Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

It had a Motorola 68000 processor at 16 MHz, 2–8 megabytes (MB) of RAM, a 9-inch (23 cm) monochrome backlit liquid-crystal display (LCD) with 640 × 400 pixel resolution, and the System 7.0.1 operating system.

A single mp3 would be more than the entire memory, let that sink in :)

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#5

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 3:51 AM UTC

Generally full marks on realism, but I have to ask: Is a combination of SGI and old school macs a sensible platform for running a park? I guess if the macs can get on an appropriate network then they could at least send control commands, but they feel like an odd fit compared to the UNIX™ boxes.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#6

Post by yoyohello13 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 3:52 AM UTC

I re-read the book recently and it was really fun to read about the tech now. The descriptions of how difficult it was to build a database that could handle storing 3bil base pairs, which is trivia now. Probably the most sci-fi part of the book, they had image recognition tech so advanced it could track individual dinosaurs from arbitrary video angles alone.

Also, Nedry got absolutely shafted by Hammond in the book. Nedry describing the difficultly in building a complex system with minimal requirements had me sympathizing, lol.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#7

Post by mrpippy » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 3:53 AM UTC

Also, SGI keyboards never used ADB. Indigo-era SGIs used a mini-DIN keyboard/mouse, but it was proprietary. They were PS/2 starting with the Indigo2 and Indy.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#8

Post by KasianFranks » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:01 AM UTC

Guess my OS?

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#9

Post by ColdStream » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:02 AM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #5

Generally full marks on realism, but I have to ask: Is a combination of SGI and old school macs a sensible platform for running a park? I guess if the macs can get on an appropriate network then they could at least send control commands, but they feel like an odd fit compared to the UNIX™ boxes.

I used to work in an IT department that I called 'The Onion'. That's because the further into the room you went the older the systems got. It was a mix of almost anything you could think of in the mid 90's thru to mid 2000's. The oldest machine was some SGI thing.

So you would be surprised but also, it meant there were a lot of grey beards keeping the whole thing running.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#10

Post by ColdStream » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 4:04 AM UTC

And yet again I am reminded of how SGI was so far ahead of the graphics game and yet was absolutely demolished because others could see the potential for domestic add-on cards when SGI was focusing on entire work stations.

3DFX and Nvidia ultimately put them out of business.