Someone lucky got id Software's original NeXT hardware

Great definition, because it was mostly luck that I fell in with id, 3DRealms, and the rest of the FPS crowd. John knew I was into NeXT stuff (my father worked for Steve Jobs as head of Developer Relations at NeXT, so I hung out there pretty much every waking moment when I was a kid) and so when id no longer needed the gear, he offered them to me.

We'd known each other a few years (and I'd been trusted with other id secrets including early software), so I don't think there was a trust issue and he felt fine with my promise that I wouldn't pass along anything I found on the disks. I still haven't, and I wouldn't without his permission. It has been a long time, so if there is anything of archival value that he'd be fine releasing, I'll leave that up to him.

I've kept them safe & sound all these years, but haven't done anything really useful with them. They really belong in a museum, or in a collector's hands, who will cherish them more than I would. I'd like to auction some/all of them off with the proceeds going to Child's Play, but if the Computer History Museum wants one or something, that'd be awesome too. Mostly, I don't want them to still gather dust at my house - they should be helping someone if they can.

I'm positive Romero (we still stay fairly close) would like this stuff, but it was Carmack I made the promise too, so I wouldn't give the data to Romero without Carmack's ok.

Happy to answer any other questions if people have them. They're pretty unique pieces of hardware, especially considering what NeXTStep has turned into (Mac OS X and iOS - you can still find NeXT strings in them) and what they built (DOOM and Quake) and what other famous NeXTs have done (created the web).

Also happy to take suggestions on good homes for them, if you have any.

I used to make similar mistakes years ago, for a long time thinking it was "Eye Dee Software", so I'm posting this to enlighten others, rather than being a grammar commie.

Interestingly, there was a game called iD published in 1986: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID_%28video_game%29

In it, he mentioned that he was getting rid of the last of id's NeXT hardware that year. Seemed to me like pretty late to be doing that, but hey, I can also see not wanting to let go of them.

His old writings were definitely an interesting time capsule. He writes about Windows NT being, ironically, the best platform to write OpenGL at the time. He writes about Apple's Rhapsody (first impressions: he liked the NeXTiness but was skeptical of Carbon/Classic; then later, he writes that he's more satisfied with it after a deeper look). He writes in passing about trips to Apple and talking up OpenGL to Steve Jobs.

I'm bummed that Apple didn't bring the shelf over with the Finder.

I wonder if ddt would want one of them.

He is a game history activist and probably would love to archive that stuff.

"Carmack had me promise more than a decade ago that I'd wipe the drives if I ever passed them along, and I'd hate to lose any priceless data that's on them."

Second,

Junk is junk, throw it away or recycle.