February 1, 2026
Before cookies, Cobol ruled
NCR Tower 1632 – Computer Ads from the Past
The desk-sized 'Tower' that ran 16 people now fuels nostalgia, basement myth jokes, and ad wars
TLDR: NCR’s 1982 Tower 1632 was a desk-side computer serving up to 16 users, showcased in vintage ads. Commenters split between ad nostalgia (no tracking!), basement‑server legend jokes, and firsthand memories of non‑Unix variants—offering a fun snapshot of how tech and advertising changed, and how old systems quietly endure.
Vintage ads for the 1982 NCR Tower 1632—an under‑desk, 29‑inch “mini” computer that could serve up to 16 people at once—returned, and the comments lit up. The machine ran a UNIX‑style operating system and stored data on “Winchester” hard drives (think early hard disks), all for under $12,500 back in the day, according to InfoWorld. While Datamation painted NCR as newly “entrepreneurial,” the community made it personal—and hilarious.
Strongest take? Nostalgia for ads that didn’t track you. “Remember targeted pitches without creepy cookies?” one commenter cheered, sparking a mini culture war: vintage trade‑mag targeting versus today’s surveillance‑style marketing. Then came the lore: commenters swapped ghost stories about a “dusty basement” Tower still running a factory, the last of its kind no one knows about—cue the meme of the immortal server humming behind a mop bucket.
Reality check: old‑school devs showed up with receipts. One pro swore their “iTower” didn’t run Unix at all but rmCOS (Ryan McFarland’s system) with RMCobol—COBOL being the OG business language—triggering a playful OS turf war: Unix pride vs COBOL shop reality. And for pure nostalgia bingeing, someone dropped the museum‑grade rabbit hole at 1000bit. The vibe? Equal parts museum tour, office legend, and ad‑tech therapy session.
Key Points
- •NCR announced the Tower 1632 on December 13, 1982, targeting the OEM computer market.
- •The system used a Motorola 68000 CPU, supported multiuser/multitasking, ran a UNIX III-derived OS, and used Winchester disk drives.
- •The Tower 1632 came in a 29-inch-tall cabinet, listed under $12,500, and supported up to 16 users.
- •A 1983 Datamation article described NCR’s shift to serving large organizations and decentralizing decisions to plant managers with P&L and R&D responsibilities.
- •NCR executives Hugh Lynch and Don Coleman linked the new structure to products including the Tower 1632, NCR 9300, and Decision Mate V.