Although somewhere at EH Publishing we have the full archive of Electronic House magazines dating back to 1986, I personally lost mine during a move many years ago.

Lutron veteran Rick Schuett—a longtime industry guru and friend o’ EH—dug up a few back issues and was kind enough to send them to me.

The articles and products from back then were quite amusing, but so were the ads, most of which lacked any flair what so ever.

Several of these companies, like Home Automation Inc. (HAI) and Parks Associates, are still around and thriving under the original ownership. Others, like distributor Home Automation Systems, were acquired and continue to thrive under new ownership as SmartHome. Still others, like X10, haven’t changed since 1989.

And then, there was Mastervoice ...

These advertisements are from 1989. Later this week, we’ll look at a some more ads through 1994.

Check out the complete slideshow.

Please share your memories in the comment section below.

Julie Jacobson - Editor-at-large, CE Pro

Julie Jacobson is co-founder of EH Publishing and currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro, mostly in the areas of home automation, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration. She majored in Economics at the University of Michigan, earned an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, and has never taken a journalism class in her life. Julie is a washed-up Ultimate Frisbee player with the scars to prove it. Follow her on Twitter @juliejacobson.