Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Cyber Monday
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Codes
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Affiliate links
    • Meet the team
    • Community guidelines
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
Subscribe now
Don't miss these
A Windows 98 handheld gaming PC.
Handheld Gaming PCs Modder builds Windows 98 handheld gaming PC with Intel Pentium inside
The ZX Spectrum lego model with extra monitor and figure
Hardware The ZX Spectrum is one of the most iconic PCs of all time, and it could be making a fun LEGO-based comeback
Apple I
Hardware An original Apple I PC just sold for $500K and now I'm frantically ransacking boxes of old PC and Apple kit for my retirement fund
A RFIDisk with a floppy disk inside, loading Slay the Spire on Steam
Hardware If you regret not living through the floppy disk era why not try this 3D printed Linux project that uses the cartridges to launch games
A PC Gamer sitting at a desk with his back to the camera with both arms in the air cheering.
Hardware Hooray for the PC: Sales are up by nearly 10% on last year, but predictably things are quite a bit slower in the US
Dave Plummer's RA82 disk drive
Storage Ex Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer says 'SD cards are lame!' and opts to rescue a 200 lb 14-inch magnetic disc drive from the '80s with just 622 MB of storage
A promotional image of the SilverStone SST-FLP02 retro-styled PC case
PC Cases The age of beige is back! SilverStone's new case is a glorious nod to PCs of the 1980s and 90s
A young Bill Gates sitting among various computer hardware.
Operating Systems Microsoft has blown the dust off the source code for a version of Bill Gates' first-ever operating system
Emoji hands waving goodbye to the Windows 10 wallpaper
Windows The Windows 10 era is over and with it, the last time I felt my PC was truly my own
Compuserve ad of a kid looking into the computer screen
Software I just learned that before the internet, 'online' actually meant 'offline' and it's turned my world upside down
The Edifier Huazai New Cyber, a desktop speaker that looks like a gaming PC
Speakers Edifier's new desktop speaker is treating gaming PCs as a luxury HiFi aesthetic, but it's just not doing it for me
Kazeta OS cartridge and save screen to display the Linux OS' features.
Operating Systems What if modern PC gaming were just a little more Nintendo? Kazeta, a Linux-based OS, aims to find out with plug 'n' play SD 'carts' and by going all in on retro simplicity
A collection of GPUs, well-lit and carefully lined up along multiple shelving units.
Graphics Cards Private collector's GPU horde tours through 30 years of Nvidia and AMD hardware history
PC power button extension v2
PC Cases Power? Contact. Fuel? Check. Ignition? Go! This, ladies and germs, is the way to boot up your desktop PC
SignalRGB's custom gaming PC built inside of an old microwave.
Gaming PCs Toasty CPU? This microwave PC build demonstrates that you ain't seen nothing yet
Popular
  • All the deals
  • Best PC gear
  • Arc Raiders
  • PC Gaming Show
  • Quizzes
  1. Hardware
  2. Gaming PCs

The Personal Computers of the 1980s

Features
By Mark Pilkington ( Maximum PC ) published 26 September 2014

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Hands up if you owned a computer in the 80s! After making some tentative steps in the late 70s, the 1980s saw home computing really take off. Back then, no young adult’s bedroom was complete without a computer, tape deck, and trusty joystick on display.

Home computing proved to be so popular it seemed like every company wanted a slice of the digital pie, with model after model released on an annual basis, all vying for dominance in the ultra-competitive marketplace.

Some efforts, such as the Commodore 64 and Spectrum, were hugely successful and went on to sell millions. But for every success story there were many more that failed to make the grade, with some models even being released and then going out of business the same year.

Here, Maximum PC presents 25 of the most memorable and noteworthy computers of the 1980s. Join us as we relive the golden age of home computing.

1981 - IBM PC

Page 1 of 25
Page 1 of 25

Page 2 of 25
Page 2 of 25

Page 3 of 25
Page 3 of 25

Page 4 of 25
Page 4 of 25

1982 - Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Page 5 of 25
Page 5 of 25

1982 - Commodore 64

Page 6 of 25
Page 6 of 25

1982 - Jupiter Ace

Page 7 of 25
Page 7 of 25

Page 8 of 25
Page 8 of 25

Page 9 of 25
Page 9 of 25

1982 - Sord M5

Page 10 of 25
Page 10 of 25

1983 - Epson QX-10

Page 11 of 25
Page 11 of 25

1983 - Acorn Electron

Page 12 of 25
Page 12 of 25

Page 13 of 25
Page 13 of 25

1983 - Apricot PC

Page 14 of 25
Page 14 of 25

1983 - Camputers Lynx

Page 15 of 25
Page 15 of 25

Page 16 of 25
Page 16 of 25

1983 - Oric 1

Page 17 of 25
Page 17 of 25

1984 - Apple Macintosh / II

Page 18 of 25
Page 18 of 25

Page 19 of 25
Page 19 of 25

1985 - Atari ST

Page 20 of 25
Page 20 of 25

Page 21 of 25
Page 21 of 25

1985 - Commodore 128

Page 22 of 25
Page 22 of 25

Page 23 of 25
Page 23 of 25

Page 24 of 25
Page 24 of 25

Page 25 of 25
Page 25 of 25
Mark Pilkington
Deals not to miss
A Windows 98 handheld gaming PC.
Modder builds Windows 98 handheld gaming PC with Intel Pentium inside
 
 
The ZX Spectrum lego model with extra monitor and figure
The ZX Spectrum is one of the most iconic PCs of all time, and it could be making a fun LEGO-based comeback
 
 
Apple I
An original Apple I PC just sold for $500K and now I'm frantically ransacking boxes of old PC and Apple kit for my retirement fund
 
 
A RFIDisk with a floppy disk inside, loading Slay the Spire on Steam
If you regret not living through the floppy disk era why not try this 3D printed Linux project that uses the cartridges to launch games
 
 
A PC Gamer sitting at a desk with his back to the camera with both arms in the air cheering.
Hooray for the PC: Sales are up by nearly 10% on last year, but predictably things are quite a bit slower in the US
 
 
Dave Plummer's RA82 disk drive
Ex Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer says 'SD cards are lame!' and opts to rescue a 200 lb 14-inch magnetic disc drive from the '80s with just 622 MB of storage
 
 
Latest in Gaming PCs
A pair of Alienware Aurora PCs.
It feels weird to type these words, but Alienware's Cyber Monday deals are offering some of the best available prices on prebuilt Nvidia gaming PCs
 
 
Four gaming PCs on a Cyber Monday background.
I've been keeping my eye on gaming PC deals every day for the past two weeks and these are the best sub-$1,000 deals I've found
 
 
Three gaming PCs on a Cyber Monday background
These three Cyber Monday gaming PC deals show why prebuilt rigs are better value than DIY builds at every budget this year
 
 
An iBuyPower gaming PC on a blue Cyber Monday background.
I tried to build a high-end AMD gaming PC out of Cyber Monday deals but RAM prices make prebuilts better value for money
 
 
An Alienware Aurora gaming PC on a blue and red Cyber Monday background
Alienware has knocked it straight out the park with this beastly $1,680 RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC deal this Cyber Monday
 
 
Alienware Aurora gaming PC on a blue Cyber Monday background
I'm as surprised as you are but the cheapest RTX 5080 gaming PC this Cyber Monday is this $1,900 Alienware machine
 
 
Latest in Features
Blue & Blood mod
Inside the GTA mod that was so well-written its creators axed it to make their own game—and then returned to finish the job due to public demand
 
 
Key art for Warframe: The Old Peace, showing Uriel hoisting a banner on a Tau battlefield while flanked by sentient child Adis and a Grineer trooper.
Warframe's next big, WWI-inspired story update happened because a developer wrote the words 'Trench Warframe' on a whiteboard
 
 
Kowloon Walled City recreated in Minecraft
This Minecraft map that recreates one of history's most notorious slums made me reconsider what's important in 3D level design
 
 
Koana, a character from FF14's Dawntrail, reads from a tome - overlaid is PC Gamer's design for the Terminally Online column.
Debate: What is your objectively correct keybinding setup for your current MMO, and why is everybody else wrong?
 
 
Darktide Hive Scum build - Hive Scum shooting
Darktide's new Hive Scum class can transform into a nigh-on immortal John Wick with infinite bullets—it's no wonder Fatshark's nerfed it before release
 
 
EE x PC Gamer.
Staying connected no matter where you are
 
 
  1. MSI and Asus gaming monitors on a green background with the PC Gamer recommended logo in the top right
    1
    Best gaming monitors in 2025: the pixel-perfect panels I'd buy myself
  2. 2
    The best fish tank PC case in 2025: I've tested heaps of stylish chassis but only a few have earned my recommendation
  3. 3
    Best gaming laptop 2025: I've tested the best laptops for gaming of this generation and here are the ones I recommend
  4. 4
    Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customizable keyboards for competitive gaming
  5. 5
    Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC
  1. A player lines up a headshot in Escape from Tarkov.
    1
    Escape from Tarkov review
  2. 2
    Lenovo Legion 9i Gen 10 review
  3. 3
    Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 review
  4. 4
    LG UltraGear 27GX790A OLED review
  5. 5
    Thermal Grizzly Der8enchtable review

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google
  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...