PC World 1985

The other day, I stumbled upon some photos I took last February of some old PC World magazines that I found lying around my parents' house. They really bring back memories. The hardware and software that was thought to be really cool and revolutionary back then looks so quaint and silly now. Will the iPhone look ridiculously quaint 23 years from now?

How small is too small? Hahaha.

7.16 MHz processor! 256K internal memory expandable to 640K. How ridiculous is that? How could anyone ever need that much memory??

$995 for a 30 MB hard disk. $1295 for a 10 MB removable hard disk. Nice. I love the included software in the box on the right.

What kind of computer should I buy? Desktop, Transportable, Lap-Size, or Recreational?

Dot matrix or letter quality?

Curtis was pretty much the only name in computer peripherals for a long time, as I recall.

"Every game can be the Super Bowl when you take the field with Xor NFL Challenge software. Feel the pressure as you choose starting lineups, drive down-field against the clock, and go head-to-head, down-by-down against the league's most innovative offenses and formidable defenses. It's the most intense computer simulation of the pro football experience ever devised."

Sorry this picture is so blurry. I was using a new camera. You can still read the offer of a "DeskPro-286, 513K, 1.2-MB drive, 30 MB harddisk, 10 MB tape" for $5695. What's a "1.2 MB drive"? Floppies didn't hold that much data in '85, did they?

I love the pricing table at the top right.

All I can say is I hope the next 23 years sees as many advances in computing as the past 23 did.