T is for Technical

[Nebulon]

Back when Tandy was synonymous with Technical:

 

https://archive.org/stream/Tandy_Computers_1978_Catalog_1978_Tandy_Partial#page/n0/mode/2up

 

I especially like the detailed descriptions of exactly what each computer includes.

[Keatah]

Apple published similar catalogs, though less often, in the form of "Apple-in-Depth" yearly catalogs. So that makes me tend to believe it was a sign of the times. Computers were still new and IC chips hadn't yet been on the market more than 7 or 8 years even.

ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.com/pub/apple_II/documentation/advertisements/misc/Apple%20In%20Depth%20-%201980.pdf

 

Both companies' catalogs tried appealing to the retail consumer AND the hobbyist. And I found the balance to be quite palatable. Even enjoyable light reading. They were quite educational to a kid. Just by paging through these you could learn what made up a computer system. You could learn what sorts of tasks it could do. And which peripherals, software, and configurations were needed for those tasks. It was a great time!

 

Unlike today where everything is obfuscated to the point of stupidity. But that's part and parcel of the dying PC market anyways.