Remembering 1984 With The Mac 128K, Apple //c, & Education Ad (With Pics)

by , 8:00 AM EST, February 16th, 2001

Update: Several Observer have comments and written to remind us that while the Apple ][ was written with the bracket signs, the Apple //c was written with the forward slash marks to signify the "2." This article has been updated accordingly. Thanks to everyone who has once again reminded us that one of our greatest assets is the Mac community. - Editor.

As part of our series of articles remembering the early days of Apple, the Mac, and computing we bring you two more great ads from Apple. Observer Charles Mangin has sent us several vintage Apple ads (and a really great Microsoft ad from 1983 we will share with you later :-), including these two ads from the April 1984 issue of Byte magazine. They feature the original Mac (128K) and the Apple //c. According to Mr. Mangin:

The first spread is another inside cover spread from April 1984's BYTE magazine, touting the original Macintosh's "blindingly fast" 68000 processor, its 32-bit Lisa Technology, and its "built in polyphonic sound generator" capable of speaking in any language (like Yiddish or Serbo-Croatian). Fun.

A quote from the text of the ad:

The Mouse itself Replaces [sic] typed in computer commands with a form of communication you already understand -- pointing.

Note the very cool transparent illustration of the Mac allowing you to see inside. There are several more poignant quotes in the ad like the one we quoted above. More from Charles Mangin on the Apple //c add:

The second is an inside cover spread for the Apple IIc computer from BYTE December 1984, touting its educational appeal for students, low price tag, and expandability. The "kid's room" is decked out with an apple modem, Motley Crue stickers, books on BASIC and the SAT. Kind of an odd assortment if you ask me...

That is an odd assortment. Your editor distinctly remembers that most of the kids who were into Mötley Cruë in 1984 were not in computer class, though there was this Eddie Van Halen-style prodigy who shared his Pascal programming class in 1984 (Hello David!)...

A great quote from the text of the ad:

Today, there are more Apples in schools than any other computer [Editor's Note: Would that this were still true today...]. Unfortunately, there are still more kids in schools than Apples. So innocent youngsters (like your own) may have to fend off packs of bully nerds to get some time on a computer. Which is why it makes good sense to buy them an Apple ][c Personal Computer of their very own.

"Packs of bully nerds," that's awesome.

Thanks to Charles Mangin for sending these great scans to us! If you have an old Apple ad for the Mac (or Mac clones), the Apple ][ (or clones), the Lisa, or any other Apple product, scan them in and send them to us, so that we can share them with other Mac fans.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We would like to thank all the Observer who have written in to tell us how much they like seeing these snapshots of time from the past. We have many more ads to put up, and they keep coming in, so we will be running this series for quite a while.

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Other Articles From This Series

Remembering 1993 With Newton QuickTime Commercials (The Candidate & Where Is Newton?)
May 11th

Remembering 1993 With Newton Commercials (QuickTime)!
May 4th

Remembering 1990 With A Couch Made From 35 Macs!
April 30th

Remembering 1990, The IIfx, & The Power To Be Your Best
April 27th

Remembering The Apple I & The Two Steves (With Pics)
March 30th

Remembering 1990 With Apple Brochure For Mac Classic, Mac IIsi, & Mac LC (With Pics)
March 23rd

Remembering 1984 With Screen Shots Of The Original Mac!
March 16th

Remembering 1984 With Massive Newsweek Spread (With Pics)
March 9th

Remembering 1984 With An Original Mac Brochure
March 2nd

Remembering 1984 With Steve Jobs & The Entire Macintosh Development Team (With Pics)
February 23rd

Remembering 1984 With The Mac 128K, Apple ][c, & Education Ad (With Pics)
February 16th

Remembering 1984 With A Macintosh & Lisa Brochure (With Pics)
February 14th

Remembering 1984 With An Original Mac Magazine Article (With Pics)
February 9th

Remembering 1977 With The First (Apple I) Apple Ad!
February 7th

Remembering 1977 With Apple Ad Featuring Pre-Rainbow Logo (With Pic)
February 5th

Remembering 1980 & 1984 With Two Apple Ads (With Pics)
February 2nd

Mac Vs. PC: Remembering 1989 (With Pic)
January 30th

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