Remembering 1984 With Screen Shots Of The Original Mac!

by , 1:00 PM EST, March 16th, 2001

[Editor's Note: Some Observers reported trouble with pulling up the larger version of the screen shots, especially on Windows machines, so we have changed the way they are called. You should not encounter any difficulties, but if you do, please let us know!

This week, we are bringing you part 2 of the huge Newsweek spread that we started last week. In today's Remembering piece, we are going to take a look at some screen shots from the original Mac, and better yet, we are contrasting them to some screen shots from PCs of the same era. What could be more fun?

These scans were sent in by Rob Marquardt, the Designer/Resident Wirehead of Toast Design. They come from part of a 16 page spread from a Newsweek magazine from the fall of 1984. The following is the introduction Mr. Marquardt wrote on his own site.

In the Fall of 1984 Apple published a 16-page (with fold-out) advertising insert in Newsweek magazine. For many, this was the first “up-close” experience with a Macintosh — detailing the radical features of this new computer. The Macintosh was obviously evolving during the production of this insert as applications, icons and even hardware change from one photo to the next (and are often different from what actually made it to the shipping product). Also, in stark contrast to more recent advertising, this brochure actually makes direct comparisons to the competition with ample text to go along with the pictures.

In addition to the full-page scans of the brochure below, you'll also find larger detail images of certain areas — screenshots, people and hardware that benefit from a closer look.

Enjoy!

Here you go. You can click on each of the thumbnails for a larger version of the image. There are a LOT of them, so have fun!

The following are some closeups that Mr. Marquardt took of some of the pages so they could be read. When seen side by side, the differences between the Mac and DOS is phenomenal. We will point out that Apple did choose a very poor PC to use, one that included the same size screen as the original Mac. On the other hand, it wouldn't have looked that much better on a top of the line PC either. :-)

p08.jpeg
Page 8 showed the differences
between DOS and the brand new Macintosh
d08pcss1.jpeg
File listings
before Macintosh

Macintosh Finder
d08pcss2.jpeg
Spreadsheets before
Macintosh
d08macss2.jpeg
Microsoft's Multiplan
for Macintosh
d08pcss3.jpeg
Business graphics
before Macintosh
d08macss3.jpeg
Microsoft's Chart
for Macintosh
d08pcss4.jpeg
Terminal emulation
before Macintosh
d08macss4.jpeg
MacTerminal
p09.jpeg
Page 9 showed the abilities of MacPaint,
a first for 1984
p10.jpeg
Page 10 shows off
MacPaint, MacProject, Microsoft Chart, and a 3D chess game.
d10apps1.jpeg
MacProject
d10apps2.jpeg
MacPaint
d10apps3.jpeg
MacPaint
d10apps4.jpeg
MacWrite
d10apps5.jpeg
Microsoft Chart
d10apps6.jpeg
MacPaint
d10apps7.jpeg
Alice

d10gatesetc.jpeg
For those who want to see it again, here is the closeup of Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mitch Kaptor of Lotus, and Fred Gibbons of Software Publishing Corporation. It seems obvious who had the last laugh of these three people.

Many thanks to Rob Marquardt for these excellent scans. Check out his Web site for more information on Toast Design. If you have an old Apple ad for the Mac (or Mac clones), the Apple ][ (or clones), the Lisa, or any other Apple product, scan them in and send them to us, so that we can share them with other Mac fans.