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SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

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Re: SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

#41

Post by shagie »

logifail wrote: post #24

Spent many (un)happy hours in front of both SGI Indy and SGI O2 during my PhD... High point was definitely when we found out that if you telnetted to another box you could remotely play audio clips and the operator typically had no idea what was going on. Every single device ended up with a collection of Star Wars audio clips ... :)

Ahh... the required "guest" account with no password on it.

In SGI tech support (East team '96, Unix team '97 - my Indigo was dewi.csd.sgi.com), it was the way we copied files around (the Troops had just come out) and also had a internal tool that would pop up a window on someone else's machine to get their attention (if they weren't directly paying attention to the multicast chat program...)

Re: SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

#42

Post by paulsmith »

mlochead wrote: post #40
wiz21c wrote: post #3

Silicon Graphics was the thing (in computer graphics) in the beginning of the nineties

I started my career at Oracle in 1994, and I still remember what a big deal it was when the Silicon Graphics (wasn’t officially SGI yet) “Magic Bus” would come and park in the Redwood Shores parking lot and we would all line up to go inside and see some of these demos. I felt at the time like I was really in the future.

Similar timing, I had a high school internship at the National Cancer Institute at Ft. Detrick, MD in 1994-95, and the lab down the hall had some SGI iron and a glove (I don't remember what the glove hardware was, if it was SGI or 3rd-party or custom) for manipulating 3D renders of folded proteins. Incredible stuff, same "in the future" feeling.

Re: SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

#43

Post by qingcharles »

kinlan wrote: post #17
fidotron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A networked multiplayer version of that seems like it could be quite entertaining.

Years ago I was invovled in getting something similar built for Google IO and Chrome - https://youtu.be/KOCM9_qGccY

This is really cool. The soundtrack is especially fitting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0k99hCY5I

Re: SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

#44

Post by dylan604 »

secure wrote: post #13
blincoln wrote: post #10

Around 1995 or 1996, a friend said he'd played a speederbike graphics/game demo running on an SGI system at some kind of touring SGI promotional event. I've never been able to find screenshots or video of it, and was hoping it might be included here. No such luck. I don't suppose anyone remembers it?

Was it vroom by any chance? A slot car racing game in space: https://nixdoc.net/man-pages/irix/man6/vroom.6.html Video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/imguo4oUd-c?app=desktop

Did you actually provide a shorts link? What's the world coming to? At first, I thought maybe it makes sense since it could be updated for mobile. Nope. It immediately changed aspect ratio so it is portrait oriented piece with letter boxing. :face-palm: yet another square peg/round hole example

otherwise, looks like it might be fun to play for a few minutes

Re: SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

#46

Post by dansalvato »

The first thing I noticed when seeing the SGI demos for the first time is that the menu UI is strikingly similar to the file select screen in Super Mario 64.

Of course, Nintendo 64 was developed in partnership with Silicon Graphics, so there's a clear connection, and I'm far from the first to make this observation. Still, I feel as though there must be some untold history where perhaps it was used as a placeholder menu early in development, but the team grew fond of it and eventually used the same effect for the final release.

Here's a decent comparison: https://www.resetera.com/threads/super-mario-64-took-its-3d-...

Re: SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

#48

Post by hungryhobbit »

Really cool project, although it's too bad half the links are broken :(

Also too bad they weren't able to recover the best demo, the human cross-section demo. Someone paid a murderer for the rights to his body after he was executed, and then they chopped it up and recorded all the cross-sections.

SGI took that data and used it to create a demo that let you see the human body in a way no one (back in 2000 at least) had seen before. Nowadays, you can probably get something similar on WebMD, but at the time it was crazy impressive.

Re: SGI demos from long ago in the browser via WASM

#49

Post by mirchiseth »

logifail wrote: post #24

Spent many (un)happy hours in front of both SGI Indy and SGI O2 during my PhD... High point was definitely when we found out that if you telnetted to another box you could remotely play audio clips and the operator typically had no idea what was going on. Every single device ended up with a collection of Star Wars audio clips ... :)

And if you were teenage college students way more risque clips than Star Wars :-) One of my fondest memory is when a sophomore buddy of mine does a telnet and sets the display to local ip and starts clicking on random audio files. The operator on the other side is a freshman. Comes running to the other room sees my bud and being one year senior asks - dude that SGI is making weird noises. Realizing what has happened my buddy quips - ah it makes those noises when it is heavily loaded :-D
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