By Phil Zakharchenko in AppKit —

A Time Capsule from NeXT Computer, Inc.

A Time Capsule from NeXT Computer, Inc.

A couple of months ago I took a trip to Fortuna, CA – a roughly 5 hour drive from my home in San Jose – to pick up a Macintosh Quadra 700 for my modest albeit growing collection of vintage hardware.

From what I gathered, the person selling the machine finds and repairs them for fun, mostly obtaining the devices, various accessories and software from estate sales. He seemed far more knowledgeable about the hardware than I was (I’m a software guy, okay?), and we had a very interesting conversation.

As part of my general motivation and interest in old Apple stuff, I mentioned having worked on AppKit at Apple alongside some ex-NeXT folks. I ended up leaving with the Quadra and a somewhat worn down envelope addressed to a former Oracle employee with a NeXT Computer, Inc. logo and return address on it. I was admittedly more excited about the latter.

Inside the envelope, I found a memo from NeXT Computer, Inc. dated June 6, 1991.

June 6, 1991 NeXT, Inc. 210 Saginaw Drive Redwood City, CA 94063 415 780 2700 415 368 3633 Fax A MEMO FROM NeXT: We would like to thank you for your interest in NeXT Computer products. Enclosed you will find a NeXT Product Brochure, Data Sheet and special pricing information for Oracle members. You will also find our Spring '91 Software and Peripherals listing. Feel free to give us a call if you need any more information about NeXT products. We look forward to hearing from you. NeXT Computer, Inc.

Alongside it, there were mint condition booklets with the company’s software and hardware offerings from the time. A time capsule from a unique moment in time for computing.

The booklets were all printed on surprisingly high quality dense paper. At the end of one of the booklets, it read:

This booklet was produced using NeXT computers. Text was written with Write Now 2.0. Page composition was done with FrameMaker 2.0. Proofs were printed using a NeXT 400 dpi Laser Printer. All text and image files were transfered directly from a NeXT optical disk to film using NeXT computers and an electronic output device.

The complete contents of the package included stuff I hadn’t seen posted anywhere else online. In total, the envelope included the following materials:

  • A memo from NeXT;
  • A table of all of the company’s offerings and a price list with discounts;
  • NeXT Software and Peripherals Spring 1991
  • NeXTdimension, NeXTstation & NeXTcube
  • “Why does the world need a new computer?”

The Software and Peripherals booklet contained concise summaries of the company’s offerings at the time, with about a paragraph written about each one. The iconography in there was great!

It was fascinating to see the NeXTdimension, NeXTstation & NeXTcube brochure, as it was by far the most technical. Multiple tables outlined the specifications and features of each, alongside a few notable peripherals. Notably, each of the devices got a hero page with a cool graphic, and a summary table containing not just a list of features, but a concise explanation of the benefits of each.

NeXIstation Color NeXTstation Color is an affordable, 16-bit color NeXT computer for people who want a professional color solution. It's ideal for publishing, graphic design, computer-aided design, presentations, analysis, and virtually all other applica- tions that require color capabilities. In addition to the same core technolo- gies that make NeXTstation an excep- tional computer, the NeXTstation Color computer has 1.5 MB of dedicated video memory. This lets it display 4096 colors simultaneously on NeXT MegaPixel Color Displays. The NeXT MegaPixel Color Displays measure either 17 or 21 inches diagonally and can be used with all NeXT color systems. They have a resolution of 1120 (h) x 832 (v). The NeXTstation Color computer has been engineered to handle the demands of today's-and tomorrow's-true-color applications. It can be configured with 12 MB to 32 MB of memory. Features Benefits 16-bits-per-pixel color MegaPixel Color Displays (in two sizes) Color PostScript Built-in Ethernet The NeXTstation Color computer can display 4096 colors simultaneously, letting you create images of near- photographic quality. Lets you view a full page of your work in breathtaking color. And there's plenty of extra room for menus, icons, and tools. Software applications written for a monochrome NeXT computer will also run on a color NeXT computer, and vice versa. In addition, color PostScript® lets you print to color printers, slide makers, and imagesetters. High-performance Ethernet allows you to share large color images over a network.

“Why does the world need a new computer?” was undoubtedly the star of the show. A 15-page booklet, according to Steve himself, was aimed at changing “the way we work in the 90s.” This was somewhat of a pitch deck, focusing on the bigger picture of the what, the how, and the why. A few notable mentions of really cool software made it in, too.

NeXT Why does the world need a new computer

The captures you see above depict the scans I performed using my iPhone 14 Pro camera. While the results were not bad, I am committed to scanning these materials professionally, and posting them here and in online archives. In the meantime, please feel free to email or contact me and I will be happy to send you any of the scans.