I don’t know about you, but nothing warms my heart more than the sight of a photograph of kid at a personal computer in the 1980s. A pleasant whiff of nostalgia mixed with interesting paleo-technology, makes for a great image. Let’s have a look at a handful of images of kids and families as history was being made: when computers first entered our schools and homes…

On the old Radio Shack display: “Marvin couldn’t understand Earth people very well. That’s why Marvin came to me. He knew that I was Computer Charlie. He knew that I was one of the biggest brains around.”

From Kilobaud Microcomputing magazine, 1979

(L) From a 1981 Radio Shack catalog, (R) from a 1988 issue of Računari; for a look at the glorious covers of this Yugoslavian computer mag, click here.

From a 1988 Radio Shack catalog

1987 Teenagers who could really have used wireless keyboards.

I can’t quite tell what this boy is doing on the computer – I just know he’s loving every minute of it.

(L) From the cover of the Apple II reference manual, (R) This kid is “EXCITED!” by his school’s new TRS-80

From the 1983 book: How to Feel at Home with a Home Computer

From New York magazine, January 1984

Radio Shack 1981

Personal

Run magazine, March 1985

From Family Computing magazine, October 1983

From magazine, February 1984

From the cover of Kilobaud Microcomputing magazine, June 1980

From the cover of The Home Computer Course 5: Mastering Your Home Computer in 24 Weeks

From the book, Living with Computers by Patrick G. Mckeown

From the cover of Creative Computing magazine, March 1980

TRS-80 Microcomputer News, July 1983

Detail from a 1985 Datasouth advertisement

From Family Computing magazine, September 1983

Detail from a 1985 Tandy 1000 advertisement

Ad from Family Computing magazine, September 1983