This week we're celebrating 30 years of the much loved Apple Mac, or rather the Macintosh, as it was once known as.

Steve Jobs first released the Macintosh personal computer on 24 January, 1984 as an alternative to the IBM Personal Computer, which was launched the year before.

The original Macintosh was the first mass-market PC that featured a mouse and a graphic interface, and back in 1984, a critic stated that the mouse would be the reason the Macintosh would fail.

Yet the Mac (as it's been called since 1998) has endured over the last three decades and has grown into a multi-billion dollar business with iconic models such as the iMac, the MacBook Air and last year's powerful Mac Pro.

Among the most interesting aspects of the last 30 years of the Macintosh have been the commericals which had been released and here we've gathered together some of the best Mac ads from the last three decades:

1. Unseen Apple Macintosh 1983 commercial

In 2012, 29 years after it was filmed, Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the original Macintosh design team, put up this clip, from a commercial filmed in 1983 that Apple had deemed too self-congratulatory. It's interesting to hear from the original creators on why they were inspired to build the first Mac:

2. Apple Macintosh 1984 Super Bowl commercial

Directed by Ridley Scott and costing a reported $900,000, Apple's 1984 ad, featuring footage from the film version of Orwell's classic, is one of the most popular TV commercials ever created and is often referenced in popular culture. Apple launched the original Macintosh with a bang by picking one of the most expensive primetime advertising spots on American television, the Super Bowl. However widespread media coverage of the ad helped Apple receive an estimate $5 million worth of "free ad" coverage.

3. Hal 2000 commercial

Remember the Y2K bug hype back in 1999? Apple put out one of its best commercials that year – Hal 2000, a spoof of the cult 1968 Stanley Kubrick science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which featured a speaking computer known as Hal 9000:

4. iMac G4 – Window Shopping commercial

The iMac G4 was launched in 2001, originally with the title, "The New iMac". Nicknamed the "iLamp" due to its similarity with the look and flexible neck of a desk lamp (particularly the Pixar desk lamp), the iMac G4 tries to imitate British actor Don Gilet in this advertisement:

5. Powerbook G4 - Big and Small commercial

In 2003, Apple launched the Powerbook G4, touted as the "first 17in laptop in the world". This memorable commercial was released to advertise the addition of a 12in version of the Powerbook G4, featuring Chinese NBA basketball player Yao Ming (one of the tallest NBA basketball players in history) and actor Verne Troyer (one of the shortest men in the world):

6. Get a Mac – Out of the Box (US commercial)

Between May 2006 and October 2009, Apple ran "Get a Mac", one of its most memorable campaigns. Consisting of a total of 66 TV spots in the US and 15 in the UK, the ads used human interaction to illustrate how Macs are far superior to PCs. The US version of the commercial featured actor Justin Long as Mac and John Hodgman as the PC for the entire campaign.

7. Get a Mac – Office Posse (UK commercial)

To the great delight of Apple fans in the UK, the popular comedy duo Mitchell and Webb of Peepshow fame were signed on to play the roles of the two PC products, with Robert Webb as Mac and David Mitchell as PC. Here's one of our favourites – "Office Posse":

8. Get a Mac – Broken Promises (US commercial)

Three years and 66 TV spots later, all good things have to come to an end. Perhaps it's a little mean, but "Broken Promises", one of the last ads in the campaign, featuring the 2009 edition of the iMac, pokes fun at the inconsistency and problems Microsoft's many previous Windows operating systems have had:

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