Description
Price: $29.95 - $24.96
(as of Mar 21, 2025 10:56:22 UTC – Details)
A celebration of the early years of the digital revolution, when computing power was deployed in a beige box on your desk.
Today, people carry powerful computers in our pockets and call them “phones.” A generation ago, people were amazed that the processing power of a mainframe computer could be contained in a beige box on a desk. This book is a celebration of those early home computers, with specially commissioned new photographs of 100 vintage computers and a generous selection of print advertising, product packaging, and instruction manuals. Readers can recapture the glory days of fondly remembered (or happily forgotten) machines including the Commodore 64, TRS-80, Apple Lisa, and Mattel Aquarius—traces of the techno-utopianism of the not-so-distant past.
Home Computers showcases mass-market success stories, rarities, prototypes, one-offs, and never-before-seen specimens. The heart of the book is a series of artful photographs that capture idiosyncratic details of switches and plugs, early user-interface designs, logos, and labels. After a general scene-setting retrospective, the book proceeds computer by computer, with images of each device accompanied by a short history of the machine, its inventors, its innovations, and its influence. Readers who inhabit today’s always-on, networked, inescapably connected world will be charmed by this visit to an era when the digital revolution could be powered down every evening.
Publisher : The MIT Press; Illustrated edition (May 19, 2020)
Language : English
Hardcover : 256 pages
ISBN-10 : 0262044013
ISBN-13 : 978-0262044011
Item Weight : 2.2 pounds
Dimensions : 8.56 x 1.07 x 10 inches
Customers say
Customers enjoy the book’s photography and style. They find it perfect for vintage computer enthusiasts and a nostalgic coffee table book for those who learned about computers in the 70s-80s. The book has great photos and information about old computers.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Jack Ruby Built The Pyramids –
Fantastic quality binding, photos and paper stock
Great content for nerds, heavy book, heavy paper, great photography and use of color in the book. This will get a lot of finger traffic sitting on our living room table.
C. La V. –
Beautiful Computer Collection
Just a wonderful library of home computers of yesteryear. The black font on darker green and blue pages is a bit difficult to read, but these pages are few and far between. The stand outs of the book are the photographs; closeups let you see the textures of each keyboard, each mouse, and each floppy drive.
It’s a really fun book, I recommend it.
Scott D. Sanders –
Nostalgic coffee table book for those who learned to love computers in the 70s-80s
The book is very sturdy with beautiful photographs. Each computer only has a brief amount of text describing its place in computer history. Still, it’s a fun, but brief trip down memory lane. I missed not seeing the Coleco Adam or Atari Falcon included. I expect this won’t get many re-reads but will be more of a conversation piece/coffee table book for my more nerdish visitors.
BM –
A blast from the past
Great nostalgic trip back to the 1970’s and 1980’s microcomputer revolution! It includes interesting perspective on the British computing scene from that era which is often overlooked in similar US-centric discussions. For those of us that “lived it”, this is a very fun book.
Jeremy –
Perfect book for the vintage computer lover.
Itâs exactly what I hoped it would be. Perfect size, perfect price, and beautifully crafted with great photos and info. This book is a wonderful addition for any fan of vintage computers.
Gazooda –
Nice coffee-table style book
Each computer is devoted a couple pages of space and any related references are noted by page number within each description. It is fun to read about an old computer or two each day.
Chris Wood –
Very nice book arrived quickly, wrapped well, and in perfect shape. This nerd approves.
The headline sums it up I believe.
Sylvain –
Nice pictures
Good book
Andrej Stabenow –
Schöne Zusammenstellung aus der Frühzeit der PCs und Homecomputer.
John Nuttall –
Well written and beautiful photos. The history of home Computers . One fab observation that the Acorn Atom sold as a kit, but their engineers became frustrated by end users gluing the components into the PCB!
Andrea –
Se siete arrivati alla pagina di questo libro ciò dire che siete appassionati dellâargomento e quindi non potete non comprarlo , fantastiche le storie , fantastiche le foto, ottima la qualità dellâimpaginazione e della carta.Compratelo.
Juan D. –
Might not be the perfect book as many are saying, but still a lovely designed book for my computer shelf. Recommended! It covers many systems I have never heard of.
Patrizio Gagliardi –
Bellissimo libro per gli appassionati del genere, pieno di illustrazioni eccezionali e di notizie interessantissime, alcune delle quali vere e proprie chicche.
Immancabile per appassionati di storia informatica.