#80s personal computer

[thegikitiki]

Nothing says "revolutionary technology" like a man in a waistcoat who hasn't seen a bathtub since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Here we see "Ben" smugly presenting the Franklin ACE 1000, a machine so boldly "compatible" with the Apple II that the legal department probably had a collective heart attack the moment this photo was snapped.

The placement of the actual apple on the computer is the ultimate 1980s power move, it’s the corporate equivalent of "I’m not touching you!" while hovering a finger an inch from Apple’s copyright lawyers. They are bragging about 64K of RAM and upper and lower case letters as if they’ve just cracked the Enigma code. In 1776, Ben wanted to fly a kite in a lightning storm; in 1982, he just wanted to run VisiCalc without paying Steve Jobs a royalty. It’s a classic tale of American innovation: if you can’t beat 'em, dress up like a Founding Father and clone 'em.

Source: November 1982 issue of Softside Magazine (n35).

[thegikitiki]

"Real men code in Assembler." Look at that glorious mustache and plaid shirt combo, even if I didn't reference the year, most could already guess the decade. This is peak 1981 tech-bro energy. He's probably calculating how many 5.25-inch floppy disks it will take to store a single low-res image, all while glowing in the warm radiation of his CRT monitor. The giant red lamp is strategically positioned to highlight his utter dedication to reading a spiral-bound manual thicker than a phone book.

Source: 1981 Atari Computers Assembler Editor Cover Art