola remains a point of controversy to this day. The Dragon saw some distribution in Europe but the computer and company didn’t see widespread success. Dragon went out of business in 1984. Their Spanish licensee soldiered on until 1987.

Dynalogic

Dynalogic produced a portable IBM compatible PC called the Hyperion. It is noteworthy for being a Canadian company, and the Hyperion shipped two months ahead of the Compaq Portable. But it wasn’t as reliable or as compatible, and a licensing deal with Commodore fell through, so the company ran out of money in 1985 and the machine was discontinued. Nevertheless, it is historically significant for being the first portable IBM compatible.

EACA

EACA was a Hong Kong-based manufacturer of Pong game consoles and home computers, mostly clones of TRS-80 and Apple computers. Tandy sued them in 1981, resulting in an out of court settlement. The matter of copyrighting computer code would have to wait for Franklin and Apple to duke out. Financial troubles nevertheless did in EACA by 1983.

Eagle Computer

Eagle was a maker of CP/M and MS-DOS computers. Its first DOS computers weren’t completely IBM compatible, which they quickly remedied. Eagle’s 1983 IPO was tragically interrupted when, on the day of the IPO, CEO Dennis Barnhart died in a Ferrari crash. The underwriters reversed the IPO, and the company was never the same. IBM sued for copyright infringement, and Eagle settled out of court. IBM then aggressively cut prices, hurting Eagle’s margins, and Eagle went bankrupt in July 1986.

Epson

Always better known for printers, Epson dabbled in computers throughout the 1980s, producing computers that ran CP/M and MS-DOS. Arguably their best success came from its Equity and Apex computer lines, which were IBM compatible using the 8088 processor at various speeds and disk drive configurations, depending on the price point they wanted to hit. While successful, when consumer demand shifted toward computers powerful enough to run Microsoft Windows, Epson retreated from the computer market to focus on printers.

Franklin

Franklin Computer was one of the first companies to commercialize Apple II clones. Rather than outright copies, Franklin tried to extend the machine and add capabilities, such as a built-in numeric keypad. Apple sued them for copyright infringement in 1983 in what became a landmark case that established the legal concept that computer software can indeed be copyrighted.

Franklin later released some non-infringing and less-compatible Apple II clones as well as some compact desktop PC clones, but never really recovered, eventually abandoning the desktop computer business for handhelds.

Gateway 2000

Better known as a 90s brand, Gateway 2000 started out by selling peripherals for Texas Instruments computers. But it experimented with selling PCs locally near its Iowa headquarters in 1986, and started selling them over the phone in 1987. good reliability and outstanding customer service. By 1989, Gateway 2000 was selling $70.6 million worth of PCs.

Goldstar

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. The South Korean consumer electronics manufacturers gave it a try, and Goldstar was one of them. Goldstar is still around today, but you know them as LG now. “LG” stands for Lucky Goldstar.

Grundy

Grundy was a British computer with an unintentionally funny name. Its computer, the Grundy New Brain, was a Z-80 based computer with a chiclet keyboard. The Grundy New Brain was a candidate for the BBC Micro project, but lost out to Acorn. It only lasted 2 years on the market, 1982 and 1983, so it is perhaps most noteworthy as one of the BBC candidates that didn’t make it.

Hitachi

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. Hitachi was one of many Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers to give it a whirl.

HP

Better known as a printer manufacturer, HP nevertheless made computers throughout the 1980s, both proprietary to itself and, eventually, more conventional IBM-compatibles. HP computers of the 1980s don’t necessarily get a lot of attention today, but they do have a devoted following.

Hyundai

South Korea got really good at making inexpensive IBM PC/XT clones in the mid 1980s and Hyundai was one of the companies doing it. They didn’t sell a lot of PCs under their own brand name, but frequently relabeled their machines for foreign markets for other brands. Hyundai-built PCs were a staple of big-box office supply stores circa 1988, even though they usually had someone else’s name on them.

IBM

IBM dominated the 1980s, starting with its IBM PC released in 1981, which dramatically exceeded IBM’s expectations. They had some missteps too, most notably the PCjr. Today we see the IBM PS/2 from 1987 as a failure, but those computers initially sold well too. Today IBM is more of a consulting company, but in the 1980s, they were as big as Google or Microsoft is today.

JVC

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. JVC was one of many Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers to give it a whirl.

Kaypro

Kaypro was a manufacturer of small computers that ran CP/M and MS-DOS. Its early products were semi portable luggable units that packed a monochrome monitor and one or two disk drives into a briefcase style unit closer in size to a sewing machine that weighed around 40 lb. Kaypro moved into desktop computers and into MS-DOS as CP/M’s time of dominance came to an end. Kaypro struggled under intense competition, and there have been various attempts to revive the brand over the years, none of them especially long lasting.

Kyocera

Kyocera is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, and they made a large number of computers in the 1980s, although they didn’t necessarily sell them under their own brand name all the time. For example, the Kyocera 85 became the TRS-80 Model 100 in other parts of the world. And they sold MSX computers under the Yashica name.

Laser

Laser was a brand name of Video Technology Limited, aka V-Tech, the maker of cordless phones and children’s electronics. V-Tech sold XT-class PC clones and Apple II clones under this brand name in the 1980s. They were never a huge name, but their computers sold for a couple of years through Sears, who pushed them in their Christmas catalogs.

Leading Edge

Leading Edge is another brand that rocketed to prominence in the 80s before limping into the 90s. Its biggest success was the Leading Edge Model D, a compact and inexpensive PC/XT clone made in South Korea by Daewoo. But they struggled to follow up on the success of the Model D in the face of stiffening competition.

Memotech

Memotech was another maker of proto-MSX machines, computers that were very similar to the MSX standard, but not quite fully compatible. It did see some success in Europe, but a downturn in the home computer market in 1984 doomed the company.

Mindset

Founded by a group of former Atari engineers, the Mindset was a not-quite-IBM-compatible computer with eye catching industrial design powered by the Intel 186 CPU, an unusual decision. The Mindset is interesting because of its eye-catching industrial design, and Jack Tramiel considered buying or licensing the Mindset rather than developing the Atari ST. It had video editing capability that only an Amiga could match, but video editing was such a niche market at the time that it wasn’t enough to save the machine or the company.

Mitsubishi

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. Mitsubishi (yes, the car company) was one of many Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers to give it a whirl.

MSX

MSX wasn’t really a brand name, but more of a standard. It was an attempt by Microsoft to produce a standard for 8-bit computers that anyone could license and produce, similar conceptually to the VHS VCR. It proved very popular with Japanese electronics manufacturers, who produced them for sale in Japan and worldwide. The standard proved popular in Japan, with mixed success throughout the rest of the world.

Nabu

The Nabu was a Canadian project to deliver computer software over cable TV lines, conceptually similar to the modern Internet. The architecture was very similar to MSX. Nabu was largely forgotten until 2023, when a barn full of 2,000 unsold units was discovered somewhere in Massachusetts. The inventory was liquidated on eBay, and modern hobbyists have reimplemented enough of the Nabu server architecture that it is now possible to operate one in much the same way as you would have in the 1980s, using a modern PC as the server.

NCR

NCR had a long history in mainframe computers, but in the 1980s, NCR had a thriving microcomputer business. Initially selling its own proprietary machines in the early 1980s, by mid-decade, it was also selling PC/AT clones based on Intel’s 286 CPU.

NEC

Arguably more famous in Europe and the Americas for premium quality monitors and CD-ROM drives, NEC was the largest maker of computers in Japan in the 1980s, first with its PC-8000 series that was a holdover from the 1970s and later with its PC-9800 or PC-98 series. The NEC’s PC-98 is the rare example of an MS-DOS computer that was only partially IBM compatible and yet attained sustained commercial success.

NeXT

After John Sculley famously fired Steve Jobs from Apple, Steve Jobs went to create NeXT, a maker of Unix workstations with a modern and sophisticated graphical user interface. NeXT computers were very expensive, so they were aimed at universities and research organizations. NeXT had mixed success, and Apple purchased the company in the late 90s to use its technology as the basis for Mac OS X. Steve Jobs famously took over as CEO after the acquisition. NeXT is most famous for what they did in the ’90s, but NeXT had its start in the ’80s.

Olivetti

Olivetti is an Italian computer company that started manufacturing mainframes in the 1950s. It made a successful transition to microcomputers starting with a Zilog Z8000-based computer in 1982. By 1983, they were making IBM-compatible PCs, which they sold under their own name and also exported for other companies to sell under their brand names. Olivetti continued selling PCs until 1997, when it sold off its PC business.

Oric

Being a British machine, I never saw an Oric Atmos here in the United States in person. Thanks to the modern Internet I’ve been able to see some pictures and it’s the best-looking computer of its era.

Osborne

The brainchild of Adam Osborne, a chemical engineer who moved into the field of small computers, Osborne Computer Corporation produced semi portable luggable computers that ran the CP/M operating system. Osborne ran into financial difficulty when Adam Osborne spoke too soon about an upcoming product, immediately causing demand for its existing product line to evaporate overnight. This became known as the Osborne effect, and it had repercussions throughout the industry. The concept that if you bought a computer, by the time you managed to get it set up and working and learned how to use it, there would be something better and cheaper available was the result of the Osborne effect. Osborne reorganized but did not survive the decade, it was liquidated in April 1986.

Packard Bell

Another brand better remembered for the 90s, Packard Bell got its start in the 80s, selling Samsung-manufactured 8088-based PCs through discount stores. Packard Bell went on to become the best-selling computer brand in the United States for much of 90s but didn’t survive the 90s due to quality control issues and a scandal involving selling used parts as new. But they rarely had repeat buyers. Many consumers bought a Packard Bell as a first PC or a first computer entirely, but had enough problems with it that they bought something else when the time came to upgrade.

Panasonic

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. Panasonic was one of many Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers to give it a whirl. Panasonic also sold IBM-compatible PCs later in the decade, with mixed success. Some of its late-80s PCs were relabeled Tandy computers, thanks to an arrangement with Tandy where they sold each other’s products.

Philips

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. While many of the takers were in Asia, Philips built MSX computers for the European market.

Samsung

Samsung made PCs in the 80s but never had the kind of success selling PCs as it had other consumer goods. It had more success making PCs for other companies that they resold under their own brands than it had selling them itself.

Sanyo

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. Sanyo was one of many Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers to give it a whirl.

Sinclair

Clive Sinclair was a British inventor, and designer of very inexpensive micro computers. His eponymous company’s first product, the ZX80, was a very minimal computer consisting of a z80 CPU, 1 KB of RAM, a keyboard, and enough logic gates to connect the CPU to RAM, the keyboard, a tape drive for storage, and to drive a television display. The design gave way to the ZX-81 and the Spectrum. Timex, the watch maker, served as Sinclair’s OEM, and in some parts of the world, including the United States and Portugal, the computers were sold under the Timex Sinclair brand. Sinclair computers were much more successful in Europe then they were in the United States.

Sony

Consumer electronics giant Sony didn’t make their name in computers, but has produced a number of successful computer lines over the years. During the 1980s, it produced computers in Japan using the MSX standard. These computers were exported, but tended to be more popular in Japan than in most parts of the world.

Sord

Sord was another maker of MSX-like computers in the early 1980s, seeing distribution throughout most of the world, basically everywhere except the United States and South America. But the formal adoption of the MSX standard forced this machine off the market by mid-decade.

Spectravideo

Best known in the United States for making video game cartridges and joysticks for Atari consoles, Spectravideo released a pair of home computers in 1983 that were a predecessor to the MSX standard. The computers sold well in some parts of the world but profits were elusive, so Spectravideo didn’t survive the decade, closing up operations worldwide by 1988.

Tandy: Quietly popular 80s computer brand

Tandy is another utterly dominant 1980s brand that barely made it into the 90s. The parent company of Radio Shack, Tandy was one of the two best-selling 80s computer brands, trading places with Commodore throughout the decade.

The TRS-80 line made it into the 80s, and the Color Computer was quietly popular early in the decade. But the Tandy 1000, first introduced in 1984, was the line that dominated the decade, though the line was losing money by 1989. I argue the mid-decade Tandy 2000 was what doomed the computer line. Tandy bet on Windows too early and lost, so they were hesitant to get on board when the rest of the industry was. But in spite of a few missteps, overall the 1980s were a very good decade for Tandy. Radio Shack went bankrupt in 2015, but in the 80s, it seemed like there was a Radio Shack on every street corner, selling Tandy computers.

Tatung

An obscure UK brand, the Tatung Einstein was an integrated Z80-based computer with a 3-inch floppy drive and room for a second internal drive. It was really popular with programmers, but at a cost of 499 GBP in 1984, it was too expensive to be a mass-market home computer, so people ended up buying them to develop software for other machines. With a 4 MHz Z80 CPU, Texas Instruments TMS9129 video chip, and AY-3-8910 audio chip, it was rather MSX-like.

Texas Instruments

TI struggled in the retail market with its home computer in the early 1980s. But for a time, they expected to own the market. TI’s computer sold well, but pricing pressure from Commodore forced them to cut prices and sell the computers at a loss. Unable to find a way to make its home computer profitable, TI left the market in 1984.

Timex

Importing low-cost Sinclair computers from Europe, Timex expected to create a new market for extremely inexpensive computers the same way Sinclair did in the UK. Timex already had a relationship with every major retail chain in the United States, so its competition feared them too. But their retail partners didn’t necessarily know how to sell the machines, as the humorous word salad in the old newspaper ad from 1982 to the right illustrates.

Timex sold a lot of machines, especially its Timex-Sinclair 1000, but not enough peripherals or software, so they didn’t capture enough mindshare to get a foothold on the US market. By 1983, Timex wanted out.

Today, not many people remember Timex as an 80s computer brand, which would have surprised analysts in 1982.

Toshiba

The MSX computer line was intended to make it easy for any electronics manufacturer to enter the computer field. Toshiba was one of many Japanese consumer electronics manufacturers to give it a whirl. Then in 1985, Toshiba introduced the T1100, the first mass-market laptop computer, which was IBM PC-compatible and ran MS-DOS. The US government banned Toshiba computers and other electronics for several years over a scandal involving a Toshiba subsidiary in the 1980s.

Vector Graphic

Vector Graphic is an obscure brand founded by two women who wanted to start a business. One of them happened to be married to a computer hobbyist who had designed an S100 memory board. He contributed the engineering. They provided the industrial design. Along the way they proved computers could look good. Unfortunately, their market evaporated when they were late to introduce an MS-DOS machine, so they went out of business in the late 1980s. It’s a shame so few people remember them as they are an excellent early example of women in technology.

Wang

More of a minicomputer and mainframe company, Wang nevertheless entered the PC market in 1982. Although they were a $3 billion company in the 1980s, Wang faded in the 1990s.

Wyse

Initially a maker of terminals, Wyse had a successful line of IBM-compatible PCs in the mid to late 80s before pivoting to thin clients in the 90s.

Xerox

Famous for photocopiers, Xerox also sold PCs in the 1980s. Of course, Xerox also invented the GUI and then didn’t commercialize it. If anything, this makes their me-too PCs of the 80s a bit more of a tragedy when we think of what might have been.

Yamaha

Its OPL sound chips became a staple of PC sound cards late in the decade, but Yamaha made computers too. Its efforts included the Yamaha CX5M, which expanded on the MSX standard by including an 8-voice synthesizer and MIDI capability.

Yashica

Yashica was the brand name Kyocera used for its MSX computers. Presumably, Kyocera thought this brand name would seem more consumer friendly than using its own.

Zenith

The TV maker sold IBM PC clones in the 80s, though it’s not what people remember them for today. We remember them for their 80s televisions, not their computers.

Thank you

Thank you for reading this far. I write about four times a week, typically about DIY, old and new computers, 80s nostalgia, and vintage electric trains. If you enjoy this type of content, you can follow me on Pinterest or Facebook, or subscribe to my RSS feed. And if you don’t mind doing me a favor, if you enjoyed one of my blog posts, would you share it with a friend? Shares over social media, hangouts like Discord or Slack, discussion groups, news aggregators, or even old-fashioned e-mail are the most effective way for me to reach new readers. Thanks again.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.